PERMATEX/FOLLOW A DREAM TEAM READY FOR GATORNATIONALS

Marstons Mills, MA-March 13, 2015-Jay Blake’s Permatex/Follow A Dream crew heads to Gainesville dead set on another final-round appearance at the Gatornationals, where the team already has a win and two final-round appearances in the last few years.

“The Gatornationals is one of the biggest races of the year and the season opener for the East Coast,” said driver Todd Veney. “We got to the final here a couple years ago, it’s usually one of our best races of the season, and the car just ran great in testing.”

The team, which won the 2006 Gatornationals and was runner-up there in 2013, set top speed at the regional event in Gainesville last month and arrived here hot off a successful test session in Bradenton, Fla. “We only ran it to the eighth-mile mark because you can learn just about everything you need to know that way, but it was very encouraging,” Blake said. “The car was going 208 mph at the eighth-mile mark, and you can win a lot of races with half-track speeds like that.”

PERMATEX/FOLLOW A DREAM TEAM SETS TOP SPEED AT THE GAINESVILLE REGIONAL

Marstons Mills, MA-February 24, 2015-With a run within 0.06 mph of the team’s all-time best, Jay Blake’s Permatex/Follow A Dream set top speed of the meet at the East Region season opener in Gainesville, Fla. Driver Todd Veney hit 262.79 mph in the final qualifying session for Top Alcohol Funny Car and just missed the team’s best-ever speed of 262.85, established at the last race of 2014, the NHRA Finals at Pomona, Calif. Continue reading Follow a Dream–PERMATEX/FOLLOW A DREAM TEAM SETS TOP SPEED AT THE GAINESVILLE REGIONAL →

Marstons Mills, MA-February 19, 2015-After a long winter of work in snowy Massachusetts, Jay Blake’s Permatex/Follow A Dream Top Alcohol Funny Car team opens the 2015 season this week in Gainesville, Fla., site of some of the team’s greatest days. The entire 2014 team is back for another season and has the car prepared for battle, tuner Tommy Howell has refined the tuneup, and the team is coming off an extensive test session three weeks ago not far from Gainesville at Bradenton Motorsports Park. Continue reading Follow A Dream Opens Season →

Jay Blake’s Permatex/Follow A Dream team wrapped up the 2014 season at the prestigious NHRA Finals in Pomona, Calif., with its fastest run of all time. In last-shot qualifying, driver Todd Veney, who had been bumped from the near-record field two minutes earlier, ran a 5.53 at 262.85 mph to climb all the way to the No. 2 spot in the Top Alcohol Funny Car field and eventually finished third.

In a wild, backpedaling, on-and-off-the-throttle first round race against Greg Hunter, Veney won with a 7.38. “I don’t think I’ve ever won a round like that before,” he said. “I could see Greg’s car ahead of me early in the run and thought it was all over, but he just missed coming in my lane and our car hooked up and shot right by him for the win.” Veney was eliminated in the quarterfinals by Mike Doushgounian, who bought 17-time world champion Frank Manzo’s car complete when Manzo retired after winning this race last year.

“Not a bad way to finish the season,” said Blake, who spoke at the Veteran’s Hospital in Long Beach, Calif., and at the Universal Technical Institute in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., earlier in the week. “We qualified No. 3 in the second-quickest field of all time, went a couple rounds in eliminations, and made our fastest run ever.”

Jay Blake’s Permatex/Follow A Dream team heads to the birthplace of drag racing, the Los Angeles area, for the final race of the 2014 season, the NHRA Finals in Pomona, Calif., where the team was runner-up in 2005 and won it all in 2006. It’s the first appearance in six weeks for the team, whose season was highlighted by victory at Lebanon Valley Dragway, where they scored for the second year in a row and the third time in five years.
“We’ve had some great moments at Pomona,” said Blake, who spoke at the Veteran’s Hospital in Long Beach, Calif., and at the Universal Technical Institute in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., earlier this week. “Permatex’s sponsorship made it possible for us to bring Follow A Dream’s message of the power of positive thinking and self-determination to veterans and to the students at UTI. I was part of a ribbon-cutting ceremony at UTI for their new veteran’s building, and none of that would have been possible without Permatex’s involvement with our team.”
It also made possible a lifelong dream for driver Todd Veney, a Southern California native who’s competing at the historic Pomona track for the first time ever. “The first national event I ever went to was right here at the Winternationals in 1972,” he said. “I was born out here, lived here until I was 10, and moved right back out to L.A. the day after I graduated from college, and I’ve always wanted to race here.”
Qualifying begins Thursday and concludes with two sessions on Friday. The first round is Saturday, and final eliminations are set for Sunday.

