The 2025 Lake of the Ozarks Shootout is going to be remembered for many things—the new location and course, the end of American Ethanol’s 10-year streak of overall Top Gun titles and maybe even the record-breaking personal watercraft top speed of 121 mph. But most of all, the 37th annual event on Central Missouri’s popular waterway will go down in history as the year the former Spirit of Qatar Mystic Powerboats catamaran returned to the event behind new owner Darryl Cutell of Darana Hybrid Electro-Mechanical Solutions in Hamilton, Ohio, and annihilated the three-quarter-mile course record of 221 mph with a 242-mph run in the Darana Hybrid 50-foot Mystic.

Darryl Cuttell and Steve Curtis shattered the three-quarter-mile course record at the 2025 Lake of the Ozarks Shootout with a 242-mph top speed in Cuttell’s turbine-powered 50-foot Mystic Powerboats catamaran. Photo by Jeff Helmkamp/Helmkamp Photos

Cuttell, who earlier this year purchased the International Hot Rod Association shortly after Darana Hybrid entered a multi-year title sponsorship of the IHRA sanctioning body, needed just one pass alongside veteran throttleman Steve Curtis to set a new course record and nearly topple the 244-mph mark the 50-footer—also throttled by Curtis and driven by owner Sheikh Hassan bin Jabor Al-Thani—set on the one-mile course in 2014.

“That boat with that power at that speed is very impressive,” Cuttell said during an interview on the docks at Dog Days Bar & Grill, the event’s new host venue in Osage Beach. “There’s probably a little bit left in the bag, but we felt like 242 mph was good enough for this year. This was no easy task, especially with the issues we encountered yesterday that prevented us from running. It was a little overwhelming getting the boat ready so this feels wonderful. I feel like I can breathe again.”

The British throttleman, who was tasked by Cuttell with bringing the boat back to life at his shop in Stuart, Fla., said the boat and its twin 3,500-hp T-55 turbine engines felt amazing, adding that he wished they had the chance to run it once or twice on Saturday.

Speedonthewater.com chief photographer Pete Boden snapped this image of a cheerful Steve Curtis following the record-setting run.

“We’re thrilled to bits—that was faster than we expected,” Curtis said. “To be honest with you, we were aiming for about 230 mph. We thought that was a good, safe target. So 242 mph is an incredible number for us. The boat handled beautifully. As soon as we got over the line, the boat laid down and got on top of it, and it was just rolling from there. It felt great. I do think 250 mph is possible on the three quarter mile after going that fast.

“We have so many people to thank for getting us here, starting with our dedicated crew—those are the guys who have done all the hard work,” he added. “Tyler and Lindsey Miller of the Monster Energy/M CON team lent us their workshop here in town and they are their crew have been fantastic to us. Our guys were there until 11 o’clock (Saturday) night getting all the bugs out.”

After being congratulated at the docks by Don Onken, the owner of the American Ethanol Mystic that ran 221 mph in 2024 to win its 10th straight Top Gun but only reached 179 mph this year after battling mechanical issues all weekend, Curtis and Cuttell proceeded to thank the organizers of the event and acknowledge the dozens of competitors and boat owners, such as Onken and Slug Hefner, for their continued dedication to the Lake of the Ozarks Shootout, which was presented by Lippert and powered by Performance Boat Center.

Check out the slideshow above for more images from Pete Boden.

Hefner, who on Tuesday was inducted into the Lake of the Ozarks Shootout Bob Morgan Memorial Hall of Fame, was not at all disappointed that his Dirty Duck Skater Powerboats catamaran powered by twin 2,000-plus-hp turbocharged Carson Brummett engines didn’t eclipse the extraordinary 215-mph top speed throttleman Rusty Williams and driver Adam Seraphine hit on Saturday. In two attempts on Sunday, the duo managed to reach 212 and 213 mph. And Hefner’s boat was still the second-fastest of the competition.

Behind Dirty Duck in top speed overall was the Team Yahoo Skater 36 cat owned by Curtis Morris, which reached 185 mph on Saturday but ran out of fuel during its only pass on Sunday, idling through the radar traps at 125 mph. The next fastest speed also happened to be the fastest boat driven by a female. Missouri’s Sabrina Kowalik, who also drove the Team Allen Lawn Care and Landscaping raceboat with owner Bill Allen, ran 165 mph in Rosenbach Freight, Scott Rosenbach’s new MTI 48 catamaran with throttleman Rusty Williams of Performance Boat Center by her side.

Although his 117-mph pass in his 25-foot South Bay tri-toon Tooned In was less than half of the Darana-Hybrid Mystic’s top speed, Illinois’ Brad Rowland, also a Shootout Hall of Fame member, set a new pontoon speed record for the event. And while speedonthewater.com doesn’t often report on personal watercraft results, Joe Cardella shattering his own 104-mph event record for a PWC with a 121-mph pass on his modified Yamaha GPR is too remarkable not to share in the Sunday highlights story.

Hall of Famer Brad Rowland upped his pontoon speed record with a 117-mph pass in his triple-engine South Bay. Photo by Pete Boden

Also impressive, but not quite at the overall Top Gun V-bottom speed that Factory Billet owned by Jim Schultz has established the past several years and likely would have accomplished again this weekend had mechanical issues during testing on Friday not slowed it down, was Gary Schoepke’s performance in his triple-engine 51-foot Outerlimits sport yacht Bankrupt Me. Schoepke and his throttleman CJ Jones reached 130 mph twice on Saturday and followed that up with a Sunday-best of 127 mph to earn this year’s Top Gun V-bottom title.

A Shootout veteran thanks to his Hall of Fame father, Dennis Parvey, who drove his 43-foot open-cockpit Black Thunder V-bottom to 166 mph at his final Shootout in 2023, Jason Parvey was on hand for the Shootout to run with and support his good friend and boss at Sterling Fab Tech in Dallas, Clay Kehrer. Parvey joined Kehrer in his 40-foot Skater Say When, which recently had its twin Mercury Racing QC4v engines upgraded with proprietary components.

Kehrer and Parvey hit a top speed of 161 mph in the Skater on Sunday and Kehrer also drove Dopamine, his twin outboard-powered 37-foot Outerlimits catamaran, to a remarkable 145 mph.

“Our goals were 140 mph in the Outerlimits and 160 mph in the Skater, so we’re happy with the results knowing we have a lot left in both of the boats,” Parvey said. “We were scrambling to get everything done in time for the Shootout and were still wrapping up odds and ends on Saturday night. But we made it work. We hit our goals and are walking away with putting them both on the trailer, really excited for next year.

“It looks like the new venue is going to be a good thing for the Shootout,”  he added. “The new course is a little odd at the end so hopefully they can get that straightened out for next year.”

Slug Hefner’s Dirty Duck Skater, a fan favorite, was the second-fastest boat at the Shootout this year at 215 mph. