LAKE OF THE OZARKS, Mo. — On the first day of the Lake of the Ozarks Shootout, 71 boats laid down more than 100 runs, from pontoons to big catamarans, v-bottoms to surprisingly quick electric boats.
Thirty of them hit triple-digit speeds — Shootout competitors come with plenty of guts and power — though none, not even reigning Top Gun American Ethanol, came close to the ethanol-powered Mystic’s fastest historic run on the 3/4-mile race course, 204 mph. American Ethanol hit a dizzying-but-still-far-from-record 184 mph in its third run on Saturday. That was still the fastest run of the day, with Jim Schultz and Mike Faucher running a stunning 161 in Schultz’s 51-foot Outerlimits v-bottom Factory Billet, and just behind him, Jamin Jones hitting 160 mph in the new-to-the-Shootout 36-foot Skater. Thus far, American Ethanol is the fastest cat and fastest overall, and Factory Billet is the fastest v-bottom of the weekend.