Alexander Out Early in Bristol, Focused on Norwalk

Courtesy of NVW Motorsports Promotion
Phot Courtesy of Roger Richards and Comp Plus

BRISTOL, TN – Blake Alexander’s inaugural appearance in Fuel Funny Car at Bristol Dragway’s Ford Thunder Valley Nationals didn’t exactly goes as he hoped. A 16th qualifying position and first round loss to Bob Tasca was not what he dreamed of when he raced here in Junior Dragsters. Blake is the first to admit that there is room for improvement.

“There are things that we need to do as a team to take the next step on Sunday, but we started to make improvements after Atlanta. They’re still trying to figure a few more things out to make our car pick up the three to five hundredths that we need to be a little more competitive on Sunday. I need to get a little better as a driver and we need to just be running a little faster,” said the 23-year old college student.

Blake and the Gates/Auto Service Plus Funny Car ended the first qualifying session with an 8th-best 4.215. He ultimately improved to a 4.188, but slipped down to the bump spot at 16th. As first round of eliminations rolled around, Paul Smith’s tune-up proved to be too much for the hot, oily track. Blake struck the tires down track and coasted through the finish line.

“The cloud cover on Sunday produced some of the best conditions since the Friday night session, so we needed to step it up. Our lane (left) still had gear oil on it from a previous oildown, so it wasn’t very good at 300 feet,” Blake said, after he was eliminated early, along with multiple Funny Car veterans.

Though the weekend didn’t go as he had planned, Alexander is still happy to be piloting a nitro-gulping 300 mph Funny Car. The rookie said he was so focused on the task at hand that he still hasn’t taken in the fact that his childhood dream is realized. “This is something that I’ve always wanted to do, but once I was out there doing it, it takes so much focus to do stuff right that I couldn’t think about it. I’m sure as time goes by, I’ll be able to think about it fondly from an outside perspective.”

Blake Alexander’s next race on the NHRA Full Throttle Series tour is the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals in Norwalk, Ohio, July 5-8. The familiar Auto Service Plus body will be back on the Paul Smith Racing Funny Car.