Jay Blake has been completely blind since a workplace accident in 1997, yet he remains the lifetime automotive mechanic for the drag racing team he built from nothing. Blake dreamed of drag racing long before he lost his sight, and rather than abandon that dream after the accident, he decided to relearn his previous work differently and chase it anyway.
The accident happened when an industrial tire exploded while Blake was working as a head mechanic for a transportation company, according to followadream.org, which says the May 1997 explosion caused him to lose his vision completely. As reported by WCVB, Blake identified a combination wrench by touch while recovering from the accident, a small moment that convinced him he could still work with his hands even without sight.
That realization set the course for the rest of his career. Blake decided to start his own racing team after attending a race following his accident, and in 1999 he established Follow A Dream, a nonprofit that combines NHRA drag racing with a message about overcoming adversity. The organization's message is uniquely delivered through NHRA drag racing as its medium, per the nonprofit's own account of its mission.
From Hospital Bed to Crew Chief
Blake describes himself as racing's only totally blind race crew chief, and the same site notes that after losing his sight he was still able to do what he loved most: working on racing engines. He built Follow A Dream Racing around that determination rather than walking away from the sport altogether.
Blake has said the five tools took him from a hospital bed to where he is today, according to the WCVB report. He calls those five tools for success positive attitude, education, passion, determination and teamwork, and he now speaks to students and tours the country presenting the program at schools, corporate events, and military bases, per followadream.org.
Racing at 260 Miles an Hour
Follow A Dream's race team competed at a 2025 National Hot Rod Association event at Maple Grove Raceway in Mohnton, Pennsylvania, and per the same WCVB account, the team is now preparing for a new, faster nitro funny car. The station's report notes that an alcohol funny car can already cover 1,000 feet at more than 260 miles an hour, giving a sense of the speeds Blake's crew works with on race day.
Follow A Dream says its team has worked its way up the rankings to become one of the top Funny Car teams in the world, according to the organization's own website. Blake's stated aim, as described in the WCVB piece, is to show that a dream may require a different route but remains worth following — a message he built his entire second career around after the accident that took his sight.
