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! :laugh: 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! :huh:

[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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[fweasel]

I've been vacationing at this lake for nearly 25yrs with a good friend from college. He helped my in the pits, scheduled my runs, and launched/retrieved the boats for me. His wife, another close college friend, was there on Saturday afternoon and got some good shots of the boats out on the water. I got the card from one of the professional photographers shooting from the dock. He tracked me down in the pits to let me know that he had some great "aerial" shots of the yellow boat. Both boats spent a fair amount of time in the air...

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[fweasel]

Zelos

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[fweasel]

Keith Bradley's big boy boat, the Tesla. He had a rough day on Saturday, like most of us, and just couldn't get a smooth pass. I believe he ran 104mph, but on the last run, he threw a blade on one of the props, the boat hooked hard and nearly caught the driver's dock as it nose dived into the water. He shut it down immediately, but the severe imbalance appeared to have destroyed one of the most beautiful MBP billet struts I've ever seen. Not really a part you have a spare of in the tackle box.

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[fweasel]

Here's a few of the boats built and painted by Nick Battiato. He's a lake local and a self taught painter. The work speaks for itself. I'll be sending him my little cat this winter to be painted. He's into gas at the moment, but has been getting the itch to try something with electric power. I'll be interested to see it next year. Fun fact, his brother Tony, will be running the throttles on the American Ethanol (https://www.facebook.com/americanethonalmysticraceteam/) boat in next weekend's shootout. That boat won the 2016 event and is expected to go over 200mph this year.

Unfortunately the twin cat wasn't able to run at this event. The motors were modified, shipped back, and installed just before the even, but they were leaking and not drawing fuel. No time to fix them. Nick was pretty bummed, but it's safe to say the rest of us were just as bummed we weren't able to see/hear it run.

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[fweasel]

More of Nick's boats. Last year it was in fashion to use aluminum beer bottles as fuel tanks inside the hull. This year, many were taking a more simplified approach using IV style bladder bags. I think they looked just as cool and eliminated air from being sicked into the engines.

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[fweasel]

These boats belong to Lance Hedrick, the organizer of the event, and a hell of a guy. He's also local to the lake and owns an exotic speed shop in Osage Beach. Not only did he put on a great event, but he made himself available to anyone who had any questions or needed help, myself included, many times... It was so cool to meet people like this who were out there to have a good time and make sure everyone else was doing the same. No attitude, no ego, just good people.

The V2 Miss Geico was done up in margarita salt in honor of his wife's favorite restaurant. Definitely one of a kind. The big boat had FOUR engines! two coupled together on each side with the pistons 180* apart like an inline 2cylinder engine. The boat was complicated, and there was a lot that could go wrong. Lance said it would only launch successfully about once in every five tries. Usually one of the engines would cut out as soon as the props loaded up in the water. Two years ago, the event was held at a different spot on the lake where the boats had to be thrown a little more aggressively into the water at the launch. When his two buddies threw that beast, it slammed down and broke the exhaust mounts off the heads. It took quite a bit of effort to do anything with this monster, including emptying water from the hull. BUT, let me tell you, when they finally did get it running Sunday afternoon, it was quite a sight. It sounded awesome and looked like the real thing. It moved water like a real boat, turned like a real boat, and cut through the waves like a real boat. Best pass was something in the high 70's, and I believe it's done low 80's before.

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[fweasel]

Next up, Shawn Swain's pit. Shawn is a LOTO mini-shootout regular and travels all the way down from Michigan with his family to get there. Shawn had a lot of knowledge to share and builds a mean cat. You can youtube his name and see some of his stuff run. The #38 boat is a 37" MBP carbon twin cat. The same boat that beat me in the E2cat class by only 5.6mph! Had I managed to successfully prop up and beat that speed, I have no doubt that Shawn would have done the same and put my tiny boat in its place. The HR Giger inspired cat, Ripsaw, won this years Top Gun prize at 114.8mph. The paintjob is amazing. Even cooler is the padded carrying sleeve it travels in.

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[fweasel]

I took pictures in Keith Bradley's pit while two of his boats were elsewhere. It was so hot, I didn't notice that, which is too bad because they were all such solid builds. This is his Showtime twin cat that won last years Top Gun prize at 121.4mph. It ran 114.1mph this year for second place behind Shawn Swain. I had never met Keith in person before, just posts online. He's a wealth of knowledge, an accomplished builder, and another of the easy going, attitude free people I met at this years event. He generously allowed me to use his spare generator Saturday afternoon after my partner successfully managed to get me so many scheduled runs that we exceeded my charged battery supply. We ran Keith's generator at our tent to run both of my hyperion dual chargers and knocked out 4 packs at a time. Thanks again!

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This was my favorite boat name out of the entire field. Sums of the hobby quite perfectly.

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Runner up on the best boat name... maybe I get a kick out of it because Chicago has the largest Polish population outside of Warsaw Poland.

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[fweasel]

Various boats in the pits. The big Central RC hull was impressive, and painted by Nick Battiato. The pleasure canopy on the green/purple Promarine looked really sweet, but the Hulk behind the wheel was a perfect match. Last gas hydro had a Hemi, just like my car. :cool2:
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[fweasel]

Mo boats...

