Among the smorgasbord of motorsport disciplines on display at LS Fest, none can rival the primal urge or our racers and spectators the way the Off-Road Challenge can. While the Venn Diagram of similarities between say, drag racers and drifters might be two separate circles, there's no denying that every man, woman, and child on the property loves watching these off-road machines flying through the air and tearing up our off-road course.
Rusty Griswold once exclaimed, "Wow Dad, we must have jumped that rail by like 50 yards!" Clark Griswold responded, "Nothing to be proud of, Russ." Jim York agreed with Clark as he launched the Moorespeed-built, LS-swapped Buick Roadmaster into low orbit, traveling 165 feet (55 yards) through the air to a flat landing for a world record jump in an homage to National Lampoon's Family Vacation. Jim was able to pull this off with support from Dixxon Flannel, Travis Pastrana's Channel 199, and AAH Racing. “I saw 55 at the top of the hill. I’m a man of my word, and I said, ‘I’m not lifting until I’m in the air,” said Jim. “Just give her the beans and see what happens.” His best guess he was doing about 80 mph when he left the ground. How did it feel? “It was so cool, and then it started to nosedive and I thought it was going over. Then I thought, when is this going to stop? Once it did, I unbuckled as fast as I could, tapped the roof because I bet that looked as violent as it felt, and walked away… we did a double kickflip.” “That was the best part, I was in the air and I could see the checked flag go by, I was just like, we did it! Dude, I doubted a lot of things, but we gave the crowd a show and beat the record.” Jim said he was feeling fine and checked out by the medical crew, but expects to be sore tomorrow. “I’m going to see my best friend, the hot tub, for a day or so,” said Jim.
