Szolack Nabs Performance Boat Center Raceboat For Shootout

A longtime fan of and participant in the Lake of the Ozarks Shootout in Central Missouri, noted performance-boat enthusiast Ron Szolack has purchased Performance Boat Center’s world championship-winning Skater Powerboats 388 catamaran. Szolack plans to share the cockpit in the 2019 event with Performance Boat Center’s Myrick Coil, the driver of the 38-foot raceboat.

Thanks to Ron Szolack, the former Performance Boat Center Skater catamaran has found a good home. Photo courtesy/copyright Pete Boden/Shoot 2 Thrill Pix.

“I miss the Shootout,” Szolack said. “I sold my old Shootout boat, Flight Club, a couple of years ago and pulled the engines out of it. They are dual-fuel Sterlings that I just had redone, so I can run it with 110-octane fuel for pleasure boating and poker runs, and E-90 for the Shootout. I had them sitting here and I’m going to ship them to Performance Boat Center and they are going to install them and handle the rigging. They’re also going to put in an air-conditioning system.”

The boat will run with current Performance Boat Center livery in the 2019 Shootout.

“We are going to make it go—what’s that line from the movie ‘Spaceballs’—ludicrous speed,” said Brett Manire, who co-owns Performance Boat Center with Mark Waddington. “The biggest hurdle will be exhaust. We’re not sure exactly what we’re going to do but CMI will be involved. On paper at least, it should be a 200-mph boat.

“We have a lot going on right now,” he continued. “We are heading to MTI next week to check out our new raceboat. Right now, it’s just a hull and a deck and they’ll do some basic rigging before it comes back here for full rigging. We have that 32-foot Doug Wright raceboat we are getting ready. Now we have Ron’s boat to get done—his timing is always perfect—and we have to get it all done this spring. But we will.”

As for Szolack, who is well known in the high-performance powerboating community for selling boats shortly after buying them, he said the 38-footer could end up on the market again after the Shootout in August.

“Everything is for sale,” he said, then laughed.

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