Jay Blake’s Permatex/Follow A Dream team knocked off former world champ Tony Bartone in the first round at the NHRA Nationals at Maple Grove Raceway in Reading, Pa., before a broken transmission line sidelined the team in round two.
Driver Todd Veney qualified 14th with a run that easily would have been well into the top half of the field had a similar problem not knocked the transmission out of high gear near the half-track mark. “I coasted for the whole back half of the track and still ran a 5.83 at 199 mph,” he said. “The car was going almost 209 mph at half-track – our best all year – so that was more than a little encouraging. That would have been about a 5.59, but even coasting for the last 600 feet it was quick enough to get us in the show.”
A decided underdog in the first round of eliminations against Bartone, the former world champ who has more career victories than any driver in the field, the Follow A Dream team ran a backpedaling 5.74 at 260.26 mph – the car’s fastest speed this season – to win. “One of these days we’re going to win this race,” said Blake, whose life-changing experience at this event in 1998 led him to form the Follow A Dream organization. “I’ve always said I’d rather win this race than win Indy, and at some point it’s going to happen.”
The final race of 2014 is the NHRA Finals Nov. 14-16 at the world-famous Pomona, Calif., track, where the Permatex/Follow A Dream team was runner-up in 2005 and won in 2006.

Jay Blake’s Permatex/Follow A Dream Top Alcohol Funny Car team was out after one round at the rain-plagued Carolina Nationals at zMax Dragway in Charlotte. More than 40 Top Alcohol Funny Car and Top Alcohol Dragster teams waited out persistent showers all day Friday, and just as the cars left the pits to head to the staging lanes for the rescheduled first qualifying session that night, the session was cancelled due to an impending rainstorm that never came.
Continue reading PERMATEX/FOLLOW A DREAM TEAM SHUT OUT AT CHARLOTTE →

Jay Blake’s Permatex/Follow A Dream Top Alcohol Funny Car team heads back to the most luxurious drag strip in the world, zMax Dragway in suburban Charlotte, where this spring the team reached the semifinals at the 4-Wide Nationals, for this weekend’s NHRA Nationals.
“Charlotte is as good a place as any to get back on track,” Blake said. “I don’t know what more you could ask for from a race track. The whole place is just unbelievable.”
“It’s got to be the nicest track I’ve ever raced on,” said driver Todd Veney. “We made our quickest and fastest run ever there [5.52 at 262.64 mph], and that was two and a half years ago with a much heavier car, so hopefully we can get right back in that range this weekend.”
Qualifying sessions are scheduled for 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. Saturday. The final session will be Saturday morning at 11, followed that afternoon by the first round of eliminations. Final eliminations kick off at noon Sunday.

Jay Blake’s Permatex/Follow A Dream team missed qualifying for the Top Alcohol Funny Car program by one spot at the prestigious Chevrolet Performance U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis. Seventeenth in a 16-car field, driver Todd Veney ran a best of 5.76 at 251 mph – three-hundredths of a second short of the 5.73 bump. “There’s no getting around it,” Blake said. “That was a huge disappointment.”
A newly reconditioned supercharger, back on the car for the first time in the opening qualifying session, failed to generate the required boost, and the problem was compounded when the data recorder failed to work for the first time all year, leaving tuner Tom Howell with no information to use for adjustments. The 5.78 at 246 mph on that pass was followed by a similar 5.76 at 248 the next day, but with the computer operating properly, Howell pinpointed the problem immediately and the crew installed another supercharger for Sunday’s final qualifying session.
Tenuously in the field at the No. 14 spot before that run, Veney was knocked off the ladder by Sean Bellemeur, who clocked a 5.72 one pair ahead of him. With more boost and much more power, the car left hard on that last-ditch attempt, rattled the tires at the top of low gear, and ran another 5.76 when Veney backpedaled to get out of tire shake.
“We had our problems, obviously, and you can’t have that at a race like Indy,” Veney said. “It’s been years since we didn’t qualify, and under normal circumstances Tom could probably make the car run a 5.73 in reverse, but at the U.S. Nationals, 5.70s aren’t enough.”
The Permatex/Follow A Dream team’s next event is Sept. 12-14 at zMax Dragway in Charlotte, where earlier this year the team reached the semifinals at the 4-Wide Nationals.

