Jay Blake may have 24 years of experience as a professional drag racing team owner and crew chief, but he’s back to being a rookie all over again this season.

The Massachusetts resident has spent nearly the last quarter-century competing primarily in NHRA Top Alcohol Funny Car competition, winning numerous regional and national events, as well as several racetrack and regional championships.

Yet Blake’s journey includes a challenge unlike any faced by his peers in the NHRA – He’s been completely blind for nearly the last 30 years.

Without sight, Blake (pictured below) obviously can’t drive a race car or the team’s hauler. But he does pretty much everything else. In almost miraculous fashion, he works on the race car, performing much of the mechanical work on the engine, transmission, the race car transporter, changing flat tires, and also does much of the team’s business operations.

If you ever stopped by the Blake team’s pit area at a race and spent 10 minutes watching him, you’d swear he has 20/20 vision. But things have been the absolute opposite ever since he was severely injured, completely losing his sight, in an industrial accident in 1997 at the age of 31. He was working as a heavy machinery mechanic when an oversized tire exploded in his face, robbing him not only of his vision but also his sense of smell and taste.

For more than a year after his accident, Blake felt as if his life was over. He was deeply depressed, his wife left him, and he spent most of his days listening to TV and smoking cigarettes. Not ready or willing to spend the rest of his life that way, Blake’s life changed dramatically three years after his accident when he accompanied friends to a drag race near Reading, Pa.

Blake had been a longtime drag racing fan long before his accident. And while he couldn’t see the action on track, the noise convinced him that the next chapter of his life should somehow revolve around the same.

He emphatically told himself, “I’m going to go drag racing,” and in 2003 began building his Top Alcohol team, and also expanded beyond the track. Through his motivational and highly in-demand public speaking engagements, he has inspired thousands. He then formed his charitable foundation, “Follow A Dream,” which helps motivate and inspire people, particularly those who are blind or otherwise disabled/handicapped.

When asked why it took him several years before forming his team and foundation, the affable Blake told EssentiallySports, “Honestly, I finally had the guts to do it.”

And ironically, after more than two decades, that’s the same thing that prompted him to shift from Top Alcohol to the much faster and more popular Nitro Funny Car class. To illustrate the difference, Top Alcohol Funny Cars usually run in the 260-275 mph range, while Nitro Funny Cars can reach 340 mph.

“I had a very competitive alcohol program, and it was lots of fun and competitive, and we had a really good program,” Blake said.

“But it was my longtime dream to one day go nitro racing. It was hard to give that up, to step into the world of nitro, which I didn’t know much about at all. But alcohol did not seem to be a place any longer to find sponsorship, and I need sponsorship to fund the Follow a Dream program.”

Blake has hopes of going full-time in Nitro Funny Car next year. This year is a part-time effort that has him and veteran driver Phil Burkart competing primarily in the International Hot Rod Association series, and he hopes to add a few NHRA events if additional sponsorship can be found.

“What’s the biggest challenge of shifting from Alcohol to Nitro? Every single piece of it,” Blake said.

He sold his old Funny Car, purchased a newer used Nitro Funny Car, and has spent the last several months learning an entirely new type of race car, with all the nuances inherent to nitro racing as opposed to alcohol racing.

“I knew I was stepping into the fire,” Blake said. “I just didn’t realize it was a raging forest fire. The only thing that is similar is that the front and rear wheels are in the same place, and the body flips up. Everything is, even if it’s a little different; it’s still different.

“Robert Schwab is the gentleman I bought the car from, and he’s come with the car to help teach us, help tune the car, and guide us in this journey. He’s been a godsend, a lifesaver in helping us. We’ve built a whole new team. There are four left over from the (alcohol) team, but the rest of the team is new. Some of them have never been to a drag strip before. But they’ve come together, they’ve worked together, they’re all local. We meet at the shop a couple of times a week, and it’s just been awesome.”

The team has already had several test sessions and competed in its first IHRA event nearly two months ago near Richmond, Va.

“There were some struggles,” Blake lamented about the Virginia event. “Every time the race car didn’t leak, there were parts falling off of it. But still, the team worked together well. We had some ignition and starting problems, and we’re working through them, and we’ll be ready for our next race. Overall, you always want things to go better, but there were still so many positives to the first weekend. I’d like to look at it that way, build on the positives and learn from the negatives.

“The IHRA was very welcoming and very thankful we were there and tried to do what they could to make it work for us.”

Moving from alcohol to nitro isn’t just about running a different type of fuel in the race car. It’s been especially difficult for Blake, as he admitted.

“When I had the dream of starting Follow A Dream and going racing, it was over 27 years ago,” Blake said. “We started with alcohol, but the dream to go nitro racing was kind of always there. Honestly, it’s been so overwhelming because there’s so much new. We’ve had to rearrange the shop and the trailer. So, being blind, it makes things frustrating and difficult because things aren’t where they used to be. And the car is different, so everything is not where it used to be. Frankly, it’s just that much harder when you can’t see anything.”

But even with the challenges of a completely new program, Blake is adapting quickly and is looking ahead to greater success.

“I don’t have much of a choice,” he said with a hearty laugh. “I’ve started to try and relax a little bit and try to enjoy this. I’m surrounded by great people on my team. So I’m very fortunate at the shop and on the road to just be surrounded by very open-minded and willing and encouraging people.”

The timing of shifting from alcohol to nitro was problematic. Over the last few seasons, sponsorship has been difficult to acquire, prompting the team’s Top Alcohol Funny Car program to cut its race schedule from full-time to part-time. Hence, in a sense, the timing aligned for Blake to finally pursue a move he’d been turning over in his mind for years.

“Obviously, sponsorship is the big key,” Blake said. “My plan is to keep learning and growing the program. We’re also growing our Follow A Dream program, doing speaking engagements, and having kids from various schools visit us at the racetrack so they can see first-hand what we do up close and also show them career opportunities in the trades, like mechanics.

“Plus, we have the backbone of Follow A Dream, which we call ‘Five Tools For Your Life’s Toolbox’ – Positive Attitude, Education, Passion, Determination, and Teamwork — as both a teaching and motivational program. We want them to follow their dreams, just like we’re following our dreams.”

To learn more about Blake’s team and Follow A Dream, click here for the team’s website (FollowADream.org) or check out the Facebook page.