CATCHING UP

Hey Everybody!

Cecil County went well. We lost to Frank Manzo in the finals, 5.65 to a 5.67. The whole team did a great job. When you lose to Manzo, you've lost to the best. We've beat him before, and we'll beat him again. It was a great weekend. Unfortunately, the USO was unable to pull together the soldier visit this time around so we'll try again at another race-we'll keep you updated. We used the webcam in the pit area for the first time @ Cecil. We had some success as well as some trouble. We hope to do it again at Etown-please check out the our homepage to catch us working on the car. The facebook posting went well too.

We're back at the shop working on everything from the truck & trailer to generators & racecars. All in preparation for the next block of races-4 races in a 5 week stretch.

I hope everybody has a great Labor Day Weekend, we'll be back in touch next week.

Talk soon,

Jay

TESTING @ CECIL COUNTY

Good Afternoon,

We arrived at Cecil County Dragway last evening after spending the day at the corporate headquarters of the National Federation of the Blind in Baltimore. Wonderful people & a great tour of the facility.

We'll be testing this afternoon & then the remainder of the team arrives at the track to prepare for qualifying tomorrow @ 5pm.

Wanted to let you all know that we'll be trying to update our facebook page this weekend after each run. Please check it out if you have a chance. Also, we'll be streaming live video from the track, you can click on the link from the home page of the website to keep track of what we're up to in the pits throughout the weekend.

Have a great day & will be back in touch early next week.

Jay

BACK FROM VACATION

Holy Cow! Took my wife Ann on a cruise to Bermuda for a week, it was very relaxing & the weather was great. Returned to Massachusetts on Friday & then Saturday night we went to Fenway Park (home of the Boston Red Sox) for a J. Geils & Aerosmith concert. We had a blast!

Thanks to the hard work of the team while I was away, we're all loaded up & ready to hit the road for the division 1 race @ Cecil County this weekend, August 20-21. Will be making a stop tomorrow at the National Federation of the Blind in Baltimore on our way to the track. We're also hosting a group of wounded soldiers from Ft. Meade in Maryland on Saturday. We're all looking forward to meeting the guys & offering our thanks for their service & sacrifice.

We're going to try to get our webcam up & running in the pit this weekend. Keep a lookout on the home page of the website to see if we have a link to the live stream up. Also, check out our facebook page-we'll be updating after each run.

Will be back in touch soon.

Jay

I'M STILL HERE

Hi everyone! Sorry for the disappearing act. I don't know if you're getting as sick as I am of the previous statement-I know I sure am. Will work on posting on a more regular basis. I do appreciate all of you checking in.

Mitch & I took the showcar down to the motorcycle ride in memory of fallen soldier from Cape Cod @ DY High School on Saturday, July 24. Wow, what an awesome experience. While I was there, I ran into a friend of mine that I hadn't seen in at least 10 years. It was great to see him & have a chance to catch up. Last time we'd seen each other he had been diagnosed with what was thought to be terminal cancer-not so. He's doing well & moving on with his life. After that, it was time to get the car finished up & readied to go testing. We had to put new crbon fiber front brakes on the car on Monday. Tuesday afternoon Eddie & I loaded the truck & trailer. Ed & his buddy left Tuesday evening for New England Dragway where we'd be testing. Wednesday morning we all arrived at the track, got the car out of the trailer & st up the pit area. When we were spinning the engine over for oil pressure we found a wobble on the lower pulley attached to the crankshaft. After inspection & disassembly, we realized the crank hub was no good. After getting this problem squared away, we had time for one pass. Took the car to the starting line, did the burn out & at that point we realized the body was not latching properly. Tommy gave the shut off sign to Todd & that ended the evening. Thursday we took the car to the Carroll Center in Newton, MA where I spoke with 40 students that were there for the summer. Had the car on display for them & then started the car up so they could all experience what 3000 HP sounds like. As always, it was a great visit. Thursday night we drove back to the Cape & got ready to take the racecar to Ozzie's shop on Friday morning, where we worked on the body latch issue. By the end of the day we were loading the car back into the trailer, ready to return to New England Dragway for more testing over the weekend. Saturday morning we arrived back at the track, where we were able to make two passes. The first one, 5.69 @ 257mph & the second was a 5.66 @ 257mph. That put a cap on Saturday. My brother Jimmy was running his car, my nephew Jamie was racing his car, & my niece Patty was driving her car too. It was kinda cool having all those Blake's racing-it was alot of fun. We had a great dinner that night-thanks to Maura. Then everybody got a good nights sleep. Sunday we pulled the car out again to make some more passes. We ran a 5.62 & a 5.63, & by the end of the day we had reset both ends of the track record-a great accomplishment for the entire team. We stayed over Sunday night to work on the car again on Monday, then loaded it up & brought it back to the Cape.

I would really like to thank Joe & all of the staff at New England Dragway for their hospitality, track preparation, and help. New England Dragway is one of the finest facilities in the Northeast.

Back at the shop we unloaded the trailer and will do some more work on the car servicing cylinder heads & clutch stuff in preparation for our next race at Cecil County, August 20.

I will talk to you all one week from Monday, August 16, as my wife Ann & I are going on vacation tomorrow. YAHOO!!!