A lot has happened in young Blake Alexander’s life this year. The 24-year-old Smith Mountain Lake, Va., resident made massive strides both personally and professionally by putting an eventful rookie season of NHRA competition to bed and graduating with a college degree just two months later.
Driving nitro veteran Paul Smith’s Monte Carlo, Alexander qualified for six of the nine races he entered this season, beginning with his first outing of the year at the Tire Kingdom NHRA Gatornationals in Gainesville, and worked through the trials and tribulations common to a nitro newcomer. Finessing a fuel Funny Car is no easy task, and Alexander was in school from day one as he learned how to tame the beast (flying timing blocks and fiery explosions were on the syllabus), but maintaining the business side of his operation proved even more challenging.
“From the outside looking in, it looks a lot easier than it really is,” said third-generation driver Alexander. “Managing the people, creating the partnerships, presenting new ideas to companies to generate interest in working with me and working with Paul; it’s a job that’s never done. I could get a job doing something else that isn’t as difficult, but this is a fantastic opportunity for me, and I actually enjoy the grind that I’ve created for myself.”
Alexander was able to secure funding from notable entities, including Auto Service Plus and Gates Corp., to finance his nine-race run in 2012.
“I’m really proud of what we were able to accomplish this year,” said Alexander, one of eight candidates for Rookie of the Year. “In Englishtown we ran a 4.11 in our first run, and we were fast enough to go a 4.09 but the parachutes came out.
“That was a really exciting weekend for us to come in there and be that competitive – just a little over a tenth off of the fastest Funny Car in the world was encouraging. Let’s be honest, I’m not going out there and spending 2.5 million dollars a year running like the big teams, and to do what we did with the equipment we had gave us a sense of pride.”
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What the recent Radford University graduate lacked in experience on the racetrack, he made up for in enthusiasm, putting his education to use along the way by turning his school projects and assignments into actual proposals for potential sponsors. Working closely with a marketing consultant, Alexander – in his own words – “integrated academia with real-world experience.”
“My education has already helped a lot, and now I’m really excited about being out of college so that I can actually take meetings with people and get things done face-to-face,” said Alexander. “I’ve taken accounting classes, learned to manage finances and budgeting, and always touched on things that would help me become more well-rounded as a business person. This isn’t going to be the easiest thing in the world, and it will require many hours of work, but in the long run, if I stay with it like I have been, it’s going to become something much bigger than what I have now.”
Alexander understands the building blocks of the sport; his racing career began in the Jr. Drag Racing League and he continued to move upward with stints in Comp Eliminator and Top Alcohol Dragster before licensing in a fuel Funny Car in 2011 and making his debut at the Auto-Plus NHRA Nationals that same year. Along the way, Alexander remained in student-mode while driving for Larry Miersch and gaining guidance from James Day, and he carried forward the same eager-student attitude when he began driving for Paul Smith.
“I keep my ears open and try not to talk,” said Alexander. “These guys have been doing this a long time, and I know I still have a lot to learn. A lot of people have been very good to me and have been mentors and teachers. I’ve learned from Paul Smith and from Jeff Arend, Johnny Gray, Spencer Massey – there are so many good people who have gone out of their way to help a young kid because they want to see him do well.”
 Even 15-time world champ John Force is a Blake Alexander fan. |
With the 2013 season of the Mello Yello Drag Racing Series just a couple of months away, the soon-to-be second year driver can only say that he will compete in Phoenix, but he certainly has his eye on a full season of nitro racing. It’s simply a matter of funding, and the freshly degreed Alexander is willing and able to do the legwork, and he has already been working diligently to fill in the blanks.
It’s natural for Alexander. Always enterprising, he secured his first corporate sponsorship at the age of 16 and has been largely in control of his destiny ever since. The past year brought first-hand experience in the nature of seeking sponsorship in the professional arena, and along with awakening to the complexity of the challenge, Alexander discovered that a change in attitude was necessary.
“You have to take on a certain attitude to be successful,” he said. “It’s not my nature, but I’ve learned that you have to be aggressive. That’s the way the business is, and when I realized that, I started to see results. Once I have time to fully develop, I know I’ll see even more results, and that will turn into good things on the track.
“I take pride that I’ve been NHRA drag racing since I was 16 and that I’ve been able to balance it with high school and then college and also become a professional racer. I signed up for this ride, and I knew it would have peaks and valleys, but I’ve learned a lot from so many people, and with my degree, I’m hoping that I can just keep growing and gaining experience. This year, I didn’t meet my goals as well as I’d have liked, but I believe I will see the fruits of my labor in the future.” (NHRA)
