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Alas, the final day of LS Fest has come and gone, and while we are bummed to see it go, we have had an awesome time meeting some of you and checking out your rides. The racing was fierce and ultra competitive — but would you expect anything less off an LS-centric event? Holley did an amazing job of putting on yet another great event and we will be back again next year, cameras at the ready.
Holley also announced that they will, starting next year, begin holding LS Fest West in Las Vegas, Nevada. So, if your base of operations is too far away to justify the trip out to the beautiful hills of Bowling Green, Kentucky, you’ll have a chance to get a taste of exactly what this awesome event has to offer. Until then, we will continue to bring you in-depth coverage of awesome events in the mean time. And speaking of in-depth coverage, lets get down to business and find out how everything panned out.
Drag Racing
In the Late Model class Jeff Nace in his 2015 Z06 was able to drive around Daniel Husband to get the win after he missed a gear change with a 11.73 at 132 mph.
Late Model number one qualifier Fran Schatz had some issues on his bye run, turning a 11.59 versus his low nine-second qualifying run.
Camren Massengale had to lift at half-track during his Real Street pass when the car nosed over, and only ran an 8.05 on his bye run, he will face Charlie Polly in the next round.
George Toll continued his march towards the Real Street title when he defeated a -.017 red-lighting Josh Pratt with a 7.73 pass.
Jessie Coulter went the quickest during the first round of Real Street by ripping off a 7.63 at 183 mph. He will face Tim Timmerman in the next round and could face George Toll in the semi-finals to help decide the class championship.
Kevin Lumsden took care of business in the first round of Chevrolet Performance Stock and ran a 10.40 to advance to the semi-final round. Lumsden will face Haley Rounsavall for a chance to face either Glen Pushis or Jessie Wilson in the final.
Things have become really interesting in the Drag Radial class when points leader Mark Carlyle did not make the call. Anthony Manna defeated Glen Hunt with a 4.56 after rebuilding his transmission last night in the trailer.
The Cinderella story that was Larry Morgan’s run at the COPO class came to an end when he lost to Phil Giles by .0084 in what has been the best race of day so far.
The final is set for Chevrolet Performance Stock and it is Glen Pushis versus Kevin Lumsden. Whoever wins this race will be the series champion in the class.
Bill Trovato scored a big upset in the second round of Real Street when George Toll went -.154 red on the tree, and that removed Toll from contention to win the class.
Camren Massengale won a pedal fest with Charlie Polly to move on to the semi-final of Real Street. Massengale still has a bye to the final where he could come close to locking up the title.
Anthony Manna set the Drag Radial class record with a booming 4.39 pass in the semi-final round. If Manna can defeat Andy Essary in the final round he will be the 2016 Drag Radial champion.
Kyle Feebeck was able to chew through a gauntlet over 140 cars to win the LSX Rumble class at LS Fest.
Jessie Coulter was able to defeat Camren Massengale in the Real Street Final with his quickest run of the weekend, a 7.56 at over 185 mph, to Massengale’s 7.75 run.
In the Late Model Heads Up class Greg Allen defeated number one qualifier Fran Schatz with a hole-shot win running a 10.58 to Schatz’s 10.56.
Kevin Lumsden took out Glen Pushis with a hole-shot 10.24 to Pushis running a 10.23 in the Chevrolet Performance Stock final to win LS Fest. Pushis kept enough of a points lead to win the series title for 2016.
Kurt Anderson scored the win in Street King running a 10.04 on his 10.00 dial in.
Anthony Manna put an explanation point on his 2016 Drat Radial title by winning LS Fest and laying down another new record running a 4.36.
Autocross
Autocross has been extremely competitive all week, especially after Danny Popp walked away as the Chevy High Noon Shootout victor yesterday in a car they call Snoopy (since it’s a black and white C6). However, there was perhaps a more important underlying story as Popp vied for first place. He just so happened to be piloting Todd Rumpke’s number 63 C6 Z06 Corvette when he did it.
Popp piloting Rumpke’s C6 Z06 around the autocross course.
Rumpke had unfortunately passed away just days before LS Fest from cancer. While we didn’t know Rumpke personally, he was a well-respected member of the LS autocross community and left many loyal friends behind. Our condolences go out to his family; his number, 63, was officially retired at all LS Fest competition after Popp record the win in the car, dedicating it to Rumpke.
Rumpke was also named an honorary Grand Champion (more on that later). It would turn out that the shootout would be a good predictor of things to come with Danny Popp walking away with top honors for the weekend. Mike DuSold, in his twin turbo first-gen Camaro, came in a close second and put up some major points for the Grand Champion contest, which we will explain next.
Popp accepting his prize, and the honorary plaque for Rumpke at the award ceremony.
Grand Champion
The Grand Champion is a car that competes in three separate events: autocross, drag racing, and show-n-shine. Which ever car scores the most points overall wins. Sounds simply, but considering the car’s company, it is anything but. The competition was fierce, but one car stood out. That would be Mike DuSold’s twin-turbo first-gen.
DuSold on his way to a low 10-second pass at the drag strip.
