PERMATEX/FOLLOW A DREAM TEAM HITS VEGAS FOR FIRST TIME SINCE 2010

Marstons Mills, MA-October 29, 2015-Jay Blake’s Permatex/Follow A Dream team is headed to The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway this weekend for the last leg of the best season in team history. Sixth in the Top Alcohol Funny Car national standings with two races to go – this weekend’s Toyota NHRA Nationals and the World Finals in Pomona, Calif. – driver Todd Veney is fresh off a career-best 5.51 in Dallas. Continue reading PERMATEX/FOLLOW A DREAM TEAM HITS VEGAS FOR FIRST TIME SINCE 2010 →

PERMATEX/FOLLOW A DREAM RUNS ALL-TIME BEST 5.51 AT DALLAS

Marstons Mills, MA-October 21, 2015-Jay Blake’s Permatex/Follow A Dream team made its quickest run ever in its first appearance at the NHRA Fall Nationals at Dallas. Driver Todd Veney ran a 5.51 at 265 mph in the opening round of eliminations but lost to a 5.46, one of the quickest runs in Top Alcohol Funny Car history, by Sweden’s Jonnie Lindberg.

“I never saw him,” said Veney, who fell by just 18-thousandths of a second. “It’s pretty tough to lose on a run that good, but that’s the way it’s been going for us lately. The same thing happened at Indy and Maple Grove.” The 5.51 was by far the quickest losing run of the round and quicker than many winning runs. In quarterfinal losses at Indy and Maple Grove, the team was faster than every run except the one in the opposite lane.

“Nobody ever said this was easy,” said Blake, whose team now ranks sixth in the NHRA national standings, four points out of fifth place and 13 points out of fourth. “The top nine cars in the country were here, and it showed – this was the fastest field in Alcohol Funny Car history.” The Texas Motorplex’s all-concrete quarter-mile delivered a record bump of 5.62.

PERMATEX/FOLLOW A DREAM TEAM HEADS TO DALLAS FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER

Marstons Mills, MA-October 14, 2015-For the first time in team history, Jay Blake’s Permatex/Follow A Dream will run the prestigious NHRA Fall Nationals at Dallas.

“We’ve always run the Houston race, but this year it fell on the same weekend as the regional at Richmond and we had to miss it,” said Blake, whose first career national event victory came at Houston in 2005. “It’ll be good to get back to Texas and great to race all the top cars from the West Coast.”

The Follow A Dream team will be up against an all-star lineup in Dallas: every driver in the Top 10 except 10th-place Dan Pomponio will be there. “Our schedule is usually over by this time of year, so this is a real thrill,” said driver Todd Veney, currently fourth in the national standings. “I’ve only ever raced at Dallas once – in 2000, in my second NHRA race ever. The Texas Motorplex was the first ‘super track,’ and I’ve wanted to race there ever since it was built in 1986.”

Qualifying sessions are scheduled for 12:30 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. Friday, with a last-ditch session set for Saturday morning at 11 a.m. The first round will be that afternoon, and eliminations conclude on Sunday. The event will be televised on ESPN2 on Saturday, Oct. 24 at 7 a.m. on ESPN2.

PERMATEX/FOLLOW A DREAM TEAM HOLDS ON TO 4TH IN NATIONAL STANDINGS

Marstons Mills, MA-October 7, 2015-With one good run after another, Jay Blake’s Permatex/Follow A Dream team reached the quarterfinals at the rain-plagued NHRA Keystone Nationals, Blake’s favorite race on the tour and the one where, in 1998, he made the life-changing decision to form his own race team.

Facing the worst conditions racers have encountered in years, Blake had the most consistent Top Alcohol Funny Car on the grounds, running better on the team’s slowest run than almost every other team did on its best. Inclement weather completely washed out Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, and for the first time in memory, an entire NHRA national event was conducted in a single day as qualifying was reduced to a pressure-packed one-session format. Continue reading PERMATEX/FOLLOW A DREAM TEAM HOLDS ON TO 4TH IN NATIONAL STANDINGS →

PERMATEX/FOLLOW A DREAM TEAM UP TO 4TH IN NATIONAL STANDINGS

Marstons Mills, MA-September 23, 2015-Jay Blake’s Permatex/Follow A Dream team climbed to fourth in the national standings, the highest the team has ever been this late in the season, despite a disappointing first-round loss at the Carolina Nationals at zMax Dragway.

The race got off to a promising start when driver Todd Veney ran a 5.53 – just a hundredth of a second from his career-best – in the opening qualifying session, but traction problems set in after that. A tricky surface that confounded teams in all classes led to tire-shake at the top of low gear on the remaining qualifying runs, but the team still began eliminations from a strong position, solidly in the No. 4 spot.