Jay Blake’s Permatex/Follow A Dream Top Alcohol Funny Car team is already in Indianapolis for the biggest race of the season, the Chevrolet Performance U.S. Nationals. “This is a huge weekend for us, and it’s even bigger this year because the race is sponsored by Chevrolet Performance,” said Blake, whose car is the first 5th Generation Camaro Funny Car in drag racing. “We’ve gone over every part of this car, and everything’s in place for a great weekend.”
“It’s not just the biggest race of the year, it’s my favorite race of the year,” said driver Todd Veney, who lives in Indianapolis, just five miles from Lucas Oil Raceway. “We got to the semi’s here a couple years ago, and a win here would be the best thing ever.”
Qualifying begins Friday with afternoon sessions at 1 and 4. There’s one run Saturday at 12:15, and last-ditch qualifying is set for Sunday morning at 9:15. The first round is that evening at 5, and final eliminations are to be completed on Labor Day.

Jay Blake’s Permatex/Follow A Dream team got knocked out early at the Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series event at Atco Dragway and slipped from second into a third-place tie in the East Region Top Alcohol Funny Car standings. The team, which won the East Region championship in 2012 and finished second last year, dropped a first-round race with No. 1 qualifier and former world champ Tony Bartone, 5.59 to 5.71.
Continue reading Follow a Dream– PERMATEX/FOLLOW A DREAM TEAM OUT EARLY AT ATCO →

Marstons Mills, MA-July 31, 2014-For the first time in three years, Jay Blake’s Permatex/Follow A Dream team will head to Atco, N.J., just outside of Philadelphia, for an NHRA East Regional. The event, added back to the Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series schedule for the first time since 2011, has ended in victory for the Follow A Dream team twice in the team’s last five appearances there, including in 2010, when driver Todd Veney ended his first season back with the team with a win.
“I made my first 260-mph run the first time we ran here,” Veney said. “Atco’s a long, flat track with great air, so maybe we can have another weekend like we did four years ago.”
“It’s great to be going back there,” said Blake. “I think everybody was disappointed when Atco was taken off the schedule a few years ago. The new track owners are former Alcohol Funny Car racers and it’ll be exciting to get back to that place.”
It’s night racing – both qualifying and eliminations. Qualifying sessions are scheduled for 5:00 and 7:30 Friday, and eliminations are set to go off at 5:00, 7:00, and 9:00 Saturday night.

PERMATEX/FOLLOW A DREAM TEAM REACHES THE SEMI’S AT NEW ENGLAND DRAGWAY

Marstons Mills, MA -July 23, 2014-With a semifinal appearance at the Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series event at the team’s home track, New England Dragway, Jay Blake’s Permatex/Follow A Dream team moved into a tie for second place in the East Region Top Alcohol Funny Car standings. Driver Todd Veney got around No. 1 qualifier Fred Tigges in the first round before falling to eventual runner-up Matt Gill in the semifinals in another matchup of Massachusetts-based teams.
Veney qualified 8th in the field with a backpedaling 6.02 at 250 mph and won the first round when Tigges invalidated a track-record 5.55 with a red-light start. In the semi’s, he backpedaled when the car headed toward the wall and eventually shut off to a 7.30.
“There’s not much you can do when the front end’s in the air like that,” Veney said. “We probably would have won if the car was going straight because it left hard with the wheels up, but it’s a pretty helpless feeling when you can’t steer.”
“The car ran great in testing, but it was a different track when qualifying began,” said Blake. Veney coasted to a 5.94 at 173 mph on the first test run, a planned half-track shutoff that would have been a 5.62 or 5.63. The second run was a 5.60-flat at more than 258 mph, close to both ends of the New England Dragway track record.
The Follow A Dream team’s next race is the Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series East Regional Aug. 1-2 at Atco Dragway, where the team won in 2007 and 2010.

