Category Archives: Racing

I pretty pumped, we should be able to get the car to the race track next weekend. we have a lot to do still, but we are going to try and have it ready.

this week i will spend about 16 hours / day working on the car, cleaning tanks and lines, finishing all the little things. making the last of the brackets, bolting in whats not, putting it all together ready for its maiden launch, of which i will be nervous as hell. its been over a year since i drove last, and a new everything, driving pos, controls, view. I’m sure the new car will have it own characteristics.

when i do drop the clutch, there is no telling where it will go. so if I’m not 100% focused, IE; tired and/ or not on the ball, we may have to give it a miss (I’m sure there will be a lot running through my head the night before).

also we will have to get the car tech inspected, and ANDRA approved, hopefully we are all legal. fingers crossed, and i look forward to blogging  next sunday.

Sydney Dragway announced a march Top Doorslammer, Pro Series.

with the new car requiring only a handful of days to finish it off, it is actually feasable we could be here racing/ testing.

We intend to have the car fully race ready for April at Mildura. Accomodation is booked, we are there. we had a strong showing last time in mildura, lets hope we can settle into the car and put on a strong showing.

no doubt we will have to iron out some bugs, fingers crossed it doesnt take too long to get up to speed.

Peter Blake wins Portland slamfest 2011 and takes championship lead for team Racetech Steel.

South Coast Raceway was playing host to its first professional event and a track record crowd jammed into the recently updated venue just expanded to accommodate the expected influx. The whole weekend was a special one for Portland with festivities across the town being held to raise money for the Make A Wish Foundation. The raceway was no different with over $6000 being raised by the SWDRA and the event being dubbed “Slamfest For Wishes”.

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portland slamfest promo

Drag factor the latest and probably the gratest dragracing simulator yet was released December 2011, in Jan 2012 Peter Blakes new Mustang was added. take a look at the renderings for the game.

We made the trip to Portland for its inaugural Slamfest event planned for Friday 4th and Saturday 5th February. We flew from Sydney to Melbourne met up with our truck and took the 4.5 hour drive as a team to the South Coast Raceway at Portland.
Friday was planned to be a 2 hour window of testing opportunities from 2-4pm. We prepped the car and took it out for a test run. The track conditions at this stage were not ideal, we ran our setup form Calder 2 weeks earlier. This run was far from great for us, we over powered the track and got loose in 2nd gear and out of shape, like most / all of the cars that went out to test. We were unhappy with the suspension set up and spent the evening changing our suspension.
Saturday was race day and we were excited to get down the track. Unfortunately as soon as we were ready to tow out to the staging lanes the rain set in. After continuous rainfall the event was called for the day. The Doorslammer’s all got together and a decision was made that we wanted to put on a show for Portland and we would come back Sunday to run the event. So then we had a rush of changing flights and reorganising how and when the crew would get home.
Sunday weather looked promising! We got there early as the event was starting early and had to finish on a deadline. Our first run was at 10.30am and this was qualifying. We were all a little nervous but I had a great run in the left lane – reaction time 0.269, ET 4.402sec at 165.44 mph. This qualified us 2nd behind Ben Bray who ran 4.380sec at 156.79 mph. Surprisingly my run was the highest MPH in qualifying.
We didn’t have much time between rounds, luckily the car didn’t need much maintenance, but we decided to adjust the clutch.
The next round was an elimination round. Due to the rain shortened format the quickest 2 winners would go direct to the final. So I had to run my very best to get through. I had to win the race plus be one of the fastest 2 winners out of all the cars. I was up against Peter Lovering in the Shoebox car. I chose the right lane this time. This run went perfectly smooth for me. With a great reaction time and I set the quickest ET for the meeting with this run – 4.222sec. This put us as no 1 winner and straight to the final with lane choice.

Left 2993 Peter Lovering 0.176 5.348 114.50 mph lose
Right 5180 Peter Blake 0.053 4.222 173.08 mph win

We towed to the pits very happy but as fast as we could as time was not on our side. We had 90 mins to get the car ready for the final against Scott Maclean. There was not a lot of work to be done as we were trying to keep the car as consistent as possible so our changes were relatively minor. We were hooked up ready to tow out before time and before Scott. I chose the right lane again. The most important thing for this run was my reaction time and I reacted well. I could see Scott’s Stude in the corner of my eye the entire run he never passed me but was catching all the way until just before the finish line. So when I crossed the finish line I wasn’t sure of the outcome. But when my crew got to me at the other end there cheers said it all. We were all very excited for this win. The result was close and unfortunately Scott’s car got loose at the top end and he tagged the wall, but it seems my reaction time of 0.016 sec kept me in front. I ran 4.255sec at 171.76mph.

Final
Left 3525 Scott McLean 0.104 4.429 131.96 mph lose
Right 5180 Peter Blake 0.016 4.255 171.76 mph win

The weekend turned out very successful for us. Our first Slamfest win and our first ever event win. This was an amazing result for my team after a lot of heartache and stress leading up to the event. Thanks to my crew, especially my dad (it was an expensive win for him) and all the Portland track personnel, volunteers and the fans. We got the Low Elapsed Time 4.222sec which is the Doorslammer track record for Portland now and we ran 3 of the top 5 MPH’s at the event, we missed the outright record for mph by only 2mph. And ET by .05sec to a AA/FC. It is an awesome achievement for me and the team. We are not the quickest or the most powerful but we had the best setup and tune on the day!!!
We also took out the points lead in the championship, however we will not be able to contest the next round at Mildura, (where we were runner up last year).