PERMATEX/FOLLOW A DREAM TEAM WINS LEBANON VALLEY FOR 3RD STRAIGHT YEAR

Marstons Mills, MA-July 1, 2015-Jay Blake’s Permatex/Follow A Dream team swept the Lebanon Valley Dragway regional for the third year in a row to take over first place in the East Region Top Alcohol Funny Car standings. Driver Todd Veney ran low e.t. and top speed of the meet, a 5.601 at 261.08 mph, in the final against incoming points leader Matt Gill for the team’s fourth victory at Lebanon Valley since 2010.

“Andy Robinson and a bunch of our friends from Permatex were right there with us this weekend,” Blake said. “We won the race, set low e.t. and top speed, and even broke the track speed record – it doesn’t get much better than that.” The 261.58-mph speed in the final eclipsed the old track record of 260.33 mph set by all-time great Frank Manzo himself.

Veney assumed the early qualifying lead with a 5.68 in the opening qualifying session and began eliminations from the No. 2 spot behind Gill’s 5.604. “I don’t know what it is about this place,” he said. “[Tuner] Tom Howell just seems to know exactly what this track wants.”

The Permatex/Follow A Dream team was one of four New England-based teams in the field, and as eliminations played out Veney had to race each of the other three. He took out veteran Fred Tigges in the first round, when both cars shook the tires in low gear. Tigges was forced to lift, while Veney advanced with an all-over the track 5.93. Eric Lourie, who has swapped wins at Lebanon Valley with the Permatex/Follow A Dream team for the past six years, fell in the semifinals. Lourie, who lost to Veney in the 2010 final and won the race in 2011 and 2012, was left powerless when his parachute deployed early in the run while Veney moved into the final with a 5.71 at 259.14 mph, top speed to that point.

Gill knocked off championship contender Mickey Ferro with a 5.75, setting up a final-round match between the top two points earners in the eastern U.S. so far this year, and made his best run of eliminations, 5.71, but it wasn’t enough against the Permatex/Follow A Dream team’s record run. Blake and the team head to Norwalk, Ohio, this weekend for the second of back-to-back-to-back-to-back races, the Summit Racing Nationals, followed by the Route 66 Nationals in Chicago and an Eastern Regional at New England Dragway, the team’s home track.