LS Fest West at Las Vegas

The second annual Holley LS Fest West was held at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on May 4-6 with attendance and participation up over last year.

Although not strictly a drag racing event – the entertainment included autocross, road racing, off-road racing and drifting as well as a Poker Run and Show-n-Shine – we will concentrate on the straight-track results.

YouTube personality Cleetus McFarland’s “Leroy the Savage” a stripped-down Corvette charged down the quarter-mile drag strip and also burned rubber at the autocross and 3S Challenge.

Mr. Chow's Side Show brought two full car haulers and a third trailer full of vehicles to Las Vegas and created a special area for controlled burnouts. Their 21 cars filled the area with burnout and donut smoke all weekend, and the popular spectacle was open to all registered LS Fest West machines.

"The whole thing was just amazing," Mr. Chow said. "I've been there both years, and you could tell how much bigger everything was this year – the events, the number of venues, everything. As far as the Side Show itself, it was awesome. Nowhere else do we get to run as free as we do at LS Fest West, and that really made it a lot of fun for everybody."

Six different MSD Drag Racing categories were contested – Three Pedals LSX Rumble, LS Outlaw 275, Earl’s LS Truck, Sam Tech LSX Street King, Vortech Superchargers Late Model Heads-Up, and Cam Motion True Street.

Brenda Cox was the big winner on the drag strip, making three runs in a row within three-thousandths of a second of one another in the quarterfinals, semifinals, and final of LSX Rumble. She topped Luis Ramos in the finale and was awarded a $2,800 TorqStorm supercharger in addition to her race winnings.

Brian Monello ruled MSD LS Outlaw 275 with a barrage of 150+ mph blast passes, including a 5.02 at 151.68 mph in the final again Blade Boulon. Travis Condos ripped off low ET and top speed of all three rounds of eliminations, including a 7.40 at 94.54 mph in the final round against Kevin Leffigwell, to dominate the Earl's LS Truck category. Robert Horton used superior starting line reflexes to leave on all four of his opponents in the Sam Tech LSX Street King category. Josh Elam edged Dave Beem in a battle of the No. 1 and No. 2 qualifiers to earn the victory in the Vortech Late Model Heads-Up class. And in Cam Motion True Street, Clay Forrester reeled off back-to-back 9.28s and a 9.33 to win by a mile.