Blake Alexander Debuting New Gates Look at 4-Wide

CONCORD, NC – Funny Car driver Blake Alexander will have a new look on his Paul Smith Racing Dodge Charger Funny Car at zMax Dragway this weekend. The 4-Wide Nationals will be the first of two 2013 events where longtime supporter Gates Automotive Belts and Hoses will assume the primary sponsorship role. This marks an eight-year partnership between Alexander and Gates.

“My relationship with Gates stems back to when I was getting out of Junior Dragsters at age 16. My father suggested I look for sponsorship so I could move up to a big car. I had met an executive from Gates while I was racing Junior Dragsters. I reached out to them and as fate would have it, I forged a relationship with them that has lasted around eight years now. It’s exciting to have their support from the Sportsman ranks to my second year as a professional Funny Car driver,” Blake says.

The Gates Auto look will remain on the 10,000-horsepower nitro Funny Car for the next race on the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series, the NHRA Spring Nationals in Houston, April 26-28.

Blake sees the unique four-wide format as an added challenge to the task of driving a 4-second, 300 mile per hour Funny Car. This is Alexander’s second go-around at the 4-Wide Nationals.

“The four-wide format is obviously exciting, but I think everyone gets to enjoy it more than the drivers. It raises everything you’re doing in the cockpit to an extreme level. There are three people in the other lanes trying to cut a better light and run a better lap so you really have to turn things up,” said Alexander, who ran his first 300 MPH pass at the event last year.