The 51-foot Mystic catamaran American Ethanol is the Shootout Top Gun for the third year in a row, with a 204 mph run on Saturday, Aug. 26.

Driver Tony Battiato and throttleman John Cosker celebrated with boat owner Don Onken and the American Ethanol team at the award’s ceremony on Sunday, Aug. 27: the first Top Guns for the newly-shortened 3/4-mile Shootout race course.

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It’s Cosker’s fourth Top Gun title; he has earned three in American Ethanol, and he won Top Gun with Dave Callan in 2007. The only other racers to earn the Shootout Top Gun title three times are David Scott (8 titles), Dave Callan (4 titles), John Tomlinson (3 titles with David Scott), 

The American Ethanol team hit their top speed of 204 mph during their first run on Saturday afternoon. Sunday morning, with new props, they hit the course again, hoping to hit even bigger numbers. But that run was disappointing, topping out at 186 (though even that speed was faster than any other boat at the race). According to SpeedOnTheWater.com, the crew switched out their props and ran again on Sunday, hitting 203 mph. The speed of 204 was first eclipsed at the LOTO Shootout in 2006, when Dave Callan won Top Gun with a 208 mph run.

While American Ethanol was far-and-away the fastest boat at the 2017 race, there were more than a few boats posting numbers in the upper 100s, giving crowds the chance to see plenty of high-speed runs and injecting some serious competition into the other race classes.

In the NC4P2R class, Vern Gilbert hit 182 in the RevXOil.com-sponsored 40-foot Skater, while Kelly Kraiss and Ron Gibbs reached 180 mph in Top Gun.

Factory Billet at 2017 LOTO Shootout

photo by Nathan Bechtold

Tony Chiaramonte in the orange DCB Skater, Carlton Bass in a red open-cockpit DCB catamaran, and Matt Garland in the red-and-white Skater both put up speeds in the 160s. Bob Bull and Randy Scism hit 177 on three runs in CMS #3. And Jim Schultz showed what a v-bottom can do, with a 161 mph pass in his 51-foot Outerlimits Factory Billet. But Shootout veterans Dennis and Jason Parvey built on Saturday’s 151 mph run by matching Schultz at 161 on Sunday. With that run, the Parveys say they’re retiring from the LOTO Shootout, telling SpeedOnTheWater.com they were delighted to share the Top V title with Schultz. Schultz reciprocated the love, saying in a Facebook post, "It's a honor to share Top Gun V with our friends Jason and Dennis Parvey.”

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