Fri, 15 Apr 2005, 02:45 AM Two Guys Who Had Dreams

By Bob Frey Photo copyright 2005 Auto Imagery, Inc.

When Jay Blake's "Follow A Dream" car won the O'Reilly Springnationals in Houston this past week it fulfilled a dream that he had. But, when driver David Ray crossed the finish line ahead of Bob Newberry, it also fulfilled a dream that he had.

Ray and Blake

Jay Blake's story is a great one, one of those fairytale stories that make this such a great country and drag racing such a great sport. Blinded in an industrial accident several years ago, Jay vowed at that time that he would rebound, own a funny car, win races and be an inspiration for anyone with whom he came in contact. Jay told me that those were his goals when I met him on the return road at Maple Grove after the national event there several years ago. "You're Bob Frey, aren't you?" he said when he heard my voice. When I told him that I was he introduced himself, told me his story and then he told me about his plans for the future. As you can imagine, I was a little skeptical, after all, here was a young man with a cane, a dream and not much else. But over the next few years I came to realize that while Jay had lost his sight he had not lost his vision, and I also realized that he would, indeed, achieve his goals. Fast forward to last year at that same Pennsylvania track where I first encountered Jay and there he was with his brother, his car and a new driver and he was competing on the highest level with the best teams in the alcohol funny car class. They didn't win the Keystone Nationals but they certainly got everyone's attention, and when they made another good showing in Florida at the Gatornationals everyone took notice. "We weren't even going to attend the Texas race," David Ray said, "but Jay got a speaking engagement there and he asked the team if we would like to race in Houston. He didn't have to ask us twice."

Ray vs Newberry

David Ray knew of Jay and his brother, Jim, for a long while. "My daughter and Jim's son both raced Jr. Dragsters. In fact, Jim's son is racing with my daughter's old car." David's daughter, Angela, had a great deal of success in her racing career winning in the Jr. car and then advancing to the Modified E/T class at the family's home track, New England Dragway. And while she was racing her dad was competing on the IHRA tour with his own alcohol funny car and running is own shop at the same time. "I own a custom exhaust shop and I've been running it for about thirty years now," David said. Ironically his shop had a lot to do with him getting the ride in Jay's car. "Tommy Howell tunes a couple of cars on the IHRA circuit and I've known him for a while. They were testing the car at New England and Tommy came up to me and told me that he needed an exhaust for his car. Then he asked if I would trade him an exhaust for a ride in the 'Follow A Dream' car. I thought he was kidding me." Well, he wasn't. At that time Jay and Jim were looking for someone to drive the car on a regular basis and as soon as David sat in the car he knew that this was where he belonged. "It was like the car was made for me," he said. "I fit in it perfectly." When he asked Tommy what he wanted him to do in the car David was surprised by the answer. "I expected that he would want me to take it easy, you know, make a little shot off the line and then shut it off. But he told me that he wanted a full run and so that's what I gave him." Tommy must have liked what he saw because David has been the driver ever since. For David to be driving anything but a Ford was a real change of pace. "I love Fords and I've always been a Ford guy." When he came out of Timberlane High School David went right to New England Dragway with his 1967 Shelby GT 500, but that was after he graduated and wrote in his high school year book what his hopes were for the future. "In my year book I wrote that my dream was to some day drive an alcohol funny car and now I am so I guess dreams do come true." I guess they do.

For years, in addition to his days on the IHRA circuit, David Ray was a very good and very successful mud racer. He traveled all over the eastern part of the country competing at some of the major arenas in the country. "I raced the USHRA tour and did pretty well. I made quite a few appearances on the TNN television shows when they were covering the races and one year I won every event except the first and the last one on the circuit." David's vehicle was one that he built himself and because of his success he ended up building over forty cars for other drivers all over the country. As far as his alky car goes, it's also a Ford. He said that he tried to get a Ford body and was told that some guy by the name of John Force had the rights to all the Ford funny car bodies that were available and John wasn't about to give any of them up. "I called Harry Glass and asked about the possibility of getting a Ford body and he said that he had one in the back of his shop. It was supposed to have been an Elvis body for John but he didn't take it so I bought it. When one of my crew members took a picture of it and showed it to John at Maple Grove last year he was surprised that we had it and he wanted to buy it back, but it's my car now," he said with a smile.

The team celebrates the win.

>From the mud races to the IHRA tracks David Ray has been very good at what he has done but he had to admit that nothing that he has accomplished so far was like winning the NHRA Springnationals in Texas. "When I crossed the finish line ahead of Bob I was yelling and screaming in the car and when Jay and the crew got down to the end of the track I could hardly talk. It was awesome, simply awesome." All of that celebration came after Jay got down on his hands and knees and kissed the Baytown starting line. And it came after David had a good feeling about the final round. "Tommy told me to just go up there and have fun," he said. "But I told him that we could win the race. It was all so exciting. I've won a lot of races but nothing that compares to this." David also said that he can't ever remember getting more phone calls and e-mails in one day in his life. "The guys at the shop spent all day answering the phone and telling people that I wasn't back yet. But the way I felt I could have beaten the plane home, believe me. I was flying high. Paul Gill, Mark Thomas, guys like that called to congratulate me, it was amazing." And as fate would have it, this was the first race that David competed in that his wife, Irene, didn't attend. "She's always been with me and the crew loves it when she's there because she's such a good cook. When I left home she told me that we were going to win, in fact, she guaranteed it. But she'll never miss another one, I'll tell you that." David was quick to point out how they won as a team, and that includes Jay and his brother, Jim, Tommy, Scott DeWitt Sr. and Scott Jr. and Mark Reardon and Doug Palmer.

For Jay Blake to win a race after a relatively short period of time is a real credit to him, his determination and his dream. He has accomplished so much even with his disability but all along he had a dream and he followed it. For David Ray to finally win an NHRA national event is also the end of a long road and it fulfills the dream that he had way back in high school in 1974. Two men and two dreams and they all came true on the same Sunday in Baytown Texas. Believe it, dreams do come true.

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