At stake are the bragging rights. That’s what’s it’s been about for the last 19 years at the Lake Shootout as professionals and amateurs compete against each other and the clock for the Top Gun honor.
For one weekend, the lake will rock and roll with the sound of thundering engines and boats pounding the waves as the competition for the bragging rights heats up Aug. 23-24 at Captain Ron’s Bar and Grill on the west side.
It’s the event of the season as the lake’s fastest drivers and throttlemen let loose along the course to see who really does have the fastest boat on the lake. Speed in the top division will exceed 200 mph as the boats rip down the lake.
The course begins around the 34.5-mile marker just downstream from the Hurricane Deck Bridge.
It runs downstream from the bridge approximately 2 miles on the southwest side of the main channel to the 32.5-mile marker with a long straightaway that will give a clear shot to the finish line.
It’s about excitement, performance, pure racing adrenalin and along with all the anticipation and hype, there’s still a lot of good old-fashioned fun and community spirit mixed in the Shootout experience.
“We kept it simple and we kept it local,” Sunrise Beach Fire Protection District Fire Chief John Sullentrop said.
In the 18 years he has been involved with the Shootout, he has had a front row seat not only to the races but to the Shootout experience.
Sullentrop has also seen what the event has done for the fire districts.
It used to be, he said, that fighting a lakefront home or commercial structure fire meant hauling water from the lake to the scene. Now, fire districts have the capability of calling in the boats to attack from the water.
The districts are equipped with everything from small fireboats that resemble a personal watercraft, breathing and dive equipment, thermal vision cameras, protective gear and breathing apparatus, mobile communications and boat gear and cold water rescue suits all thanks to the Shootout.
Over the years the event has provided Osage Beach, Lake Ozark, Sunrise Beach and Gravois fire districts with much needed rescue equipment to be used on the Lake of the Ozarks.
As the lake area has grown and changed, so have the dynamics of the Lake Shootout. Back in 1988, no one hit 200 mph. No one envisioned a race that would draw competitors from other countries.
It’s the thrill and the excitement of watching the boats skate over the surface of the water that keeps drivers and spectators coming back year after year.
It was back in 1988 that a group of local boaters decided it was time to pit their skills against each other to see whose pleasure boat could hit the fastest speed along a one-mile course. The rest is racing history, literally.
The Shootout, along with the rest of the lake area, has changed, but despite those changes, the spirit and the grass roots involvement have remained the driving force behind the success of the Shootout.
“It has definitely been good for the lake area,” Osage Beach Fire Protection District Fire Chief Jeff Dorhauer said.
This year as the Shootout is handed over to a new entity, those who have spent the last two decades promoting and organizing the event are still involved and the spirit of what they set out to do still lives. The old and the new have melded together to form a partnership that will continue giving back to the community.
For Ron Duggan, who spearheaded the effort to take over the Shootout when the future of the event was uncertain, it’s chance to keep alive the race that’s made the lake famous and an opportunity to continue the tradition the fire districts started of using the proceeds from the race to benefit local organizations. It’s also a chance to promote the westside of the lake.
“Hosting the Shootout will give this side of the lake a chance to showcase what it has to offer and our unique lifestyle. I think we are a little more laid back over there,” Duggan said. “The race was just too big to let die.”
Contact this reporter at joycem@lakesunleader.com
Lake of the Ozarks, Mo. —
