{"id":18497,"date":"2015-04-10T15:56:21","date_gmt":"2015-04-10T19:56:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/?p=18497"},"modified":"2015-04-10T15:56:21","modified_gmt":"2015-04-10T19:56:21","slug":"blake-set-to-go-from-contender-to-champion-in-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/2015\/04\/blake-set-to-go-from-contender-to-champion-in-2015\/","title":{"rendered":"Blake Set To Go From Contender To Champion In 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"thunder\"<\/a>Blake Set To Go From Contender To Champion In 2015<\/strong><\/p>\n

Barre, VT \u2013 Barre\u2019s Cody Blake, at the age of 23, already has a growing list of accomplishments at Barre\u2019s Thunder Road Speedbowl. This year, he hopes to become the \u201cKing of the Road.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blake was sixth in the final Thunder Road Late Model point standings in 2014, his fourth straight season finishing eighth or better. He stood atop the standings after six races before a hard crash bent his car\u2019s A-frame and his team spent the rest of the year struggling to get the car dialed back in. Now entering his sixth year in the lead division, Blake hopes that a new car and 16 years\u2019 worth of maturity behind the wheel will be a championship combination.
\n <\/p>\n

\u201cThe one thing we haven\u2019t done yet in a Late Model is win multiple races and the championship,\u201d Blake said. \u201cThose are both things we want to do this year. We didn\u2019t really have any goals when we first started out in Late Models, but I think everybody knows now that we\u2019re at the track each week.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blake has now fulfilled a lifelong dream by taking full ownership of his own racing operation. He previously raced for MikelJon Mascitti and Jason Allen. Blake will drive a new car in 2015 built by former Oxford Plains Speedway Champion T.J. Brackett.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor whatever reason we seem to do well in the first three races, and from then on we start out back each week,\u201d Blake noted. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to pass 15 or 16 cars in a 50-lap race. I don’t want to stroke it in the first part of the year though \u2013 I\u2019d rather not have as many wins than do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

With a title, the second-generation driver would join his father, Greg \u201cBurger\u201d Blake, as a lead division champion. The elder Blake was the 1989 Vermont State Flying Tiger Champion, and bought Cody his first go-kart at age seven. Among other drivers that Blake competed against in the go-karts were current American-Canadian Tour (ACT) contender Jimmy Hebert and former Tiger Sportsman driver Alex Ferno.<\/p>\n

Blake has come a long way since that first go-kart. He first wheeled a stock car on the Thunder Road high banks in the Tiger Sportsmen in 2008 and 2009, and was the Late Model Rookie of the Year in 2010. Blake scored his first victory in the 2013 Vermont Governor\u2019s Cup 150 with NASCAR driver Clint Bowyer among the challengers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just been fun for us, because we race together, and then off the track we go snow-machining together and hang out, and we\u2019re good friends away from the race track,\u201d Hebert said. \u201cThere\u2019s not too many racers you do that with, because usually you try and keep your friends close and your enemies closer. But in our case we\u2019re actually friends away from the race track too. It seems like we tend to race each other harder than anybody else, but at the end of the day we usually laugh about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cody said that there is no pressure from his title-winning father or any other family members to succeed. In fact, Greg Blake has given Cody multiple opportunities to get out of racing, only to see Cody eagerly stay behind the wheel each time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t imagine doing anything else,\u201d Blake says.<\/p>\n

Blake and the rest of the Thunder Road weekly competitors will take on the stars of the ACT Late Model Tour on Sunday, May 3 in the Merchant\u2019s Bank 150 as part the 56th season of racing at Thunder Road. The weekend will kick off on Saturday, May 2 with the annual Thunder Road Car Show on Main Street in Barre, VT from 9:00am-12:00pm and subsequent stock car parade up Quarry Hill to the track. A practice session for all divisions will follow and is open to the public. Class Day ceremonies will begin on Sunday at 1:00pm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Blake Set To Go From Contender To Champion In 2015 Barre, VT \u2013 Barre\u2019s Cody Blake, at the age of 23, already has a growing list of accomplishments at Barre\u2019s Thunder Road Speedbowl. This year, he hopes to become the \u201cKing of the Road.\u201d Blake was sixth in the final Thunder Road Late Model point […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26,200],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-thunder-road","category-vermont"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18497"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18497\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18498,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18497\/revisions\/18498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}