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The Drift Challenge remains one of the most popular events at LS Fest, and the driver count nearly doubling from last year solidifies that argument. For the first time at LS Fest, the drift competition will run a full top 32 competition instead of the traditional top 16 from years past.
Over 40 drivers from all over the country and in all types of vehicles showed up Friday hoping to qualify and make it into Saturday's show. There were a handful of Corvettes, a plethora of Nissan S-Chassis rides, and the oddballs that would make purists cry foul with an LS-swapped S550 Mustang and Mark IV Supra, among others.
Historically, Friday night serves as practice only, with qualifying running mid-day Saturday and the final competition that evening. This year, due to the sheer number of drivers, practice on Friday was followed immediately by back-to-back qualifying runs, with top 32 starting at 11:30 on Saturday.
For those not familiar, drifting is a judged sport and scores are awarded by three judges in as many categories – line, angle and style. Some drivers play it safe in qualifying to get enough points to make it into the competition and then let it all hang out, others are hell bent on nailing a 100-point run their first time out.
Perennial fan-favorite Dirk Stratton is one of the latter, and he came out swinging in his C6 Corvette with score of 94 on his first run, followed immediately by a second run that scored a 97.
Winner: Jonathan Nerren
Runner Up: Nicholas Rodriguez
Third Place: Josh McGuire
The 2022 Holley LS Fest Drift Challenge presented by Michigan Motorsports and S3 Mag is in the books, with Jonathan Nerren climbing to the top of the podium after not making the event since 2017 where he finished second.
Top sixteen competition kicked off with 2020 event champion Dirk Stratton and his C6 Corvette taking out Chris Anderson-Holt and his Cosmic Garage Nissan S13, followed by Kegan Leep and his Nissan 350Z besting Brock Steele and his white Nissan S14.
In the bottom left side of the bracket, Nicholas Rodriguez and his BMW E36 convertible slid past Mike Steele's blue Nissan S14 to find himself in the great eight, while Grant Anderson would put his E36, albeit a sedan, into the next round with a win over Elliot Rose's Toyota GT 86.
Josh McGuire and Cole Richards were next to do battle, with McGuire's red Nissan S15 edging out Richards' Batmobile-eqsue Scion FR-S to advance to the great eight. The only other naturally LS-powered car, Tim Wallin's green C6 Corvette, was eliminated in the next pairing by Brendon Greaves' E92 BMW M3.
Top sixteen concluded with Tyler Berry's E36 joining the top eight party by putting Jeffrey Baird's teal Nissan S14 on the trailer, with Nerren making quick work of Coty Demster's gold C6 to advance.
Stratton and Leep kicked off the top eight, with Stratton getting the nod to advance to the final four. He would be joined by Rodriguez, who won the judges favor after a one-more-time call to take out Anderson in the all-BMW battle.
McGuire and Greaves threw down on the other side of the bracket, with McGuire emerging the victor. Nerren knocked out Berry with a better lead run and being all but glued to his door in their second run.
The final four spots turned into an absolute slugfest with some of the best drifting LS Fest has likely ever seen. Stratton and Rodriguez made up the first pairing. The first set of runs were nearly flawless with the judges calling for a one-more-time. However, Stratton over-rotated mid-way through the sweeper and spinning out, putting him at a major disadvantage going into his chase run. Rodriguez was able to lay down a run without compromise and send Stratton to battle for third.
McGuire and Nerren were next in line to see who would battle Stratton for third and who would face Rodriguez for the win, with Nerren knocking out McGuire to determine that answer.
Stratton and McGuire's battle might have been the best of the night, with Stratton laying down an insane chase run. Ultimately, McGuire, the 2015 Drift Challenge champion, would take home the bronze.
This set the finals up for Nerren and Rodriguez, where Nerren's rocketship of a car bested Rodriguez's, earning the top spot for his second victory at the Drift Challenge.
“To come back here after a little bit of a hiatus and be on the top of the box, you can't ask for much more,” Nerren said. “It was an amazing time as always, with record numbers for spectators and drivers. To put on a show for everybody and go through the competition knocking them out one at at time, I'm still up there on cloud nine.”
Nerren's S15 is running the same setup it had last year in Formula DRIFT – a 408 stroker with a 3.0L Whipple supercharger turned down to around 900 wheel horsepower managed by a Holley Terminator X ECU. That power is fed to the wheels via an RTS dog box and quick change, while Silver's Suspension coilovers report for handling duty. The setup gave him no problems over the weekend, where a record number of drivers turned out.
The record field of over 40 drivers at this year's LS Fest was brought to the final sixteen at the conclusion of Top 32. The sixteen who prevailed through the first elimination round will compete Saturday evening to determine the winner of the 2022 LS Fest Drift Challenge, but with the forecast, they may be doing so in the rain.
On that subject, Top 32 started off with dry conditions as drivers spent the first 30 minutes getting their last bit of practice in, and the skies opened up gradually throughout the competition until steady rainfall really began to slow things down as the final pairs went about their battles. The first half of the bracket seemed to go off without a hitch, with drivers steadily notching their way into the main competition while just as many were sent to their trailers.
Gavin Threet's BMW 3-Series sits out-of-commission after a wall incursion following the initial sweeper.
One of the notable incidents was Gavin Threet introducing his E46 BMW 3-Series rather violently to the wall after the initial sweeper. His car straightened out and seemed unable to bring itself to a stop in time, doing major damage to his car, though Threet thankfully wasn't injured.
It wasn't long after that incident that the rain started coming down more steadily, an unfavorable situation that allowed drivers to take a sight lap to get accustomed to the new track conditions before completing their actual competition runs. At first the newfound slickness caused most problems on initiation, but as the track continued to accumulate moisture, the entire runs were negatively impacted to the point that drivers were clearly struggling to maintain control of their cars, much less complete runs hitting the correct zones.
With no smoke production and snail-speed runs, Top 32 all but fizzled out in a fashion uncharacteristic of the entire premise of the sport. With the rain clearing out of the forecast prior to the main event, a drier track should allow fans to experience the drift challenge in its truest form.
