Fast Girls: Shootout Leads The Nation In Women Racers

The number of women competing in extreme-speed sports is steadily increasing. Women have been revving engines since motorsport racing began; however they were and still are a minority. But, thanks to the Lake of the Ozarks Shootout races, powerboat racing is getting a fantastic infusion of fabulous femininity.

The Lake of the Ozarks Shootout Powerboat races boast more women racers than any other powerboat racing venue in the nation. “Since I have been involved we have always welcomed women racers, it’s not ‘all of sudden,’” Lake of the Ozarks Shootout Executive Director Ron Duggan said. “I love to see the women out there running their boats. I have always encouraged their participation.” And it doesn’t hurt the business of powerboat racing either: both men and women are fascinated by brave women who have an extreme need for speed.

Women racers are winning multiple national and world championship powerboat racing titles and the radar guns are proving that women can compete on equal terms with men, with physical size and strength mattering less than nerve, instinct, and reflex.

Lee Ann Peluso

Lee Ann Peluso, with Reindl Powerboats Offshore Racing Experience, began her racing career last year, and what a year it was! Peluso was the fastest woman at the 2014 LOZ Shootout, not only in her class, but overall. She also took home the second-place trophy at the 2014 Lake Race and she was the 2014 APBA US 1 Offshore class 6 National High Point winner. To top off her first year racing, she took home the 2014 Offshore Powerboat Association National and World Class 6 Championships. Peluso drives a 24 ft. 2000 Reindl One Design, V-Hull with throttle man/owner Chris Reindl.

“I am going to come back to the Shootout with a lot more confidence this year,” Lee Ann said. Lee Ann loves to go fast and this girl has discovered the thrill and challenge of going fast in choppy ocean waves! “Atlantic City was the first time the boat came up out of the water,” Lee Ann said. “It scared me at first. When you go airborne everything goes silent for a few seconds like you’re in an airplane. I thought oh-my-gosh, we’re going to die! Then I went around the course and hit the same spot, came up out of the water, and I was okay. The third time I was ready for it, and I then started to look forward to it! I can only describe it as; that zero gravity feeling you get when you’re on a roller coaster!”  

Lee Ann drove another Reindl boat, Ultimate Racing Experience, earlier this year at Lake Race, and had an experience no racer would want: she and co-racer Tom Vogle took a turn too sharp and the boat flipped. Both racers escaped the incident virtually unscathed, and Lee Ann came away more determined than ever.

“I got that one checked off my bucket list!” she quipped. “It’s no longer an unknown. You’re always more afraid of the unknown.”

“In order to be a successful racer, you need to have a little bit of crazy in your genes. Racing really is a sickness. You get hooked on this boat racing and you can’t wait until the next race!”

Tristan Collins

Keep your eyes open for the beautiful and the newest fast Shootout girl, 27-year-old Tristan Collins. Tristan won her class in the 2014 Lake of the Ozarks Shootout driving Offshore Endurance, a 40 ft. Skater V-bottom powered by twin 480HP diesel engines. She drove the boat solo, and was the fastest solo female racer at last year’s event.

Offshore Endurance is built for long-distance runs like the 850-mile race from New York to Bermuda. Tristan also drove the boat in the inaugural Dam Challenge last fall (read more about the Dam Challenge in the pages of this program guide).

Tristan was born and raised at the Lake of the Ozarks. “I love to come home to race and see all my friends,” she said. This year Tristan will drive her and her fiancé’s new 50 ft. Skater catamaran with more than twice the muscle. This new Skater is powered by twin 1,200HP diesel engines!

“I never thought of myself as a ‘woman racer,’” she said. “I am just a racer. The guys have been around me long enough that they respect me because they have seen I really know how to run my boat.”

Carolyn Dorris

Carolyn Dorris has been racing in the Shootout since 1997. Most recently she won the 2012, 2013 and 2014 LOZ Shootout Top Gun MP2S1 class championships driving a PlayCraft Pontoon. Carolyn grew up on the water—swimming, skiing and boating in California.

Carrie Sixkiller-Jones

Carrie Sixkiller-Jones has won six out of eight Shootout races in which she has competed. She races a 1993 24-foot Baja Outlaw named B-Nauti, which sports a 525 SC engine. She hopes that when other women see her racing that it will inspire them to get involved. “It is scary, but with the right crew and equipment it is attainable,” Sixkiller-Jones said.  

Come on out to the Shootout and cheer these women racers on as they bring extreme skill, bravery, and beauty to the 2015 Lake of the Ozarks Shootout Powerboat Races.

Maddie Janssen

World champion powerboat racer Madisen “Maddie” Janssen is an example of one of these extreme female racers. Maddie will compete in the 2015 Lake of the Ozarks Shootout, and she has a racing record that most men can only dream about.

Maddie won the 2010 Shootout Top Gun V bottom class, driving Saratoga Stampede. She handled the 2009 42-foot Fountain’s 2,400HP “like a girl,” and topped speeds of 148 mph.

Maddie and Saratoga Stampede also owned 2009 and 2010 World Championship trophies, and then again in 2011 Maddie won another World Championship driving Watch Your Back, a 2011 Fountain.

Maddie took a break from racing due to a rigorous NCAA soccer schedule. She graduated in spring 2015 with a degree in molecular biology, and she plans to continue her education in the medical field, because she wants to help people.

“Physically, our bodies are different than men, but in this sport it comes down to mental capacity,” Maddie said. “We are equally able to read the water, and we can have equal intelligence and response time. That is what is so cool about this sport; no one can win by out-muscling me. This is a 100 percent equal playing field. Women are ferocious competitors. I love speed, and I love to test my limits and the limits of the equipment I am using.”

Look for this young powerboat racer at the 2015 Shootout in Snowy Mountain Brewery, a 30-foot Outerlimits Super V.