Super Street might be the entry level category for championship drag racing but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have its fair share of tough competitors and few are stronger than three times WA state champion Blake Jeffreys.
Jeffreys took out his third title at the recent Grand Final event and he was rapt to go back-to-back with his 2012/13 season win.
“I nearly did it in the 2011/12 season but got pipped and ended up third,” he said. “Then we struggled last season, having engine problems and having to do an engine swap midway through the season, but still finished up on top which was awesome.”
The skills to win could be in the genetics, with brother Scott finishing third for this season, but Blake said he just tried to do what he does every season.
“I’ve really just been doing the same thing as I always have, striving for consistency and getting a good reaction time every time I race, whether it’s in qualifying or eliminations,” he said.
Jeffreys competes in a VK Holden Berlina which has been transplanted with a modern LS3 engine to provide more reliability and access to easy power.
“It’s a 6.2 litre, all alloy engine, completely stock with no aftermarket camshaft or anything,” he said. “We run it with a carburettor so all it has got is a decent intake manifold and extractors and that’s it.
“The car is super reliable, it can run all day in the heat and doesn’t get hot. It can do high 10sec. passes with a decent tune in it, but as we have it currently with a really tame tune up it still runs consistent 11.1sec. to high 11.0sec. second passes in all weather conditions.”
Jeffreys said he had to endure a rough start to the season with the new motor conversion providing some headaches.
“We were struggling to get the car off the line, it kept flat-spotting and spluttering on take off,” he said. “It was really not until the third or fourth event, after some adjustments and tuning that we got it sorted and then we could work on being consistent with more laps and data.
“By season’s end the car was great; I think it just took a little time for the engine to completely run in. I ended up making four finals out of the nine, which eventually cemented my championship win.”
Jeffreys’ opponents might breathe a sigh of relief to hear that he doesn’t plan on doing all events for the coming season, after competing solidly at every event for five seasons in a row.
“I think I have proved to myself that I can strongly compete in this bracket,” he said. “I want to enter in some meets like Westernationals, but other than that I just want to have a bit of fun in my car and do Powercruise and Motorvation and maybe some Fast Friday events.
“I will most likely be crewing for my brother Jay who is currently building a strong LS motor to race in Super Sedan next season.”
Super Sedan is the next step after Super Street but unlike his brother, Blake says he has no plans to make the shift.
“Unless they change the rules in Super Sedan and disallow delay boxes and air-shifters, I wouldn’t consider it as I prefer the challenge of using my own skills to drive the car rather than relying on a computer,” he said. “I think for now though I’m just happy to keep having fun in the car.”
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