First and foremost: the “Screamin’ Fried Tires” burnout contest that Hoonigan and Hooker Blackheart sponsored for the 2017 Holley LS Fest has to be one of the best ideas to hit the show since…well, since a few fans of the GM mill got together in Bowling Green about eight years ago. With tons of power on tap everywhere you look on the property of Beech Bend Raceway and over at the National Corvette Museum Motorsports Park, and with fans seriously overloading the roads into the track, it was the perfect storm of awesomeness centered in the circle track. With a genuinely massive crowd gathered to watch the carnage and the promise that this wasn’t going to be some weak-kneed tire fryer, the fans mobbed the pit as the competitors rolled in. There was plenty of good efforts, including Holley’s Keith Jessee and his “Hood Rat Hot Rod” Chevrolet Malibu and a C5 Corvette drift car, but in the end, the crowd gave their Roman-style seal of approval to one car.

We are very familiar with Three Pedals’ “Shaken and Stirred” 1989 Pontiac Safari. It’s the company’s calling card, a full-weight B-body Poncho packing LSX power, a six-speed crashbox, enough frame stiffness to lift a tire in the corner, and monster gumball tires that are faked out to look like the factory-spec rolling stock, complete with the wire wheel covers. And all weekend long, Josh Korsower did what we have watched him do plenty of times before: beat the stuffing out of the Pontiac every chance he got when he wasn’t at the booth. On Saturday, however, Korsower’s normally happy and energetic mood had a slightly darker tint to it…like the cat that ate the canary. He informed me that he had a set of “cop car wheels and tires” for the car for later on. Sure enough, on a sweep through the manufacturer’s midway, there they were: a set of 1990s-era 9C1 wheels on sacrifical rubber.

Now, the burnout contest was no standstill. The drivers got the whole circle pit for a minute to do whatever illegal, reckless, and generally violent action they wanted to do, so long as tire smoke was rolling off the rears like the clouds from the funnel of a steam train. Yours truly was up in the tower announcing drag racing while Lohnes was on the ground announcing the burnout contest. Korsower and crew came up to the tower to watch their driver, Larry, prove to the crowd that the Safari had what it took to win the event. Larry must’ve had his job on the line, because he goes for broke: glowing exhaust, tires to the cords, sparks flying, and a rev limiter that just gets beat up. I’ll put it to you like this: I could hear the roar of the crowd over the burnout of two drag cars right in front of me when Lohnes started polling the crowd to see who won. Hopefully this becomes an annual part of LS Fest…the show could always use just a touch of insanity!

Click play below to see “Shaken and Stirred” smoke out Beech Bend!