In this day and age of cut throat competition and specialization, it’s not often you find a single individual that builds, prepares, tunes, and drives their own race car at the upper echelons of our sport. But native Aussie Peter Blake, who competes in the professional Top Doorslammer category with the Australian National Drag Racing Association, is part of a rare breed that still runs his operation the way it used to be. It’s the only way he knows how.

Blake, an engineer by trade, isn’t a one-man show of course, employing his father, team owner Robert Broadbent, wife Katie, crew chief Brendan Taylor, and Rowan Walker to help make it all happen, but much of the heavy lifting, so to speak, is done by the second-generation racer.

A former kart and dirt sprint car driver, Blake followed in the footsteps of his drag racing father and took to the 1/4-mile and the world renowned Top Doorslammer category (Australia’s version of Pro Modified), currently wheeling a one-of-a-kind 1970 Boss Mustang that he built in-house at Fast Torque Performance Engineering, featuring a full 4130 chromoly Pro Mod chassis and a one-off carbon fiber body that carries many of the styling cues of the original Boss.

The car features a 518 cubic inch, billet three-valve, twin overhead cam engine developed and built in Australia by Sainty Engineering, topped with a PSE screw supercharger. Blake utilizes an MSD 44amp magneto, a Mark Williams differential (4.29), a four-speed Lenco transmission pairs with an AFT three-plate clutch with lockup device, and 34.5-inch Hooiser slicks as part of the combination.

“We make every single thing for the car and do all the maintenance —nothing in our combo is standard so we’re very proud to be able to get out there and mix it with the big boys,” says Blake.

Blake has been as quick as 4.04-seconds at 187 MPH in the 1/8-mile thus far. During testing later in the season, the team dropped a valve in the engine and opted for a bottom-up rebuild in an effort to gain the 200-250 horsepower they believe they need to qualify in the top half of the Top Doorslammer field and perhaps compete for national event wins.