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There's more to life than crossing the finish line first. Sometimes it's more about letting loose, having some fun, looking good, and absolutely annihilating as many sets of unsuspecting tires as humanly possible. Through the gifts of a nigh limitless supply of rubber and an infinite amount of LS horsepower, the drifters do all of the above in one of the most exciting disciplines in motorsports today.
The ever-popular LS Fest Drift Challenge presented by eBay Motors is once again set for this evening. Over 50 drivers had originally registered, around 40 showed up, and 31 will see head-to-head battle, duking it out for a chance at a cash prize and the bragging rights that come with victory.
After qualifying (and having had a couple of cars experience unscheduled visits with the walls), Dirk Stratton in his C6 Corvette claimed the top qualifying spot for the second year in a row, and his encore performance netted him a free pass into the Top 16 with a bye run due to only 31 of the 32 cars making it into the show.
Luke Fink, a world champion BMX rider turned drifter, secured the second spot with another C6. Fink hails from Australia.
Having rolled in late and missing the mid-day practice session, former Drift Challenge winner and fan-favorite Jonathan Nerren secured the third qualifying spot with his rocket ship of a Nissan S14.
Long-time Drift Challenge competitor Ethan Parnell in his Nissan S14 grabbed the fourth place spot, while another Aussie, Brendon Greaves, took his E92 BMW to a fifth seed.
Two Formula DRIFT ProSPEC drivers, Zandara Kennedy in her Nissan 350Z and Jack Davis in a BMW E36, qualified seventh and twelfth, respectively. Notably absent this year are any FD Pro drivers. Jonathan Hurst, who has entertained the crowds at at the Drift Challenge for years, had a scheduling change that saw him needing to prioritize getting to Utah for the next round of Formula DRIFT next weekend, and will not be competing. It is worth noting that both Stratton and Nerren are former FD Pro 2 competitors – if the bracket breaks down as such, it's possible to see these two heavy hitters in the finals.
Top 32 competition will take place at 11:30, where the top sixteen drivers will move on to the main competition after the burnout contest. You can catch live streams of the competition on the Holley YouTube channel and our Facebook page.
Sixteen drivers have been eliminated from the Drift Challenge bracket, leaving the top sixteen to battle it out this evening.
Top qualifier Dirk Stratton had an easy pass as he scored a bye run to advance into the main event.
On the left side of the bracket, JJ Alfano in the '78 Firebird bested Shawn Bellovich's Nissan S13 after a one-more-time battle. Eric Moen was able to take advantage of an issue by Kabott Cardoso on the latter's chase run to get the nod.
Joshua Stuart knocked out Jeremy Ringler, while Nathan St. John took his S14 to victory over the BMW E92 of Brendon Greaves. Formula DRIFT ProSPEC driver Jack Davis sent Brock Steele home early, while wins by Max Kimlin and Ethan Parnell wrapped up the side.
Over on the right side of the Top 32 bracket, Jonathan Nerren also ended up with a bye run as Zack Calvin voluntarily bowed out early and did not make it to the line. Scott Davis took his Mustang, the only one in the competition, to victory over the Nissan S13 of Cody Martin.
Tyler Berry will face Ross Butusov in top sixteen, as Berry put away Wesley Cloud and Butusuov got a bye-run as Blake Van Thof experienced mechanical issues after a wall impact in practice.
Professional stunt driver Zandara Kennedy would best Tim Wallin in their bout, while Jake Wise and his Nissan S14 had the better showing over Coty Demster's C6. Rounding out the bracket, Derek Carter saw victory over Grant Anderson and Luke Fink sent Drake Burris to watch the main comp from the spectator area.
Nerren is the defending 2022 Drift Challenge champ, while Stratton stood on the top of the podium in 2021. The two have a chance to face each other in the finals, though there's a real threat to the former winners in drivers like Fink and Parnell.
You can follow the bracket live at HERE.
The LS Fest East Drift Challenge ended in dramatic fashion as Jonathan Nerren repeated his 2022 performance to once again be crowned champion.
After what's become almost a meme-worthy delay by a burnout contest competitor dumping fluids on the drift track prior to start time, the competition started a little over an hour after its scheduled time. Later starts mean track temps that drivers were used to mid-day drop drastically, resulting in a slicker surface, and the first few drivers were given sight laps to know where the prior cleanup efforts had taken place so they could adjust accordingly.
