Published: 2/23/2023
Jay Blake: Follow A Dream
Author: DAN HODGDON
Photos: COURTESY of JAY BLAKE
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Jay Blake is a two-fold inspiration. For starters, he owns and serves as crew chief for Follow A Dream Race Team. It is a wildly successful, Camaro-bodied NHRA Top Alcohol Funny Car operation. He's been at the helm for more than two decades – an impressive run for any racing outfit. Plus, he's found that success while being totally blind.
Those two parts of his identity are forever intertwined.
Jay Blake is a two-fold inspiration. For starters, he owns and serves as crew chief for Follow A Dream Race Team. It is a wildly successful, Camaro-bodied NHRA Top Alcohol Funny Car operation. He's been at the helm for more than two decades – an impressive run for any racing outfit. Plus, he's found that success while being totally blind.
Those two parts of his identity are forever intertwined.
Although he is totally blind, Jay Blake (center) serves as owner and crew chief for Follow a Dream Race Team – a Top Alcohol Funny Car program.
"As I grew and got interested in racing my desire to be involved in a race team really became my main dream."
Blake's love affair with cars and racing goes back to when he was a kid growing up in Wayland, Massachusetts, outside of Boston. In fact, in his office is a picture of him as a toddler with a pedal tractor tipped over next to a toolbox.
"My fascination with tools and mechanical things goes way way back to the beginning and I've always loved cars and trucks and race cars," Blake says. "I was introduced to racing through my older brother and my entire life I always wanted to be a mechanic. I always knew that I wanted to work on cars and trucks, and then as I grew and got interested in racing my desire to be involved in a race team really became my main dream."
His brother built his first race car his senior year of high school and raced at area tracks, with Blake lending assistance on the pit crew. Later, the two also worked together on a Super Comp car.
However, after graduating from high school, Blake moved to Cape Cod and got a job as an auto technician, eventually getting married and having children. He essentially got out of racing, but remained a fan and maintained the dream of someday working on a race team.
Blake works tirelesssly on his race car at the track and the shop.
"I was determined to learn how to do what I love to do and that was to work on cars and trucks. I was just going to do it differently, but I wasn't giving up."
Then his world changed forever when a tire explosion in May 1997 took away his eyesight and sense of taste and smell. Blake was 31 at the time and remembers the event as a near-death experience, but chose to persevere for his family.
After a three-and-a-half-week stint in the hospital, Blake returned home to begin his rehab. Shortly after returning, he walked to his organized three-bay toolbox in his garage and opened the wrench drawer. He immediately picked up a 9/16 combination wrench and knew exactly what it was. Next, he opened the bottom junk drawer and did the same with a distributor module.
"I had it in my hands and I could tell what it was and I said to myself, ‘I'm going to do what I used to do again,'" Blake remembers. "I'm just going to learn how to do it differently … So I was determined to learn how to do what I love to do and that was to work on cars and trucks. I was just going to do it differently, but I wasn't giving up."
Still, the idea of working with a race team seemed like a faraway dream.
As fate would have it, the next year some of Blake's friends asked him to attend the NHRA national event with them at Maple Grove Raceway near Reading, Pennsylvania. Originally Blake declined, but since his friends had never been, they convinced him to make the trip so he could help explain the sport.
"When I got to the racetrack I realized that even though I couldn't see I still enjoyed the sport, I could tell what was going on," Blake says. "I felt it, I heard it, I just loved the environment."
Follow A Dream is a non-profit organization that inspires youth and adults across the United States and beyond.
When he returned from Reading, he was more determined than ever to follow his passion. He first began campaigning a Big-Block Chevrolet-powered Super Comp car with his brother at the wheel. Concurrently, he established "Follow A Dream," a 501(c)3 non-profit organization whose mission is to educate and motivate children and adults with the power of positive thinking, self-determination and teamwork through motorsports.
The competition side of Follow A Dream raced all over the East Coast and brought the car to many speaking engagements, a tradition that continues to this day.
However, Blake still wanted to join the upper echelon of drag racing and weighed the options of purchasing a nitromethane-powered Fuel Funny Car versus a Top Alcohol version. He found that with the initial investment and sponsorship dollars available, he could purchase an alcohol car and have some money left over, whereas with a nitro car, there would be none. However, the undertaking remained massive.
"I did what every smart, conservative person would do and I remortgaged my house," Blake jokes.
Jay Blake and his team in the staging lanes at a race.
He bought the car from respected racer Frank Manzo and the investment has paid off in droves. The team won its first national event at Houston Raceway Park in 2005 and has scored wins in numerous national and regional events since. Twice the team has won the Lucas Oil East region championship and has finished in the top five in regional points nearly every year of its existence. In addition, Follow a Dream Race Team has scored multiple top-10 points finishes nationally.
Last year, the team and current driver Phil Burkart turned in a runner-up finish in the East region after sitting out nearly two and half years due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Blake offers occasional input on setups and tuning the car, but primarily oversees and manages the talented crew while also jumping in to work on whatever needs to be done. The team's shop is located on Cape Cod in Marstons Mills, Massachusetts, while Blake lives in nearby Centerville.
Follow A Dream Race Team's Funny Car has long featured a Chevrolet body.
For many years, Blake has also maintained a relationship with Chevrolet within his racing program. He and his family have always been fans of the brand, going back to the days when a Small-Block Chevy engine powered his brother's first front-engine dragster. Blake's Super Comp cars were powered by Big-Block Chevrolet engines as well.
It was through the Super Comp class that Blake met representatives from the Chevrolet brand who were heavily involved in drag racing.
Once Blake bought the Funny Car, he worked closely with the Chevrolet team to add an Impala body. Later, he again worked alongside the Bowtie Brand to change over to the Monte Carlo, and did wind tunnel testing to help develop the Camaro body found on Funny Cars throughout a variety of drag racing disciplines today. Blake's car still runs the first modern Camaro body offered by Chevrolet.
Along the way, Blake has also spoken at Chevrolet dealerships and to numerous General Motors technicians, as well as to trade schools training the next generation of technicians and mechanics. It's something he hopes to do more of in the future to build upon Chevrolet's deep involvement in the community.
Ironically, Blake's accident propelled him to take a leap of faith and follow his dream, a concept that is the focus of his speaking engagements.
"I like to tell people you do not have to get hit in the head as hard as I did to go follow your dream," he says.
Blake brings along the Camaro Funny Car to his many speaking engagements each year.
"When I speak to young adults and students I try to tell them that if you believe in yourself and you get an education anything is possible."
He focuses on the five tools of life's toolbox to inspire his audiences. Those tools consist of a positive attitude, education, passion, determination and teamwork. The speaking program has grown into an international initiative, with engagements in Canada and Mexico along with many throughout the United States. Over the years he's spoken at corporate events, schools and a wide range of other organizations.
This year, he's planning another full slate of speaking engagements. He's also firming up plans for his racing program as he continues the never-ending hunt for sponsorship backing.
Blake's story has been an inspiration to an untold number of individuals both on and off the track.
"When I speak to young adults and students I try to tell them that if you believe in yourself and you get an education anything is possible," he says. "It's all about the five tools of your life toolbox. These five tools can get you to your goals and your dreams."
If you'd like to get involved with Follow A Dream, please visit this link. Also, be sure to keep watching The BLOCK for much more on Chevrolet Performance and all motorsports disciplines.
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