In a first-round battle of 2015 national event champs, Veney lost to Sweden’s Ulf Leanders, who won the Gatornationals, 5.68 to a shutoff 12.74. “The car went up in smoke about 100 feet off the line, and when that happens, you’re usually done,” he said. “I tried to get back in it, but Ulf was long gone. You know the track was tough for everybody when a 5.68 like he ran is one of the best runs of the whole round.”

“That wasn’t what we were looking for, especially after how well the car ran for so long, but it happens,” Blake said. “The good part is, since all the national events lately have been out west and everybody was passing us in national points while we were running regional events back east, we now have a chance to catch up.”

The next chance comes next

Marstons Mills, MA-September 17, 2015-Jay Blake’s Permatex/Follow A Dream team heads to the finest drag strip in the world, Bruton Smith’s zMax Dragway in Charlotte, N.C., with big plans for this weekend’s Carolina Nationals.
Continue reading PERMATEX/FOLLOW A DREAM TEAM OFF TO CHARLOTTE →

PERMATEX/FOLLOW A DREAM TEAM UP TO 6TH IN NATIONAL STANDINGS

Marstons Mills, MA-September 10, 2015-With one good run after another, Jay Blake’s Permatex/Follow A Dream Top Alcohol Funny Car team reached the quarterfinals at the most prestigious event in drag racing, the Chevrolet Performance NHRA U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis. Driver Todd Veney ran times of 5.64, 5.61, and 5.57 in qualifying and a 5.61 and 5.62 in eliminations for the team’s most consistent performance of the season.

Veney defeated Shane Westerfield, a top five driver in each of the past three seasons, in a close first-round match, 5.62 to 5.65, and lost to reigning world champion Steve Harker in the second round, 5.56 to 5.62. That 5.62 was quicker than not just any of the other six cars in that round but all four cars in the semifinals and both cars in the final.

“Wrong place at the wrong time,” Veney said. “It’s hard to lose with a run that good, but Harker’s always a handful. It’s unusual for a 5.57 to qualify you only 7th – but not at Indy. The car ran hard every single time, we moved up in the national standings, and we’ve got a legitimate shot to win any race the rest of the year.”

“All in all, it wasn’t a bad weekend,” Blake said. “It’s not what we were looking for, but it wasn’t bad. The conditions should be better in Charlotte and Maple Grove in the next few weeks.”

PERMATEX/FOLLOW A DREAM TEAM SETS LOW E.T. AND TOP SPEED AT ATCO

Marstons Mills, MA-August 5, 2015-At the East Regional closer in Atco, N.J., Jay Blake’s Permatex/Follow A Dream Top Alcohol Funny Car team set low e.t. and top speed of three of the first four rounds before breakage in the final allowed Matt Gill to single for the win. Driver Todd Veney led after the first qualifying session with a 5.62 and claimed the No. 1 qualifying spot for good in the second session with a 5.55 at 264 mph that held up for overall low e.t. and top speed of the meet. Continue reading PERMATEX/FOLLOW A DREAM TEAM SETS LOW E.T. AND TOP SPEED AT ATCO →

PERMATEX/FOLLOW A DREAM TEAM BREAKS EPPING SPEED RECORD

Marstons Mills, MA-July 27, 2015-With a run of 266.27 mph – fastest in team history – Jay Blake’s Permatex/Follow A Dream team shattered the New England Dragway speed record by 4 mph at the Eastern Regional. Driver Todd Veney qualified No. 2 in the Top Alcohol Funny Car field on that run with a 5.60 E.T. but overpowered the track in eliminations and was upset by veteran Eric Lourie. Continue reading PERMATEX/FOLLOW A DREAM TEAM BREAKS EPPING SPEED RECORD →

PERMATEX/FOLLOW A DREAM WIN STREAK ENDS AT 9 ROUNDS IN CHICAGO SEMI’S

Marstons Mills, MA-July 16, 2015-Jay Blake’s Permatex/Follow A Dream team reached the semifinals of the Route 66 Nationals, qualifying in the fast half of the field for the eighth time in eight starts this year and establishing top speed of the opening qualifying session. Driver Todd Veney defeated East Region rival Dan Pomponio in the first round and former Central Division champ Kirk Williams in the quarterfinals before falling to Wyoming’s Kris Hool in the semi’s.

“Getting to the semi’s – especially at a national event – usually means you’ve had a great weekend, but after the way we’ve been doing, it was almost a letdown,” said Veney, who was coming off back-to-back victories, including his first in national event competition. “It’s not a bad problem to have. The car ran great all weekend, and we had low e.t. of the second round, but for some reason it shook the tires in the semifinals the way everybody else had been the round before.”

