Rich Willhoff, crowned Grand Champion earlier this year at LS Fest West in Las Vegas, made it a clean sweep with another Grand Champion title in Bowling Green, this time in the newly created Modern Grand Champion category. Driving an '06 Corvette with a naturally aspirated 427 for power, Willhoff claimed the overall top prize with 295 points, nine points ahead of series veteran Danny Popp, who took second place, and 12 points in front of Feras Abuqartoumy, who narrowly held off Jacob Batz to make the podium. Joe Gregory and Clay Shearer tied for fifth place, three points behind Batz.

"This one was definitely tougher than the first one, in Las Vegas," said Willhoff, who made the 2,300-mile trek from Woodland, Calif., to take part in the event. "The competition here was tougher, probably because there were just a lot more cars back here – about twice as many as there were in Vegas – and it's great having so many fans watching and coming up to you in the pits."

In the Autocross competition, Willhoff ruled with a combined time of 66.706 seconds – 35.518 on the Beech Bend track, and 31.188 on the National Corvette Museum course. Abuqartoumy was less than a second behind him, with Popp third, Paul Curley fourth, and Gregory fifth. Wilhoff was fourth on the drag strip, behind the 10-second Vettes of Shearer and Gregory, and just 14-hundredths of a second behind Popp. Wilhoff also won the 3S Challenge, nipping Shearer by a fraction of a second, 25.005 to 25.228. Kevin Burch finished third and Abuqartoumy and Batz rounded out the top five.

"The Autocross was my favorite part of LS Fest this time," Willhoff said. "The NCM course was a blast – big and open. The Beech Bend track was a much smaller space, but it was laid out really well – not just a bunch of U-turns. I'm already trying to talk my wife into coming back here next year."

Complete Modern Grand Champion Results