Lake of the Ozarks Shootout: Day Two Highlights

Another Lake of the Ozarks Shootout is in the books and every class winner who left the stage following today’s award ceremony for the 29th annual event held at Captain Ron’s in Sunrise Beach, Mo., walked away as a record-setter thanks to the new shorter three-quarters-of-a-mile course. Below are the highlights from today’s action (read our day one recap here).

Illinois’ Jim Schultz ran his impressive Factory Billet Outerlimits up to 161 mph on Saturday and 157 mph on Sunday. All photos by Pete Boden/Shoot 2 Thrill Pix

American Ethanol Backs Up Yesterday’s Run
Although the team was hoping to come out Sunday and lay down an even faster speed than its 204-mph run on Saturday, the American Ethanol/Onken Racing team attempted to change the propellers on its 51-foot Mystic Powerboats catamaran powered by four engines making approximately 9,000 hp in all and make an early-morning pass that it hoped would do the trick. Unfortunately driver Tony Battiato and throttleman John Cosker were only able to run 186 mph in its first attempt so the crew went back to the same setup as Saturday and proceeded to record a 203-mph top speed later in the day.

That was enough for team owner Don Onken, who was happy but not thrilled as he believes the boat could run 210 mph or faster on the new three-quarters-of-a-mile course. Last year the team won the overall Top Gun championship with a top speed of 217 mph on the former one-mile course.

“Well we left a few things on the table for next year,” Onken said, alluding to the fact that the team will return for the 30th annual event, which will be held August 25-26, 2018 at Captain Ron’s.

Dennis and Jason Parvey ran 161 mph in their Black Thunder V-bottom on Sunday.

V-Bottom Win-Win
Disappointed with their top speed of 151 mph in their 43-foot Black Thunder V-bottom with 2,000-plus-hp supercharged engines, Dennis and Jason Parvey vowed to return today. And return they did, with a blistering 161-mph pass that matched the mark set by Jim Schultz and Mike Faucher in Factory Billet, a canopied 51-foot Outerlimits Offshore Powerboats V-bottom with a similar, though turbocharged, power output. The Parveys made one more run after their 161-mph pass, but they had to back out of it early thanks to a shredded blower belt.

Boat wakes near the end of the course unsettled the Factory Billet boat on its first—and only—run of the day, which yielded a top speed of 157 mph. Content to tie with last year’s V-bottom Top Gun team in their rookie Lake of the Ozarks Shootout debut, Schultz and Faucher opted not to make another pass.

Fierce competitors and fan favorites at the Shootout for years, the Parveys announced they’re retiring from the competition.

“Our last run was our last run,” said Dennis Parvey. “We’re just delighted that we would share the fastest V-bottom honor this year with our friends Jim and Mike.”

Fast Center Consoles
There were several notable passes by a variety of outboard-powered center consoles throughout the weekend, but there were a couple that stood out. Sunsation Boats co-owner Jared Morris ran 89 mph on Saturday and 88 mph on Sunday in his 34 CCX powered by triple Mercury Racing Verado 400R engines.

Jeremy Anderson, the general manager of Big Thunder Marine, made a couple of passes on the course late in the day in the Big Thunder Marine Fountain Powerboats 38-foot center console powered by quad Verado 400R engines. In his first pass, which he had to pull out of when his engines went into guardian mode toward the end of the run, he was clocked at 80 mph.

“I was only going to do one pass, but it didn’t go well so I immediately picked up the phone and said I wanted to make another one,” Anderson said. “So I went back out and ran 86 mph. I thought that wasn’t bad considering my first time driving the boat was on Friday.”

A Big Day for the Bulls
Newly inducted Lake of the Ozarks Shootout Hall of Famer Bob Bull put a lot of work in all weekend—and on Sunday his wife, Debbie, did the same. Bob backed up his 177-mph pass on Saturday in his 52-foot canopied MTI catamaran powered by twin Mercury Racing 1650 engines with the same speed on Sunday, and his wife, who was joined by the same throttleman—MTI founder Randy Scism—tried to beat her husband but ended up one mph shy at 176 mph.

“I think I need a new throttleman—Randy was holding back, I know it,” Debbie said with a laugh. “Seriously we had a great time this week. It was fun to get to run both boats and feel the difference.”

Earlier in the day, Debbie also took out their matching 48-foot open-cockpit MTI and ran it up to 145 mph with Scism by her side.

Bob also took to the course with his new 340X MTI powered by a pair of Mercury Racing ROS outboard engines and ran 115 mph, which was 15 mph better than his speed on Saturday.

Billy Shipley and Clark Woody ran 92 mph in their canopied LaveyCraft.

Team Woody Enjoys First Shootout
The Team Woody Racing crew of Billy Shipley and Chad Woody came out strong on Saturday with a 92-mph top speed in the canopied single-engine LaveyCraft, and managed to get the boat up to 91 mph on Sunday.

After running top-speed shootouts earlier this summer in Texas and Oklahoma, the team made their first trip to the Lake of the Ozarks Shootout. Shipley and Woody seemed to enjoyed their first trip to the event and although they were disappointed with the wait time involved to get on the course, they enjoyed running in front of the massive fleet of spectators.

The CR Racing catamaran sponsored by WIA Marine Insurance put on quite a show for the Shootout spectators.

Father-Son Battle Goes to the Boaz Family
Offshore racers Rob Unnerstall and Casey Boaz decided to mix it up and not run together in the top-speed event. Instead the owners of the CR Racing 32-foot canopied Doug Wright catamaran brought their sons with them in the boat, which was sponsored by WIA Marine Insurance and decided to see who was faster.

In the end, Casey and Jesse Boaz worked their magic—or just got the boat with a little less fuel—and ended up running 119 mph in the Doug Wright, while Rob and Nick Unnerstall clocked a 117-mph top speed on the course.

Editor’s note: Look for a comprehensive feature on the event and Super Cat Fest in the upcoming July/August issue of Speed On The Water digital magazine. Check out the full results from the Shootout here.

Lake of the Ozarks Shootout: Day Two Highlights

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