LAKE OF THE OZARKS, Mo. — The biggest boat race in the Midwest just got shorter, and race organizers say the move is meant to improve safety.

Powerboat crashes were an all-too-common news item in 2016. From the fatal flip on Lake of the Ozarks that killed Richie Prince and Bradley Dunphy just days before the Shootout, to the wild crash at the race that injured driver Jeff McCann, to the Potomac River crash a month and a half later that killed Garth Tagge and Jim Melley, two well-known Lake of the Ozarks Shootout racers, safety has been on everyone’s minds.

Some racers, in the wake of Tagge and Melley’s funerals, swore off high-speed events. Others expressed doubts about shootout-style runs. 

Lake of the Ozarks Shootout Race Director Ron Duggan says the event committee evaluates safety every year after the race ends. But 2016 saw the second Shootout crash in three years—with a 2014 horrific crash that sent Outerlimits Powerboats President/CEO Mike Fiore to the hospital, where he died from surgery complications a few days later—and the committee decided it was time for a change.

video courtesy Lake Tow

Shootout organizers sought feedback from racers, and they came back with a decision to shorten the course. The traditionally one-mile race course will be shortened to 3/4-mile. There will still be a 40-mph start, as that allows the large boats space and speed to get on plane before heading down the course. Duggan noted a standing start might actually be more dangerous as racers would have a harder time seeing the course.

Past records will remain, but bragging rights will be essentially “reset,” as 2017 racers seek to be the first to set a top-speed record on a 3/4-mile course. The nameplates on the Shootout Top Gun trophy—which lists the fastest racer and their top speed, from each year—had filled up one side of the trophy, and it was time to switch to the next side anyways, Duggan said, so the timing worked well even for that.

Other top-speed boat races are following suit. According to a Shootout committee member, the Texas Outlaw Challenge and Grand Lake O’ The Cherokees Shootout will both be shortened to 3/4-mile.

Duggan says boat racing is running into the same challenge that stock-car racing faced years ago: competitors are packing so much horsepower into their machines that the risk of disaster has gone up. So this course change is meant to mitigate that risk.

In a statement about the change, Duggan said, "With concerns of ever increasing horsepower and speeds of mostly recreational boats, the group [including Duggan, Kendell Little of the GLOC Shootout and Paul Robinson from the Texas Outlaw Challenge] made the decision to follow the lead of organizations such as the NHRA, in shortening the length of the course to continue to provide the safest environment possible for their participants."

Nearly all the racer feedback has been positive, Duggan added in a separate interview, saying most racers understood the reasoning and supported the decision.

He ended the statement, "Overall, our goal each and every year is to provide the safest possible course for these women and men to come and participate and thrill the crowds that come from all over the country and to make sure that everyone goes home to their families."

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