With the semifinal showing, the team stands second in the national standings, just 10 points out of first. “That was another solid outing, another really good weekend,” Blake said. “The whole crew was under a lot of pressure in eliminations and really came through. Because of the live TV schedule for the pros, we had to wait six hours between the first round and the second round, and then had just 40 minutes between that round and the semi’s, but the guys got it done.”

The Permatex/Follow A Dream team’s next race is at the team’s home track, New England Dragway in Epping, N.H., but there’s no time to head home. The team will go straight from Route 66 Raceway outside Chicago to southern New Hampshire, where they’ll test on Thursday, qualify on Friday, and race under the lights Saturday night. Eliminations are set for 5:00; 7:00, and 9:00 p.m.

PERMATEX/FOLLOW A DREAM TEAM EARNS BIGGEST WIN SINCE 2006

Marstons Mills, MA-July 8, 2015-At the SummitRacing.com Nationals in Norwalk, Ohio, Jay Blake’s Permatex/Follow A Dream team earned its biggest win in nine years and moved into third place in the NHRA national standings. Driver Todd Veney singled in the Top Alcohol Funny Car final when opponent D.J. Cox broke on the burnout, collecting his first national event title and the team’s fourth overall. Continue reading PERMATEX/FOLLOW A DREAM TEAM EARNS BIGGEST WIN SINCE 2006 →

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. Continue reading PERMATEX/FOLLOW A DREAM TEAM WINS LEBANON VALLEY FOR 3RD STRAIGHT YEAR →

PERMATEX/FOLLOW A DREAM TEAM STARTS FOUR IN A ROW THIS WEEKEND

Marstons Mills, MA-June 25, 2015-As the Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series’ East Region season passes the halfway point this weekend, Jay Blake’s Permatex/Follow A Dream team will be at Lebanon Valley Dragway in upstate New York for the first race in a stretch of four in four weeks.
“It’s a long trip, but this is where I love to be – out on the road, racing,” Blake said. “Four in a row is a lot for anybody, but the car ran really good early this season, we’ve already won a race, and we’re starting at the track where we’ve done better than we have anywhere in the country.”
Driver Todd Veney has won the Lebanon Valley event two years in a row and three times in the past five years. “I don’t know what it is about that track – you try as hard as you can everywhere you go,” he said. “It’s the first place I ever won a race with Jay’s team, and I look forward to going there every year.”
Qualifying kicks off Friday afternoon at 2:00 p.m., followed by an evening session at 6:00. Eliminations are set for 11:30 a.m., 2:00 p.m., and 4:00 p.m. Saturday, though in each of the past two years, the final round wasn’t run until Sunday. Jay, Eddie Parker, and the rig won’t even make the short trip back to Cape Cod after Lebanon Valley – it’ll be straight to Norwalk, Ohio for the SummitRacing.com Nationals, then on to Chicago for the Route 66 Nationals, then back to Follow A Dream’s home track, New England Dragway.

PERMATEX/FOLLOW A DREAM TEAM QUALIFIES NO. 1, SETS TOP SPEED

Marstons Mills, MA-May 28, 2015-Jay Blake’s Permatex/Follow A Dream team qualified No. 1, set top speed, and reached the semifinals at the Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series East Regional at Maple Grove Raceway. Driver Todd Veney qualified in the top spot with a 5.53 – just one-hundredth of a second from the team’s all-time best e.t. – and ran the fastest speed of his career, 265.53 mph.

After a first-round win over John Headley, 5.75 to 7.03, Veney lost to D.J. Cox in the semifinals by 21-thousandths of a second, 5.55 to 5.54. “He must have been ahead the whole way, but I never saw him,” Veney said. “Losing is never acceptable – no matter how close it was or how well the car ran – but it’s running better right now than it ever has. We’ve set top speed at more than half the races we’ve run this year.”

“It was a good weekend,” said Blake. “You’re not going to win every time, and the car was fast all weekend, the crew did a perfect job, and we didn’t hurt a part.”

The next race is June 26-27 at Lebanon Valley Dragway, where the Follow A Dream team has won two years in a row and three times in the past five years. It will be the start of the team’s busiest stretch ever – four races in four weeks: Lebanon Valley, N.Y.; Norwalk, Ohio; Chicago; and Epping, N.H.

