It has been an amazing and exciting weekend in Bowling Green, Kentucky for the sixth annual Holley LS Fest. We’ve seen nearly every type of off road performance driving on display at this weekend’s event. Sunday brought cool temperatures and beautiful weather for the final day of this outstanding event.
Competition was hot in every class, and it all came down to some exciting final round action on both the drag strip and over at the 3S Challenge being held at Beech Bend’s circle track. When the smoke cleared and the score boards lit for the final time, we had a group of champions for this year’s LS Fest.
There are hundreds of photos in our LS Fest photo gallery. Be sure to check it out.
Lester Miller took the win in the Latemodel class behind the wheel of his 2010 Camaro. In the LS rumble class Marvin Poole took the win behind the wheel of his 2004 GTO.
That does it for LS Fest 2015. We’ll be back at Beech Bend next September to bring it to you again. A big thanks goes out to all the sponsors, participants, and fans who made this an awesome weekend of racing and showing everything LS. We can’t wait for LS Fest 2016!
It’s day two of the sixth annual Holley LS Fest at Beech Bend Raceway Park in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Friday night’s rain showers gave way to mostly cloudy skies. The drag strip has been in outstanding condition all day with the exception of a few close calls, and a couple of fluid related incidents.
2015 NMCA Chevrolet Performance Stock champion Glenn Pushis was kind enough to let us throw a camera on his dash so we could “ride” down the track in his mid-10-second Camaro. Pushis is looking to round out his season with a win here at LS Fest.
On the QA1 autocross some of the fastest drivers in the country have been competing all weekend for the grand prize. Many of these competitors are duking it out in the Grand Champion class. These cars not only compete in the autocross, but also the drag race, and other challenges. Grand champion cars must be well rounded street and track combinations with talented drivers that can take on multiple challenge. The winner gets a bid into the Optima Ultimate Street Car Invitational finals in Las Vegas this fall.
Danny Popp let our camera ride along on a trip around the autocross. Popp’s C5 was one of the fastest cars on the autocross all weekend long. Watching this video of his runs around the track it’s easy to see why.
The drifting cars were putting on an incredible show all day long. With both solo and tandem side by side drifting action. Crowds packed the Beech Bend circle track stands to check out all the action.
The engine swap challenge turned out to be a fight to the finish. This was the biggest, and closest engine swap challenge in LS Fest history. Two teams duked it out to swap a couple of C10 trucks. This year’s challenge included swapping the transmissions. Holley also provided a brand new EFI system as part of the challenge. The winners were the home town team from Kentucky, with a margin of victory of just 7 minutes. The lead changed more than 4 times between these two teams, and Mark Burch’s team from A Geared For Life, just narrowly lost out. In the end, that truck owner also purchased the entire package from Holley for what we are told was a “smokin” deal so he didn’t have to yank it back out.
The car show as also packed with all manner of beautiful and unusual LS Swapped Vehicles. We took a few minutes to talk with many of these LS enthusiasts.
All of the qualifying results have been posted. We did not get the autocross or drift results, but we’ll have those tomorrow.
It’s the sixth annual Holley LS Fest in Bowling Green, Kentucky. This event features racers and enthusiasts from all over the USA, with everything from Chevy muscle cars powered by GM’s LS engine platform, to wild and crazy swaps. There’s drag racing, road racing, drifting, autocross, a car show, swap meet and so much more. LS Fest is truly a bucket list event for any red blooded small block or bow-tie enthusiast.
Friday
It seems every year it has to rain at least once on LS Fest. That was the case Friday afternoon. Test ’n Tune runs hadn’t been going very long on Beech Bend’s quarter-mile before mother nature but an end to the drag racing for the day.
A new schedule has been posted for Saturday and we’re working to get our hands on that now.
Autocross
The rain didn’t stop the action on the LS Fest Autocross. Set up by members of the KY Region SCCA, this course runs rain or shine. The only short delay in autocross action today was caused by some lightning that quickly passed the area. Cars were splashing through deep puddles, and sliding all over the place.
We took a ride with Brian Preston in his 1LE Camaro on the wet and slippery course. Preston’s ability to control the car didn’t impress all the officials, and he was warned to not kill so many cones the next time around.
We also rode shotgun with Brian Shelley in his WS6 Trans Am. Despite a bent valve in the car’s LS1, Shelley was still putting down impressive times with the old TA.
Drifting action is up tonight as rain appears to have moved out for the evening. It looks like the weather will cooperate for the rest of the weekend and tomorrow we’ll be in full overload as we scramble to cover all the cool cars and happenings at this year’s event. Keep checking back here for our latest videos, huge photo gallery, and more from the 2015 LS Fest.
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