Corvettes Rule the 2017 Holley LS Fest East

V-8 engines wailed and tires smoked all weekend long at Beech Bend Raceway in Bowling Green, Kentucky, for this year’s Holley LS Fest East. Between the drag racing and autocross by day and the burnout competition and drifting by night, there wasn’t a moment of silence from September 8-10, 2017, and that’s just how we like it. What we liked even more was that every other car seemed to be a Corvette.

Our favorite Chevrolet model made its presence known by throwing down in every aspect of the event. In the autocross world, Corvettes have become more and more prevalent—and there’s a good reason for that. With their fiberglass bodies and low center of gravity they are a great platform for building a machine that can absolutely dominate on an autocross course or a road course. If you think about it, anything you would do to a Camaro or Chevelle—such as chassis work or engine upgrades—you can do to a Corvette with even better results. Exhibit A was the Chevy High Performance High Noon Shootout on the first day of the LS Fest East. The top eight quickest cars of the morning session at the Beech Bend course were chosen to compete in the competition and, wouldn’t you know it, six of the eight were Corvettes. Not surprising is that Vettes took the first, second and third spots on the podium.

The action continued out on the dragstrip at Beech Bend Raceway. Cars were running nonstop all weekend long, so we had plenty of time to snag a few photos of Vettes making their way down the historic strip. Late-model Corvettes seemed to be the vehicle of choice to run the quarter-mile, with an abundance of C5, C6 and C7 Vettes. Some were stockers, some sported choice drag racing modifications such as upgraded powerplants and tires, and one competitor went so far as to remove 90 percent of his C5’s body and in its place installed a full exo-cage. As it turned out, that guy was YouTube phenomenon Garrett Mitchell—better known as Cleetus McFarland by his loyal following. Every time he ran his crazy Corvette with its twin-turbos hanging out of the would-be engine bay, the fences were packed full of spectators trying to capture a cell phone video of the star charging down the quarter-mile.

You could never really escape the ruckus—and we mean that in the best possible way—of all the drag racing and autocross, but there were other attractions, too. On the northern side of the strip were vendors galore where you could stroll up and down the rows of sponsors and check out their specialty products and cars on display. After making our rounds, we made sure to stop by the Holley trailer, say hi and grab a T-shirt or two.

On the other side of the strip was the Show-N-Shine where hundreds of LS- and LT-powered cars—new and old—sat waiting to steal your attention. There might have been a few nice Camaros and LS-swapped pickups, but we kept our cameras pointed at the Corvettes. Like the dragstrip, we saw mostly late-model Vettes in the show section, with the only difference being a lack of rubber clouding the shine on their quarter-panels.

We mentioned earlier that everywhere we looked we saw a Corvette. Well, that rang true even on the one-car-at-a-time dyno because the couple of times we passed by there was a Vette strapped down. Then come Saturday evening it was time for the burnout competition where they pulled off all the cones from the autocross and gave the competitors free rein to do whatever they wanted in the huge lot. They introduced the competitors one by one and we started to get a little nervous. Was this the one event (besides the drifting competition, which was comprised almost entirely of LS-swapped Nissans) where Corvettes would be silent? But to our delight, one lone Vette pulled up and boy did he put on a show.

Sunday was more of the same action-packed drag racing and autocross along with the leisurely Show-N-Shine. We were pooped and ready to go home. But then all of a sudden we were back in the office that next week wishing we could do it all over again. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is a sign of a good show. Until next year, LS Fest East.