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This is it: the West Coast’s chance to show LS fans what it has to offer. This is the inaugural LS Fest West at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in Las Vegas, NV. Here we’ll see more than just drag racing and drifting, but off-road, autocross, time trials and more. If you are a fan of the LS, this show has everything you could want to see and more. Here’s how day one of the three-day event went.
Friday, May 5th was not only a celebration of Cinco de Mayo, but the first day of the first ever LS Fest West. If you’ve been the original LS Fest in Bowling Green, KY, then you probably think you know what to expect. Well, you’re mistaken. This is the West and it does things differently, so while you’ll see the typical LS-powered events, you’re also going to get off-road racing in a condensed format, time trial racing and many other classic events that include drag racing, autocross and a car show.
For the drag racers, Friday was the day to check out the track for the first time. Many drivers have come out from all over the US. A few were struggling with the altitude change compared to their home tracks, but cars were ripping down the quarter-mile, getting a feel for “The Strip”. It was also a day of testing for the Time Trial portion of LS Fest, where drivers would race for the fastest time on the 2.4-mile ZMax Proving Grounds outside of the Las Vegas Motor Speedway NASCAR Oval.
For the autocrossers, this was more than just a test and tune day: it was the first of the High Noon Challenges. The HNC starts out by taking three runs around the autocross course and combining them. The eight fastest drivers will move on to the next High Noon Challenge on Saturday, then Sunday. Individual lap times of the course were between 31.4- to 33.0-seconds, so it was very close between the eight fastest drivers. However, with a combined time of 95.298-seconds, Mike DuSold in his turbocharged 1967 Chevy Camaro came out on top. Duke Langley in his C5 Corvette and Rich Willhoff in his C6 Corvette round out the top three with only 1.304-seconds separating DuSold and Willhoff in combined times.
Saturday will begin the eliminations on the Drag Strip, Off-Road track and more, so be sure to keep it here on Racing Junk for more LS Fest West Coverage.
