2017 Lake of the Ozarks Mini Shootout

[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 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.
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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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[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.

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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!