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[fweasel]

Lots of Promarine RC cats, both twins and singles. Everyone I talked to that owned one had nothing but rave reviews for the boat and plenty of others admitted they were impressed with the boat's out of the box performance. Mike Stancombe, the owner, was an interesting guy. His background is in offshore racing and his mantra in life seems to be that he doesn't give a duck what other people think. He's been successful at doing what others tell him shouldn't work both with real boats as well as the toys and I admire that drive. I saw him talking regularly with the Promarine boat owners in their pits and was quick to help out where he could if they were having issues. I believe he was running his 34" MTR twin in the RTR class. I recall it doing 84mph. Lots of good video of it going airborne on a youtube promo I found.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvOBRLClgbM

[fweasel]

Disappointed the 1/8th scale Miss Budweiser didn't run. That boat is legendary down there and I was fortunate to see the real thing run on the lake twice. Once, at full speed, and another, being towed through party cove. :rockon2:

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[fweasel]

That's a wrap. Had a great time and will be going for many years to come. I'm already planning on what I'll run next year and my buddy is in negotiations on buying a used 53" CRC Mystic gas boat to run with me. I might post up my drone footage and aerial shots if I can find the time to download them and make usable clips.

[kfxguy]

Awesome pics! Sounds like you had a lot of fun, I'm jealous! One day I hope to make it there and hang out. At least one of my creations made it out there and faired well. Good to know I got 92mph on the gps with it and you got 91.1mph. That lets me know my gps runs are pretty legit and that your a pretty good driver holding a good strait line through the traps. I miss that little boat I'm not going to lie. It was a masterpiece to me and it was just amazing to look at. I was always too scared to run it and it caused me great anxiety every time I ran it on full kill. Just so scared to lose it like I did my 32" one. I'm glad someone else can enjoy it, even though you seem to get a little nervous like me too. If you need another rudder for it just text me. I'll be building another one like it soon so I may be nothing you for some measurements so I can get it just like that one.



Btw, when you prop up, you should move the batts an inch or so forward if you can. That would help to keep it down. I have no doubts that thing has 95-96mph in it.

[Zondar]

Thanks Ryan for the play-by-play.
Felt like I was on the shore also.
Good job!

[jevmax]

Were they recording the speed using timing lights or a radar gun?

[kfxguy]

Were they recording the speed using timing lights or a radar gun?

I thought he text me and said that they were running through the traps. So I'd guess lights but I could be wrong.

[Fluid]

They use radar just like the full-scale LOTO boats. I know because I asked Ryan.


.

[fweasel]

When i get my drone shots posted, you'll see the entire course. At the opposite shore, there was a floating dock, covered in wire mesh. Crew sat there with two radar guns and would clock you for your entire approach. As you turned off, flew off, or crashed, they would call out the speed over the radio. If I kept it on the water, I typically made 3 passes and brought it back in. Batteries were usually still at 4.1V or so, but done in terms of top speed voltage. Certainly makes for faster recharge times.

[jevmax]

When i get my drone shots posted, you'll see the entire course. At the opposite shire, there was a floating dock, covered in wire mesh. Crew sat there with two radar guns and would clock you for your entire approach. As you turned off, flew off, or crashed, they would call out the speed over the radio. If I kept it on the water, I typically made 3 passes and brought it back in. Batteries were usually still at 4.1V, but done in terms of top speed.

Thank you gentlemen. I may have to show up next year :)

[fweasel]

I may have to show up next year :)More the merrier!


Not a lot of worthy images from the drone. It was so damn hot out, I didn't fly it as much as I thought I would and when I did have some free time saturday afternoon, I realized I had left the controller in the sun all day and the battery was overheated and would not power on. Anyway...

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[fweasel]

https://youtu.be/abfraXoPOnU

[fweasel]

https://youtu.be/bxskufB-MHs

[fweasel]

https://youtu.be/uQ4qGG_U6_E

[fweasel]

https://youtu.be/CxQcW8i6jy8

[Tamelesstgr]

Cool drone shots!

[fweasel]

My friend caught a news clip on the TV last night and recorded it with his phone. Not the clearest of videos, but you can see him launch my Zelos, folowed by a high speed flip and crash in slow-mo with a reverse replay. Nice work Mr. director.


https://youtu.be/vC0n-iWPd1I

[kingwrench]

Thanks Ryan for the awesome write up on our event. I get so bogged down with work, I never seem to get the time. So a big high Five to you for posting. Saturday we had over 50 spectator boats anchored along our course, over 400 spectators watching, and walking in the pits. With 65 rc boats racing. I am glad you enjoyed the event and I really enjoyed meeting and chatting with you. Looking forward to seeing you next year.
Lance

[fweasel]

Lance, we'll be there next year for sure, with more boats, and a bigger cooler.

[Hotrods]

Great Job on the write up.! It was great to meet you and your Zelos Arrial was fantastic! See ya next year I hope.

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