I have reached the pinnacle of the sport in 2012 with the help from my supporters, teammates, and family. I can honestly say it doesn't feel much different to me. My first season as a Comp racer at age 16 was just as exciting leading into the year, however I was not under such a microscope. I look forward to excelling as a pro funny car racer in 2012, but I want to briefly reflect back on to a most memorable 2011.
My work on sponsorships, proposals, adjustments, etc. is tireless. My idea that I had when I reached age 15 was that if I worked harder and smarter than anyone my age for the next five years, I would be able to come close to racing professionally. I already had achieved sponsorship from great companies like Gates, Valvoline, and Wix as a 16 year old, and was expected to grow with them. Thankfully, my supporting brands and I grew immensely, much like the executives of these companies foresaw. Like I said, it was expected by my inner circle that I would grow, but not necessarily to these levels.
In 2011 I had gained a larger sponsorship from the company Exide to promote their +Start Positive+Stay Positive marketing initiative and race in NHRA Top Alcohol Dragster. Under the tutelage of Larry Miersch, Roy Miersch, James Day, and all others from their West Coast-based team, I became a nitro A/Fuel Dragster driver. I can honestly say that I had the time of my life flying out west and getting to know a different breed of West Coasters who have a different way of getting it done, but are nonetheless effective drag racers. I am so proud to say I was a part of the Miersch Racing team and did my piece alone with their help at the track. I wish Larry and the guys the best in 2012 and hope they can have more great outings with Jim Rizzoli helping turn the wrenches.
While I drove the A/Fuel car in 2011, I was a bit of a gunslinger at the line and lost my consistency towards the end of the season because of it. While all year I was playing with fire successfully, it finally burnt me towards the end of the year. I say that because I came up with a redlight and holeshot loss late in the season where I could have done better if I didn't have myself set on kill at all times. Consistency is just as deadly as throwing out deadly lights now and again.
My first light in competition was .034 at the Winternationals, but I still came up short and lost on a hole shot. While I sulked a bit, it still was respectable and I waited patiently until my next round of competition in Vegas. Out in Vegas I cut another respectable .061 light and took over a tenth and a half on the tree (huge advantage) from my competitor, however my car fell way off its qualifying pace, ultimately giving me the round loss. This was a very low moment for me in 2011. While I had a free night in Vegas, I realized it meant nothing to me because of how perturbed losing makes me. In the future I tried to not let losing bother me as much as it did out there, but also kept in mind the feeling of losing and worked tirelessly to avoid it. Anyways, the dual edged sword holeshot loss on a good light and losing after having a huge advantage on the tree made me even more determined to work harder off the track.
Courtesy of Jeff Moore @onesevenwest
While all this was going on in 2011, I worked tirelessly after class sometimes till 3 A.M. on proposals and other opportunities for myself to get closer to my ultimate goal of being a professional. I saw a window of opportunity when I noticed that Uni-Select was stepping into the world of NHRA drag racing in a big way. Since Uni-Select had just bought the company my father had previously been CEO for (Bumper to Bumper, former sponsor of John Force Racing), I felt the need to try to reach contact with them. With the names for the contacts being listed on their website, I still asked for permission from my father out of respect for him as he is now employed by Uni-Select. While his employment is completely seperate from the marketing side of affairs, I still felt the need to let him know what I was thinking. He could not have been more against my idea.
After I was strongly and sternly told not to send sponsorship material in to Uni-Select by my Dad, I very cautiously sent the proposal to the e-mail addresses listed online.
As the weeks went by before the Houston national event, I had talks with the people from Uni-Select and realized that this may come to fruition. I flew into Houston the weekend before my finals in college, on the verge of finalizing an NHRA professional sponsorship and going to the semi-finals off two holeshot W's. I stayed focused on doing big things for Exide as soon as my helmet came on and boy did we have a great weekend in Houston. I cut a .050 light and won on a holeshot in round 1 over a Texas local who is very familiar with the track and area. After achieving my first round win, I beat Division 5 champion Randy Meyer on a holeshot with a .021 light. Larry and the gang gave me a great car, but we got too aggressive in the semi-finals and threw away my .028 light. All season we won and lost as a team and celebrated our mild success to this point. Our team was young and had done things many people race a lifetime and do not accomplish.