All weekend, DuSold’s Camaro was lighting fast at everything it entered and was pretty easy on the eyes in the process. After coming in second in the autocross event, it was time to see what it could do on the drag strip. The car managed to pull off a 10.30 at 149 mph after turning the boost up on the 427. But wait, there’s more! This was accomplished on the car’s autocross suspension and tires! This car has a 9 in it, easy. Equally impressive was Josh Leisinger in his C2 Corvette, running a best of 10.02; again, on autocross wheels, tires, and suspension settings. Needless to say, these guys had to earn the title of Grand Champion.
Josh Leisinger coming out of the hole on a tear to a 10 flat.
But, at the end of the day, it was DuSold that walked away as this year’s Grand Champion. He, and the other winners, were honored at a trophy ceremony at the end of the day, along with handing out an honorary title to Rumpke. Each Grand Champion’s car is featured on the following year’s LS Fest T-shirt. In a moving act of compassion, Mike insisted that his and Rumpke’s cars be featured next year, to which Holley graciously accepted. Congrats, Mike! You’re a class act and you earned it.
Mike accepting his trophy — that was almost as tall as he was — and his $1,000 purse. His t-shirt says it all.
3S Challenge
Mike Stewart’s ’99 Trans Am waiting at the starting line of the 3S Challenge.
As autocross came to a close yesterday, it gave way to the Baer Brakes 3S Challenge. The three Ss stand for speed, steering, and stopping. Basically, the car starts out on a long straight — accelerating as quickly as possible — at the end is a 180-degree turn. After completing the turn, the cars accelerate to a chicane and then has to come to a full stop within a predetermined distance or “stop box.” If any cones are hit, the run doesn’t count.
Almost all of the autocrossers from the previous days turned up ready to participate. Unlimited runs were allowed and the event ran from 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. and picked up again at 1 p.m. and ran until 3 p.m. Needless to say, in that time the racers put in a substantial amount of runs.
But when the dust settled, one man had set himself apart. That man was Bret Voelkel from Ride Tech in his C7 Corvette. Congrats, Bret! The competition was stiff, running against multiple 10-second cars, but Voelkel didn’t let it get to him and combined his talent with his Corvette’s superior speed, handling, and stopping power to come out on top — never an easy task at an event like LS Fest.
Drifting
When we first arrived at LS Fest and heard there was drifting we were a little hesitant. While we definitely appreciate the skills and car control necessary to keep a sliding car in line and moving in the right direction at a high rate of speed, these things are frequently attended by amateur drivers who have seen Fast And Furious: Tokyo Drift one too many time. This, however, was not one of those times. These guys were pros in every sense of the term and a few even compete in Formula Drift’s Pro 2 class.
Needless to say, the drifting was thrilling, skillful, and insanely fun to watch (if you don’t believe us, go check out some of our Facebook videos). The field started with 16 cars which had been narrowed down in the previous day’s festivities.
With the field set, we were ready for action and we didn’t leave disappointed. From our perspective, the two Zenna Tires cars — S15 240 sx(s) piloted by Jonathon Nerren and Tyler Nelson — stood out above the rest. Their early initiations, superior angles of drift, and billowing clouds of smoke were not only crowed pleasers but judge pleasers as well.
We were even close enough to be continually sprayed by small bits of shredded rubber. And we gladly do it to bring you the best coverage possible — and a little bit out of selfishness. The 16-car field was quickly narrowed to the two Zenna Tires cars — belonging to Nerren and Nelson –, a S15 240 sx piloted by Nick Thomas, and the Tuner Tools GTO, hot-footed by Shane Whalley.
Nerren lost to Thomas in the final four, advancing Thomas and putting Narren into a battle with Whalley for third place. Narren’s S15 emerged victorious after he followed the GTO nose-to-bumper and constantly put a nose in on the Goat.
(Left) Nerren and Thomas duke it out to advance to the final round. Nerren eventually subsumed to the eventual winner and went on to win the next round to determine third place. (Right) the final was decided when Nelson (following) struck Thomas.
The final came down to Nelson and Thomas. The first run was called a draw, but the drama climaxed as Nelson and Thomas collided on the entry to the first turn on the second run. This mistake cost Nelson the win and handed it to Thomas. Congrats to Thomas on his win and being crowned LS Fest drift champion.
(Left) Left to right: Nerren, Nelson, and Thomas pose for a selfie. (Right) Nerren and Nelson pose for their runner up photo (they were not stoked).
Dyno Challenge
Unfortunately, we weren’t able to hang around the dyno all day to see what would eventually put down the most ponies. But that didn’t stop us from asking the guys running it what laid down the top numbers of the day. We were told that it just so happened to be a twin-turbo’d fifth-gen Camaro that spun the rollers to the tune of 1,260 horsepower. We’re sure bummed we missed it.
We did, however, catch this C6 ZR1, huffing a large dose of laughing gas, lay down a ridiculous 963.2 horspower! While we wish we could have been there for the best hit of the day, we were still pretty impressed with a near 1,000 horsepower street car. The owner says it has hit over 1,000 horsepower on a different dyno.
Till Next Time
As you can plainly see, we had a blast covering LS Fest for you. It may have been hot and humid for most of the event, but we were amazed to see how awesome the LS community is. We already knew that LS and LT folk were salt-of-the-earth people, but we were thrilled to discover that your generosity and sense of community knows no bounds. If we could spend every weekend with people just as obsessed with late-model GM rides as we are, we would.
This isn’t goodbye though, just see you later. We’ll see you at LS Fest West!
