Q2e Listening & Speaking 3: Unit 8 Video Transcript

Blind Drag Racer Has Message of Positive Thinking Transcript

Jay Blake: There's nothing like it.

Reporter: Drag racing assaults the senses.1

Jay Blake: It's just awesome.

Reporter: Screaming engines pound eardrums. Exhaust stings the eyes.

Jay Blake: When the cars go down the track, you can feel it in your gut.

Reporter: Off the track, pit crews2 scramble to prepare their dragsters for peak
performance.

Jay Blake: It's controlled chaos.

Reporter: In the middle of this mayhem3 is crew chief Jay Blake. This is his car, his
team. He's a hands-on kind of guy, not just because he's the boss, but
because he's blind.

Jay Blake: When I'm in the pit area, I don't use a stick, and I guess you might say I
don't look blind. I am, but I move around and see with my hands.

Reporter: The former truck mechanic from Cape Cod lost his sight eight years ago
when a tire exploded in his face.

Jay Blake: Surgeons worked for ten and a half hours to rebuild my face and
eventually implanted two glass eyes. So I have lost total sight, total sense
of smell, and total taste.

Reporter: But Blake retained his appetite for adrenaline and his ability to tinker.4 In
the middle of his nightmare, Blake decided to chase a childhood dream.
He bought a race car.

Jay Blake: After being that close to death, I figured, what do I have to lose?

Jim Blake: He asked me if I would drive for him. After I told him he was crazy and
nuts5 and everything, he says, “Yeah, but if I do it, will you drive?”, and I
said, “Yes, I'll drive.”

1
assaults the senses: makes you feel something strongly in all your senses
2
pit crews: teams of people that work on race cars
3
mayhem: confusion
4
tinker: repair things

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Q2e Listening & Speaking 3: Unit 8 Video Transcript

Jay Blake: Where the hell did my jack go?

Reporter: So Jay and his brother Jim hit the road with the Follow a Dream team.
Their mission … win races while driving a message.

Jay Blake: You can do anything you put your mind to. You've just got to go for it.

Jim Blake: People really don't believe he is totally blind and living in darkness, and
they get inspired when they realize it.

Jay Blake: Every day you wake up, you have two choices—to have a good day or a
bad day.

Reporter: Off the track, Blake revs up6 groups around New England. On this day,
offering advice to visually impaired teens.

Jay Blake: The hardest part is not being able to see people, but when people see me
working on the car, it shocks people to the point where their eyes and
ears are opened so when I speak, they listen.

Reporter: Even his competition is blown away.7

Speaker 1: I don't think he's got to say too much to motivate. He's in there working
on that car and trying the best he can.

Reporter: Last April, this dream team won its first national race. Now, Jay Blake has
another goal—give new meaning to the phrase blinding speed.

Jay Blake: The dream is to be the fastest blind man in the world.

Reporter: Just to be clear, he means the fastest blind man behind the wheel.

Speaker 2: He can get on a little motorcycle and drive it around, do wheelies. You
know, water-ski. He won't stop at anything.

Speaker 6: This guy's just driven, you know what I mean?

Jay Blake: This is my heart, my soul, and everything else. I'm the man with a vision.8
I just don't have sight.

5
nuts: crazy
6
revs up: motivates
7
blown away: impressed by someone or something
8
vision: the ability to plan for the future with great imagination or intelligence

©Oxford University Press. Permission granted to reproduce for classroom use.