Competition Builds Community - LS FEST EAST DRIFT CHALLENGE
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Over the course of 16 years, Holley LS Fest East has grown into something that feels larger than life. Pulling in a crowd of over 30,000 people to Beech Bend Raceway in Bowling Green, KY, the scale is hard to wrap your head around until you’re standing in the middle of it. The easiest way I explain it to someone who’s never been: imagine any drunken garage conversation where someone said, “What if we shoved an LS into that thing?”...well, that car is at LS Fest.
You’ll see American muscle, Japanese imports, European luxury, and a few builds that will make you scratch your head. There are methanol breathing burnout cars, drag racing donks, Ultra4 off-road rigs, and nearly anything else you could imagine, all sporting some variation of the heartbeat of America. You can feel the rumble in your chest nearly anywhere on the property. The smell of race gas and corndogs mix elegantly in the air. This event is overwhelming in all the best ways possible…just watch out for the golf carts.
Day Zero – The Cruise-In
While the official schedule starts Friday, LS Fest really kicks off on Thursday evening with the downtown cruise-in. Over the last few years this has quickly become one of my favorite parts of the event as Nick Swann and his Holley Drift team have put so much effort into making it something special. Drivers receive a police escort from Beech Bend to Downtown Bowling Green, bringing the chaos and commotion of their roaring V8s off the track and onto the streets.
As the cars arrive on the square, what feels like a parade quickly turns into a block party. It’s the first real taste of the community aspect of this event. Local businesses and eateries are patronized, kids are screaming “hit the chip!” at cars passing by, and enthusiasts are proudly swapping stories over open hoods. Being home to both Holley Performance Brands and the Chevrolet Corvette, Bowling Green has a deep connection to motorsports, and it shows in the way locals welcome and celebrate the culture each year. As the night winds down, drivers trickle back to the track at their own pace to prepare for the weekend’s festivities.
LS Fest Drift Challenge: Competition and Camaraderie
Once track goes hot, the LS Fest Drift Challenge is all business. For a competition that offers a little bit of cash and a whole lot of bragging rights, the head-to-head battles here are an absolute spectacle, and an example of some of the most competitive you’ll see in the United States outside of Formula Drift.
A tight schedule and a grid of over 50 cars offers competitors a very finite amount of practice, so you better be ready to rock straight off the trailer. Just making it into the show on Saturday is a win for some as spectators will pack out the grandstands for Top 32 competition, even in the rain. And if you want a seat for the Top 16…you better get there early.
But that cutthroat attitude doesn’t carry over into the Drift Pits. Back there, the energy flips: tools and parts are traded freely, drivers who didn’t qualify end up crewing for those who did, and everyone is working together to put on a show for the crowd. It’s its own little ecosystem within LS Fest, and one of the purest examples of drifting’s community-first culture.
Diversity in the Field
This year’s roster brought a little of everything, as it often does. Formula Drift pros like Johnathan Hurst showed up in his Cadillac XLR, and returning champion Connor O’ Sullivan in his backup S14. 2025 Formula Drift Prospec Champion Cody Buchanan came out to hang out, and ended up working as a spotter for fellow Prospec competitor Brian Hoplamazian, helping to put him and his S13 on the box in second place.
Even some of the OG’s still come out, like Nick Thomas, the longest-running drift competitor at LS Fest. He’s a reminder of how far the Drift Challenge has come, considering year one featured him as the only demo driver. Fan-favorite Dirk Stratton lit up the night in his flame-spitting C6 Corvette that he originally debuted in 2015, and walked away as the number one qualifier.
Then there’s always some fresh blood in the water: guys like Kiely Mackey debuting his freshly-painted Plymouth Roadrunner (you’ll see more on that soon), and Adam Day drifting something that actually came with the LS from the factory, his 5th Gen Camaro.
A War of Attrition
Even with a star studded driver lineup, LS Fest’s Drift Challenge isn’t just about skill behind the wheel, it’s often a war of attrition. This year’s mixed weather made sure of that. Rain came as soon as qualifying began, and continued on and off into the next morning just before Top 32 competition. For much of the weekend the track demanded constant adaptation, and with limited practice time, there was no room for error.
Getting through the bracket wasn’t only about who could throw down the biggest entries and fill their zones, it was about keeping the car alive and dialed all the way to the finals. When parts failed, drivers scrambled. When the weather turned, setups were adjusted on the fly. In that sense, the Drift Challenge is as much about endurance as it is performance, and surviving each round feels like its own small victory as the hotpits begin to clear out.
In the end it would be Taylor Hull who fought the hardest, taking first place in his body-swapped, ex-Formula Drift C6 Corvette. Brian Hoplamazian clawed his way to second in his S13, fueled as much by determination as the crew of friends who kept him running. Number one qualifier Dirk Stratton claimed third in his C6 Corvette to round out a hard-fought podium.
With the Drift Challenge wrapped, drivers and crews caught their breath, some celebrating wins while others packed up their trailers to head home. But the day wasn’t over just yet, Burnout Wars lit up the track with smoke curling into the evening sky as fans cheered. By the time the last tires stopped spinning, the pits felt lighter, a mix of exhaustion and satisfaction hanging in the air. The 2025 Drift Challenge was in the books, and attention now turned to Sunday’s unexpected opportunity at NCM.
Sunday at NCM – A Rare Kind of Seat Time
Historically, most drift drivers don’t stick around for Sunday at LS Fest. The long drives home across state lines and work on Monday tend to win out. But this year offered something rare: the chance to drift the National Corvette Museum Motorsports Park. Back in 2014 before the track had ever opened, Nick Swann and Nick Thomas were allowed to the facility for some testing. Since then, it has been mostly off limits to drifting until recently.
The East Course layout, covering turns 17 through 23 from Faux Rouge to the famous Sinkhole, gave drivers a playground many had never touched before. Fast entries and loads of elevation change were an exciting mix up from the weekend’s competition layout at Beech Bend. For those who did partake, it wasn’t about competition, it was about pure seat time at a world-class facility, and maybe a hint at what could become a bigger part of LS Fest in the future.
The Bigger Picture – LS Fest’s Drift Family
What makes LS Fest special isn’t just the scale or the spectacle. It’s how all these different corners of car culture converge under one banner. Drifting might be just one piece of the puzzle, but it’s carved out its own world inside the chaos. The Drift Pits are proof of that: competitive spirits on track, and a strong bond off it. The crowd’s reaction says it all, year after year; drifting has become one of the clear fan favorites, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with drag racing and the car show as a staple attraction of the weekend.
If the LS Fest Drift Challenge can be summed up in a single phrase, maybe it’s this: competition builds community. What happens on track makes the show, but what happens in the pits makes it a family.
For more images from LS Fest, check out the Gallery.