Crowd favorite and 2021 Drift Challenge winner Dirk Stratton took himself out in Top 16 in a very uncharacteristic episode. His lead run against the '78 Firebird of JJ Alfano was textbook Stratton. The issues came on his chase run as the C6 bumped the back bumper of the third-gen at the initiation point for outside zone one, causing the 'bird to tap the wall. Judges found Stratton at fault and declared Alfano the victor.
Joshua Stuart got the nod over Eric Moen in the next battle. Moen has competed in the same Nissan S13 for many years, but only recently made the swap to the LS after rocking a single-cam KA for about as long as he's had the car.
Formula DRIFT ProSPEC driver Jack Davis took his E36 BMW to the Great Eight with a win over Nathan St. John, while fourth-qualifier Ethan Parnell secured his spot in the next round by sending Max Kimlin home early.
Hopping to the right side of the bracket, Nerren bested long-time friend Scott Davis and sent the Mustang back to the barn. In the next pairing between Tyler Berry and Ross Butusov, Berry had a chase run of questionable quality in their first run, but Butusov seemed to overcook it on his chase run coming into the last turn, zeroing out and giving Berry the win.
Jake Wise in his bright yellow Nissan S14 erased Zandara Kennedy's hopes of a win by knocking her out next with a superior lead run, while Luke Fink wrapped up Top Sixteen with a dominant victory over Derek Carter, who seemed to have a borderline inactive chase run and couldn't shake Fink off his door on his lead run.
Alfano and Stuart went head to head in the first pairing of the Great Eight, with Stuart advancing on having laid down a commanding lead run. Parnell continued on his warpath by knocking out Davis. Parnell completely filed outer zones one and two on his lead, while Davis straightened just before the last turn. Davis' follow run was much better than his lead, but it was too little too late.
Nerren and Berry's battle was up next, a rematch from last year's Great Eight. In last year's fashion, Nerren would once again get the judges' approval to advance.
Becoming almost commonplace at this point, the final battle of the Great Eight was once again Corvette vs. Nissan S-Chassis, with Fink's C6 getting the win over Wise's S14.
Yet another C6 / S14 battle took place in the first pairing of the Final Four, with Parnell laying down a qualifying-worthy lead run that saw his S14 run a little deeper into the outer zones, and would find himself in the finals with a win over Stuart.
Another battle, another C6 / S14 – this time between Nerren and Fink, the third and fourth-place qualifiers, respectively. Nerren's S14 has over twice the power of Fink's C6 (nearly 1,000 in the S14 and around 450 in the S14), which forced Nerren to more carefully control his transitions to not hit the lower-powered car in their first battle. The power difference became more apparent in the first half of the second battle, with Nerren running away from Fink until the last two turns, where Fink seemingly came out of nowhere to find himself on Nerren's passenger door. Nerren would ultimately advance.
With Nerren and Parnell set for battle in the finals, Stuart and Fink would bring their C6s to the line to determine third place. Fink's lead run was dominant, and he was able to shadow Stuart's every move on his chase run, awarding the Australian driver the bronze.
Everything had boiled down to an all Nissan S14 final battle between Nerren and Parnell. Nerren managed to pull away from Parnell on his lead run, laying down a near-flawless run. When they switched positions and Parnell took the lead, his red S14 tapped the wall with its rear bumper on initiation into outside zone one, rotating the car and sending the front end hard into the wall, ripping the car's entire passenger front knuckle assembly out of the car, wheel and all. Nerren drove back to check on his competitor, while EMS came out to check on Parnell (who was thankfully okay) while a flatbed loaded up the mangled Nissan.
“I know I put on a good lead run for him, so he was pushing really fast on his chase run,” Nerren said of his near-entanglement with Parnell. “I saw the back end of his car moving a little bit, he's rubbing the wall and getting back in it to drive away, back of the car hits again, saw the front end go in and I thought 'oh shit, he's wrecking. I jumped on my brakes really hard and steered away from him, clutch-kicked over and over to get away from him, and I thought for sure the back of my car was going to hit him somewhere. Thank goodness we avoided a secondary contact.”
“It's not the way we ever want to win because Ethan's a great driver, and I really wanted to solidify our win by putting it to him,” Nerren added. “I couldn't be more excited about it, we'll definitely be back next year.
With the unfortunate crash at the end, it was decided by Holley staff not to have the traditional trophy ceremony in front of the grandstands. Nevertheless, Nerren's back-to-back LS Fest Drift Challenge wins set him up for a possible three-peat if he returns next year, with Parnell bringing home a well-deserved second place.
