Blind auto-crew chief inspires Chesco students

For as long as Jay Blake can remember, he longed to work on race cars.

But when a forklift accident in May 1997 left him blind, Blake wondered whether he would work at any job again.

Then, a year after the accident, friends invited Blake to a National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) race near Reading.

Despite protests that, without his sight, he could not follow the action, Blake's friends persuaded him to go. And his life was changed - again.

"I realized that even though I couldn't see, I could still tell what was going on," Blake said. "I experienced things differently, but I still loved the environment."

Sixteen years have passed since that day, and Blake, 48, returned to Maple Grove Raceway in Mohnton, near Reading, this week for the NHRA nationals, which will run through Sunday.

These days, however, Blake is no spectator. He is the only totally blind crew chief in auto racing, and it all started, he said, that day when he first visited Maple Grove.

"Someday I'm going to win" at Maple Grove, Blake said this week. "Whether it's this Sunday or a Sunday in the future."

Second only to auto racing, sharing with others his story of triumph over adversity is a passion for Blake. So, for the fifth straight year, he visited with students at the Universal Technical Institute in Exton during race week.

Bob Kessler, president at UTI's Exton campus, said that people find Blake's life story both inspirational and motivational.

"I think this really renews the passion they have," Kessler said. "It helps to reassure them that hard work pays off, and if you're committed and passionate about what you do, you can get it done."

Growing up just outside Cape Cod, Mass., Blake spent his early years tinkering with engines. After graduating from high school, he went to work at a car dealership, the first in a series of automotive jobs. While he always wanted to work on race cars, he said that by the time he was married with two children and a mortgage, working on a professional race team did not seem like a possibility.

So, at 31, Blake was working as the head mechanic for a trucking company. On a Thursday in May 1997, he went to work just like any other day.

"At 5:30, my entire world changed forever," Blake said.

He was working on a forklift when a wheel and tire assembly inexplicably exploded directly into his face. Blake was airlifted to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston with little hope of surviving.

When he awoke after 101/2 hours of surgery, Blake asked his brother two questions: Am I alive? Am I blind?

His brother said he was both. He also lost his sense of smell and taste.

"The blindness was difficult to adjust to, but I didn't have a choice," Blake said.

He remained in the hospital for 31/2 weeks before returning home, where he had to learn to maneuver around his house. He said he remembers going out to his garage and feeling around in his toolbox to find out whether he could recognize his tools by touch.

He picked up a wrench and was immediately able to identify it. At that moment, he said, he became determined to relearn everything he had known before.

He attended rehabilitation at the Carroll Center for the Blind in Newton, Mass., where he learned how to live independently.

Inspired by his progress, but knowing he would never be hired to work on race cars, Blake created his own race team in 1999.

"In the beginning, everyone thought I was out of my mind. But I had nothing to lose at this point in my life," said Blake, who lives in Marstons Mills, Mass. "I was going through a divorce, had no job, and I thought, 'I've got to move on.' "

He went back to school and studied business and marketing. He was able to raise enough money to start his own motivational nonprofit, Follow a Dream, and bought a race car, which he asked his brother, Jim, to drive. Todd Veney is the current driver.

Follow a Dream competes in the NHRA Top Alcohol Funny Car competition, and it won the 2012 East Region championship and finished the season ranked 11th in national points. It finished ninth in the NHRA national standings in 2013.

And this week, the team is back at Maple Grove, where it all began in 1999. That fact, every time he returns, is not lost on Blake.

"It's probably," he said, "the biggest race to me in the whole world."

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