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The High Noon Shootout started out on Friday with eight practice runs around the autocross course during the morning and running an additional eight runs at noon for the Shootout. The High Noon Shootout drivers were competing for a $500 gift cerficicate for Holley Performance Products. Individual lap times of the course were between 31.4- to 33.0-seconds, so it was very close between the fastest eight. 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 rounded out the top three with only 1.304-seconds separating DuSold's and Willhoff's combined times.
Of course, it wouldn't be LS Fest without some proper drag racing.
For the drag racers, Friday was the day to check out the track for the first time. Many drivers had come out from all over the US so a few were struggling with the altitude change compared to their home tracks. Cars were ripping down the quarter-mile every chance they got on Friday in order to get a feel for “The Strip”. Some of the fastest drivers in LS-powered drag cars were dipping into the six-second mark at the eighth-mile and street cars hitting the low nines in the Street King category.
Getting those wheels up required traction, power, and the right suspension setup on “The Strip.”
On Sunday Kevin Lumsden, the winner in Street King, won thanks to a consistant light when his competitor tripped the starting light .048-second too early. LS Outlaw 275, with a limit of a 275-wide tire, went to Brian Manske when he turned in a 4.962 in the eight-mile race. LS Truck went to James Hatfield with a 5.272 eigth in his 408-powered Chevy S10.
In drifting, the Top 16 were whittled down to one pair fighting out for the finish as Formula Drift's Jarod DeAnda called it from the tower.
Drifting is becoming more and more popular as the LS generation continues to get younger and younger. Instead of thirty-two drivers like we see in Formula Drift we saw a Top 16, but had the familiar voice of Jarod DeAnda calling it out from the Judges Tower. Which had Formula Drift drivers Tyler McQuarrie and Corey Hosford as two of the three guest judges. From the sixteen, we came down to two and the winner had to be decided between Nick Gross in his S14 240SX and Rome Charpentier in his BMW E36 3-series coupe. These two drove amazing all day, but in the end, the judges favored Charpentier to take home the custom Grip Royal steering wheel and $1,500.
This is really one very fast and powerful '67 Camaro.
Out of all the different competitions going on at LF Fest West the Big One was the Grand Champion! Which would be determined by an execution of Dyno pulls, quarter-mile times, autocross laps, a 3S start/stop/steering competition, and a time trial run through the LVMS roadcouse. The winner couldn't do well on one and rest on that. The best car had to do all well on all parts of the competition. For LS Fest West, it would be Mike DuSold's twin-turbo, 1,000-horsepower, LS-powered 1967 Camaro that would take the honors of Grand Champion for 2017. He would gain a total of 99-points and finished 22-points ahead of second place.
