2017 Lake of the Ozarks Mini Shootout

[fweasel]

For those not on Facebook, I thought I'd pass this along. I'll be heading down this year with two boats.

Friday, August 19th
“7th annual Mini Shootout”
“The Springs at Ha Ha Tonka – 14 1/2 mile marker of the Big Niangua”
“5:00 registration and meet and greet”

Saturday, August 20th
“7th annual Mini Shootout”
The Springs at Ha Ha Tonka – 14 1/2 mile marker of the Big Niangua
9:00 a.m. – Noon – Practice Runs
Noon to 1:00 p.m. – Lunch and open Swimming
1:00 – 5:00 p.m. – Splash Runs and the Bounty Race
7:00 p.m. – Live Entertainment

Sunday, August 21st
“7th annual Mini Shootout”
The Springs at Ha Ha Tonka – 14 1/2 mile marker of the Big Niangua
9:00 a.m. to Noon – Bracket Racing, Exhibition Races & Powder Puff Racing
Noon to 1:00 p.m. – Lunch and open Swimming
1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. – Class Runs, Top Gun Racing & The Bounty Race
Awards Ceremony immediately following racing

[fweasel]

Bump, the mini shootout is next weekend. Anyone here going? I'm planning on running my Zelos in the RTR class and my 27" Zonda cat in the 6S and under class.

[spdsgd]

I'm going can't wait

[fweasel]

I'm going can't wait

Cool. Short drive for you! What do you plan on running? Have you raced in years past?

[spdsgd]

I'm from Kansas City area , 2 and a half hr drive for me it's my second year going , it's a great time , very cool boats , I'm running three gas boats a cat , rigger and mono ,

[fweasel]

Do you know if they have electrical power in the pit area?

[spdsgd]

I don't believe so

[fweasel]

All packed up for the shootout. Somehow I need to fit all of this in the car along with a 6' folding table, canopy shade, camping chairs, some clothes, and a cooler. I need a bigger car...

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[Bp9145]

All packed up for the shootout. Somehow I need to fit all of this in the car along with a 6' folding table, canopy shade, camping chairs, some clothes, and a cooler. I need a bigger car...

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Good luck Ryan. . .

[fweasel]

Unpacked at the lake house and starting the marathon battery charging session. Practice starts at 9AM tomorrow and I'm in need of practice. Also snapped a few pics of some of the boats brought in to the reception even earlier this evening. Dropped by the cove where we'll be running the boats to scope things out. A lot of storm garbage floating in the water. I hope it drifts up on shore overnight or my props won't be too happy.

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[CraigP]

Go get 'em Ryan! Floating debris, yousers!

[fweasel]

Ran 91.1mph this morning in the 27" mini Zonda on 4S. Pretty rough water yesterday, Zelos only managed 77.9mph on ABC 1715's and stock electronics. More to come...

[CraigP]

Great run on the 27! Man that's fast for a small boat....

[fweasel]

Lots of beautiful boats, will post pics when I'm back on a laptop.

[fweasel]

What a blast this event was. Great people, great boats, great location, pretty good weather. I met some people I knew from their online presence (Keith Bradley, Shawn Swain, Mike Stancombe), some people who were running or sponsoring the event (Lance Hedrik, Nick Battiato), and others who were just there to run boats like me (Pat, Ron, Patience). We showed up early on Saturday and were able to get a pretty good spot for the tent right on the water. After seeing everyone else's setup, we knew we needed more portable table space for next year.

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I brought two boats down with me. My Zelos has been running very reliable this season so it seemed like an obvious choice. Because I run it on 6S, that would have put me in the big boy class, so I thought it would be wise to enter it in the RTR class since it was stock aside from allowable upgrades like props. Turns out the RTR class was bracket style racing and you had to name your speed within 1mph before you made a run to have it count. Each boat registration came with 5 run cards to be used over the course of the two day event. I didn't even technically post a speed for this class due to the difficulties of the water conditions on saturday and limited run cards left for Sunday. I managed a 77.9mph pass on Saturday afternoon despite a headwin while running towards the radar gun. Unfortunately for me, the boat ran fantastic in the opposite direction, so much so, I got frustrated and just started hauling ass back to my starting point at full throttle to show what the boat could do. I wish I had kept my GPS in the boat to measure my speed on the back end. I bet I had some quality runs going the wrong way. The water was too rough for my little boat, so I used up 4 of my 5 runs on Saturday with the Zelos. Conditions were all over the place so I never had a solid guess on the speed I'd run, and as such, never got a speed locked it. I theory, you could win the RTR class with a 15mph Recoil9!

My second boat was a purpose built SAW boat. I bought a carbon 27" TFL mini Zonda hull from Darin Jordan over the winter with plans to build a really fast, really tiny cat. As I was researching the build, I discovered Travis (kfxguy) had already built the same boat about a year and a half ago. I started stalking his old threads, learning what I could about his build. I was running low on free time and asked Travis if he would build it for me. He too was busy, but I wore him down, and eventually traded him my bare hull for his built boat (plus a few bucks). He was attached to it, understandably so, but knew he could build it again with my new hull when he had the time. The boat is really small and needs nearly perfect water conditions for the insane speed runs. Needless to say, I had little opportunity to run it over the summer with general life stuff getting in the was and had limited time at the lake to gain setup and prop tuning experience. The boat is nearly bullet proof and was so dialed in when it arrived from Travis, all I really had to do was tweak the ESC to my liking, Install my radio gear, and drop in some batteries. The boat runs crazy fast on 3S (low 70's), but is a raped ape on 4S. When the water is right, it's fast, stable, and just eats up the water. It puts a huge smile on your face, but you're somewhere between scared, and holding your breath for the entire run. I made a few passes in the mid 80's with an ABC 1615 prop. Next run was with a 1715 and I did 91.1mph. I was running second in class to a 37" MBP carbon boat with twins built by Shawn Swain. Shawn ran 96.7mph on 4S. I had one run card left and decided to prop up again to a 1716. Sent the boat out, flipped, but landed right side up. idled back to my start position and floated while letting the water clam down. As I was looking down course, the guy next to me on the dock said it looked like I lost a cooling hose. Sure enough, in my crash, the prop sliced the hose to pieces. My day was done. The boat handled the numerous rolls, flips, and landings like a champ. More than once the rudder got twisted on the pivot pin after a crash and the last incident actually put a decent curve into the blade itself. Whoops!

The most gratifying thing of the entire weekend was people who have been doing this for years as well as general spectators coming over to our tent to tell us how well my boats were running on the water. It solidified that I wasn't a complete hack and we weren't making complete fools of ourselves!

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