After the Houston race finished, I took my finals and continued after school putting in some but not always 8 a.m. to 3 a.m. days of working on racing proposals, adjustments, renderings, etc.
When I got the call that I would be sitting in Paul Smith's funny car in Atlanta in 2 weeks to start licensing on behalf of Auto Plus, I was overjoyed to tears. I realized I had been working so hard to cement a professional ride for this. I had done this by branching out to the connections I had previously made, along with making a few new connections for good measure. I had been trying to drive Smith's car since I was 17 years old and finally got my opportunity at age 22.
In Atlanta I ran my fastest run ever in my family-owned Comp A/Altered, but lost in round one. I turned my focus to driving the most difficult race car on the planet to drive; a nitro funny car.
I loaded my flamesuit and helmet up in a bag and walked into the pro pits, where I was promptly advised by Smith to get into the 8,000 horsepower fire-breathing beast. I went through the warm-up procedure, which was a bit more complex than an A/Fuel car, but I listened as I always do and picked up all the pointers I needed before we put the car away.
After a nice dinner with Paul Smith Racing and one of his proteges, Spencer Massey, I got into the funny car at 10 AM Monday morning. The first time I hit the gas, I went the fastest I still have gone to the 60 foot ever (.892). For the record, Matt Hagan went .890 to the 60 foot on his 3.99 pass, so to say the least the car was moving out. I was hooked and would continue to license in this car up until Reading.
I experienced moderate success for the rest of the year in the Exide Batteries-sponsored Top Alcohol Dragster in Seattle, Vegas, and Pomona; however we never set the world on fire. What does set the world on fire is putting a 23 year old college student in the seat of an 8,000 horsepower fire-breathing monster that is trying to run over 300 mph while shaking the ground on the Richter scale. As a driver, marketer, and businessman, I realized that this nitro funny car was what I needed to achieve my ultimate goals as a pro drag racer. I wanted more of a driving challenge than the dragster provided while being able to show the full-fledged ROI of NHRA drag racing to my sponsors. The alcohol classes are at times neglected by the NHRA and are also just not as exciting as the pro classes through and through. It is very difficult to continually show ROI to sponsors in any classes other than Pro NHRA racing.
My sponsors saw my work and a better opportunity as I licensed, with me getting better each time at the wheel of the nitro funny car. Ultimately, this lead more people to make larger commitments to me to make my jump to pro. I finished licensing in Dallas and was set to make my professional debut at Reading in October of 2011. I would be driving the Auto Plus funny car at the Auto Plus Nationals and once again was very proud to be doing so in between my schedule as a PR/Communications student at Radford University.
My qualifying efforts were very formidable in my pro debut, leading my to bump into my first show ever. I came up short against eventual world champion Matt Hagan in round one, but hey, I had done it. I came up with all of the funding, did all the driving, and even competed against the best the NHRA had to offer.
The highlights of my season were the weekend of Top Alcohol racing in Houston, making my career-best runs in my family Comp car, and of course becoming a professional funny car driver for many years to come. My idea I had at age 15 was true; if I worked harder on proposals than anyone for 5 years, I should be able to come close to being a professional racer. I came close at ages 21/22, teaming up with Miersch Racing, and ultimately achieved my goal of becoming a pro at age 22/23.
Now the only truth is that if I continue to take care of my business off the track, my natural driving ability, wonderful sponsors, and top notch raceteam will all take care of itself on the track. I look forward to sharing more in 2012 in the arena of blogging and hope this has served as a crash course on Blake Alexander Racing and its current state after 2011. Happy 2012!
Blake Alexander is the driver of Paul Smith's Auto Plus-sponsored Nitro Funny Car. Follow Blake on Twitter at @BLAKE_FC.
