New Shootout Course and More Building Excitement for 10th Annual Texas Outlaw Challenge

Less than a month away, the 10th anniversary of the highly regarded Texas Outlaw Challenge in Seabrook, Texas, is expected to be extra special thanks to a few changes, improvements and additions to an already grandiose event.

The Texas Outlaw Challenge’s top-speed event is moving to Clear Lake this year. Photo by Todd Taylor/Todd Taylor Images

This year, the Texas Outlaw Challenge, which takes place June 21-25, is going to have a new venue for its National Shootout Championship event. After nine years of executing a safe and efficient top-speed shootout format in the open waters of Galveston Bay, organizers have been granted exclusive access to the calmer and more protected waters of Clear Lake by the six cities representing jurisdiction on the lake.

Producer Paul Robinson sees the new course approval as a catalyst for exponential growth of the top-speed event. That and the fact that he said this is the first year boats with top speeds less than 100 mph are eligible to participate.

“This is a 10-year milestone, and it’s pretty tremendous,” Robinson said, adding that shortening the course to three quarters of a mile helped persuade local jurisdiction to green-light the change. Two other top-speed events—the Grand Lake O’ the Cherokees Performance Boat Challenge Shootout in Oklahoma and the Lake of the Ozarks Shootout in Missouri—are also shortening their courses to the same distance this year.

“It took nine years of trust in our event safety program for the city councils to support us,” Robinson added. “That’s really good news. Normally we leave the top-speed event to the big guns, the 100-plus-mph boats. This year, since we’re bringing a shorter course to the more-controlled lake environment, we’re going to let boats that don’t run 100 mph participate.”

Robinson expects excellent conditions for the contestants and an upswing in spectator interaction since the entire lake will be considered a no-wake zone except for the participants.

“We should see a huge boost in public viewing with excellent shoreline vantage points, and on-water spectator access,” said Robinson, who addressed the question that many will ask: Will the new shootout delay the festivities at Kenny Armstrong’s house?

“Of course not, Kenny’s party is taking place Friday afternoon as usual—and he has some special things in store for everyone since it’s the 10th anniversary of his party, too,” he said.

Kenny Armstrong is hosting his massive pool party to kick off the Texas Outlaw Challenge poker run again. Photo by Tyler Crockett

Robinson also wanted to extend a generous offer to any shootout contestants who registered for the Desert Storm Poker Run Shootout, which was called due to bad weather a few weeks ago.

“We want to show our appreciation for their efforts, so we’re going to comp them with a two-night weekend here,” he said. “We invite these racers to join us in Texas and show us some West Coast horsepower. We’ll put them up for a couple nights and welcome them to our new venue.”

Another pool party on Thursday at the Galveston Yacht Basin has been added to the schedule for the early arrivals. The children’s boat rides also take place Thursday and the Stampede Street Party follows that evening with a number of new bars in the area set to offer some cool experiences for showgoers.

Also new for the 10th anniversary, Robinson is planning to show special appreciation for his 10 years of sponsors on Friday night with an exclusive party for sponsors and their invited guests with special limited ticket access. “This Outlaw Saloon Casino Night is going to be off the charts,” he said. “It will be the hottest ticket of the event.”

New Shootout Course and More Building Excitement for 10th Annual Texas Outlaw Challenge

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