Marstons Mills, MA -July 17, 2014-Fresh off a semifinal finish at the Summit Nationals at Norwalk, Jay Blake’s Permatex/Follow A Dream Top Alcohol Funny Car team has a home game this weekend at the Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series Eastern Regional at New England Dragway.
“It’s always great to run at our home track,” said Blake, whose team is based a couple hours away in Marstons Mills, Mass., on Cape Cod. “Tuner Tommy Howell has a couple things he wants to try, so we’re going to test on Thursday, and the weather looks great for whole weekend.”

Continue reading Follow A Dream–HOME GAME FOR PERMATEX/FOLLOW A DREAM TEAM THIS WEEKEND →

Jay Blake’s Permatex/Follow A Dream team overcame early qualifying trouble at the Summit Racing Nationals at Norwalk for a semifinal finish, knocking out two of the top teams in the country and climbing to seventh place in the national standings in the process.
Stranded at the Philadelphia airport by weather, crewmen Scott Osborn and Mark Reardon had to rent a car for the long drive out to Ohio and arrived right after the second of three qualifying sessions. Electrical gremlins kept the car from firing in the first session, and tireshake held driver Todd Veney to a backpedaling 6.00 in the second session. On the bump and facing the very real prospect of a dreaded DNQ in last-shot qualifying, the team responded with a 5.62 to move all the way up to the No. 5 qualifying position.
In the first round, Veney drew the hottest driver in the country, John Lombardo Jr., who had swept both the Allstars race and the Route 66 Nationals a week earlier in Chicago. He advanced with a 5.61, one of the quickest runs of the entire round, and a speed of 258 mph, the team’s best of the season. A 5.64 in the quarterfinals was just enough to cover former world champ Tony Bartone, the winningest active driver in Top Alcohol Funny Car, who was just 12-thousandths of a second behind at the finish line with an almost identical 5.65.
In the semi’s, Veney slipped to a 5.81 and lost to No. 1 qualifier and eventual winner Steve Harker’s 5.65. “The car was carrying the front end and headed toward the wall, and when I blipped the throttle to get the front end down he got around me,” Veney said. “I never saw him until the end. It was still a good weekend, though. Beating guys like Lombardo and Bartone was huge.”
“It was a total team effort,” Blake said. “What Mark and Ozzie went through to make it to the race is what the Permatex/Follow A Dream is all about.”

Marstons Mills, MA -July 3, 2014-Jay Blake’s Permatex/Follow A Dream Top Alcohol Funny Car team got knocked out in the first round at both the Jegs Allstars race and the Route 66 Nationals in Joliet, Ill., just south of Chicago.
In the prestigious Jegs Allstars race, open to the top two drivers from each of the nation’s four regions, driver Todd Veney, representing the East Region, qualified No. 6 with a 5.70. In a rematch of the first round of last year’s Allstars race, Veney red-lighted against Iowa’s Chris Foster. In Route 66 Nationals competition, he lost to California’s Doug Gordon despite making a quicker run, 5.70 to 5.65.
“The other two times we made it on the Allstars team, we got all the way to the final and barely lost, but this was a weekend to forget,” Veney said. “We just started having me stage the car differently, and I obviously didn’t adapt very well. I’m just glad there’s another race this weekend.”
“Things didn’t go the way we wanted, but weekends like that are going to happen sometimes,” Blake said. “It’s truly an honor any time you make it on an Allstar team, and we’ll be back at it this weekend at Norwalk, where we got to the final a couple years ago.”