RED-HOT PERMATEX/FOLLOW A DREAM TEAM READY FOR MAPLE GROVE

Marstons Mills, MA-May 21, 2015-Fresh off a victory at Virginia Motorsports Park, Jay Blake’s Permatex/Follow A Dream heads to the rolling hills of eastern Pennsylvania for this weekend’s East Regional at historic Maple Grove Raceway. With the Virginia win, driver Todd Veney moved into a first-place tie with Mickey Ferro atop the East Region Top Alcohol Funny Car standings.
“Everybody feels good about the win, but that was last week,” said Blake, whose team reached the final round of this event in 2010 and 2013 – both times against Frank Manzo. “Now, we have to do it again. It’s a great track – my favorite – but all the same cars from Virginia should be there, so this will be just as tough as Virginia.”
Qualifying on the all-new surface at Maple Grove, which was completely repaved in the off-season, will be on Friday, with sessions scheduled for 1:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. Eliminations are set to go off under the lights Saturday night at 5:00, 7:00, and 9:00.

PERMATEX/FOLLOW A DREAM TEAM WINS RICHMOND

Marstons Mills, MA-May 14, 2015-At the rescheduled East Regional at Virginia Motorsports Park in Richmond, Va., Jay Blake’s Permatex/Follow A Dream team emerged victorious with its best performance in years. Driver Todd Veney set low e.t. and top speed of all three rounds of Top Alcohol Funny Car eliminations and now is tied with Mickey Ferro for first place in the East Region standings. Continue reading PERMATEX/FOLLOW A DREAM TEAM WINS RICHMOND →

VIRGINIA NEXT FOR PERMATEX/FOLLOW A DREAM TEAM

Marstons Mills, MA-April 22, 2015-Jay Blake’s Permatex/Follow A Dream team heads to Virginia Motorsports Park just outside Richmond, Va., this weekend for the second race of the East Regional season with an excellent shot at the win. The team won the Top Alcohol Funny Car title and set low e.t. and top speed at Richmond in 2012 and ran numerous 5.50s at last year’s race and at two of three events so far this season.

“It’s a fast track, and the weather’s going to be in the mid-60s, so hopefully we can be right back in the .50s there again this year,” said driver Todd Veney.

The team will make a half-track checkout run on a brand-new engine on Thursday, followed by two qualifying shots on Friday. Eliminations are set for Saturday, with Sunday as the rain date.

“It’s the longest drive the crew makes all year, but everybody’s up for it,” Blake said. “We’ve got a couple final-round appearances at Virginia and won it a few years ago, so our sights are set high.”

BLOWN ENGINE SIDELINES PERMATEX/FOLLOW A DREAM TEAM

Marstons Mills, MA-April 1, 2015-Jay Blake’s Permatex/Follow A Dream team qualified in the fast half of the field at the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals, as it has at every race this season, but didn’t get a chance to parlay that performance into a deep run in eliminations when an engine explosion on the final qualifying attempt knocked the team out of the race. Continue reading BLOWN ENGINE SIDELINES PERMATEX/FOLLOW A DREAM TEAM →

PERMATEX/FOLLOW A DREAM TEAM SPEEDS INTO CHARLOTTE

Marstons Mills, MA-March 26, 2015-Jay Blake’s Permatex/Follow A Dream Top Alcohol Funny Car team heads to Charlotte this weekend for the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals at spectacular zMax Dragway hot off their fastest runs ever. Driver Todd Veney, whose career-best before the Gatornationals was 262 mph, ran at least 262 on four of five passes in Gainesville and made the team’s three fastest runs to date – 263.98, 264.13, and 265.22 mph.

“The temperature is supposed to be in the 50s on Saturday and Sunday, and they’ve completely repaved the track since we were there last fall,” Veney said. “Charlotte is where we made our quickest two runs ever – 5.52 and 5.53 – so I can’t wait to see what the car might run this weekend.”

“We’ve made a lot of progress already this year,” said Blake, who’s been on the road since the Gatornationals at speaking engagements across the southeastern U.S. “It’s time for another national event win for Follow A Dream, and Charlotte is as good a place as any to do it.”

PERMATEX/FOLLOW A DREAM TEAM HITS 265 MPH IN GAINESVILLE

Marstons Mills, MA-March 19, 2015-At the NHRA Gatornationals in its first national start of 2015, Jay Blake’s Permatex/Follow A Dream team upped its all-time best speed twice, first to 264.13 mph and ultimately to 265.22. Driver Todd Veney qualified No. 4 in the 16-car field and defeated former U.S. Nationals winner Chris Foster in the first round of eliminations before falling to eventual winner Ulf Leanders of Sweden in the quarterfinals. Continue reading Follow A Dream–PERMATEX/FOLLOW A DREAM TEAM HITS 265 MPH IN GAINESVILLE →