Hot off a second straight win at the Lebanon Valley Dragway regional, Jay Blake’s Permatex/Follow A Dream team heads to Chicago for two races in one. Saturday, the team runs the prestigious Jeg’s Allstars race, where driver Todd Veney has reached the final in two of the past three years. Sunday is the Route 66 Nationals, annually the toughest race of the season because of all the teams already in town from all over the country for the Allstars race.
“It’s always an honor just to make the Allstars team,” Blake said. “This is our third time, and we got to the final both of the others, so maybe this will be our year. We’re stopping at ITW Headquarters in the Chicago area again this year, and it’s always great to see everybody there.”

Marstons Mills, MA -June 19, 2014-For the second year in a row and the third time in five years, Jay Blake’s Permatex/Follow A Dream team won Top Alcohol Funny Car at the Lebanon Valley Dragway regional. After setting low e.t. of the semifinals with a 5.69 and low e.t. of the entire event with a 5.58 in the first round, driver Todd Veney survived a wild final against Dan Pomponio that had both cars all over the track.
Pomponio lost traction right off the line and Veney opened a two-car lead in low gear, but the race soon devolved into a free-for-all. “Right at the 1-2 shift, way after the point where you’d usually shake or smoke the tires, the car turned left,” Veney said. “Lifting is the last thing you’d ever want to do – especially in the final round – but the car was about to get over the centerline. Every time I’d get back on the throttle, it would get sideways again. I never saw him so I kept getting back in the throttle, and right when I started to think we had it, he blew by me and I thought we lost.”
Pomponio actually did cross the finish line first, 6.11 to 6.33, but a post-race inspection of the track revealed that he’d crossed the outer boundary line and disqualified himself. It was an hour later, well after Pomponio had the trophy in his hands and gathered with his crew for winner’s circle pictures, when the call finally was made.
“Dan came over to hand us the trophy in person, and that shows a lot of class,” Blake said. “He and that whole team have always been a class operation, but that was really something special.”
After a weekend off, the Permatex/Follow A Dream heads west for three races in two weekends – the Jegs Allstars race and the Route 66 Nationals in Chicago and the Summit Racing Equipment Nationals in Norwalk, Ohio.

Jay Blake’s Permatex/Follow A Dream team heads to Lebanon Valley Dragway in upstate New York, where the team has had more success than at any other track on tour, for this weekend’s East Region Lucas Oil Series race. Last year, driver Todd Veney qualified No. 1 (5.639), ran low e.t. (5.637), set top speed (254.87 mph), and won the race.
“I don’t know what it is about Lebanon Valley, but [tuner] Tom Howell has really had a handle on that place the last few years,” said Veney, who also got the win at the 2010 race, his first with the Permatex/Follow A Dream team. “We have a new car this year, so I don’t know how much of his setup still applies, but he always seems to figure it out.”
Qualifying begins Friday at 2 p.m. and concludes that evening with a last-shot session at 6. Eliminations are set for Saturday at 11:30 a.m., 2 p.m., and 4 p.m.
From Lebanon Valley, the team heads to Chicago for the prestigious Jegs Allstars race as the top seed for the East Region team.

Marstons Mills, MA -May 28, 2014-Jay Blake’s Permatex/Follow A Dream team went out in the first round at the East Regional Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series event at Maple Grove Raceway. Driver Todd Veney qualified the team’s brand-new Chevy Camaro, the first 2014 Camaro Funny Car in drag racing, in the No. 7 spot but fell to D.J. Cox in the opening round of eliminations, 5.75 to 5.96.
“The car started to get loose early in the run,” Veney said. “I pedaled it and tried to chase him down, but when you have to get off the throttle that early – even for a little bit – you’re usually going to lose. Still, it was great to make our first runs with this new Camaro. I can see out of it better than any car I’ve ever driven, and everybody kept coming by all weekend to check out the car.”
“We struggled to find the right setup,” Blake said. “A lot of people did. Low e.t. was only in the 5.70s in the first qualifying session, and nobody ran in the 5.50s all weekend. The whole crew worked hard, nobody made any mistakes, but it just wasn’t our weekend. We’re excited about the future of this new Camaro body – bigger and better things ahead.”
The Permatex/Follow A Dream team’s next race is June 13-14 in Lebanon Valley, N.Y., where last year the team qualified No. 1, set low e.t. and top speed, and won the race.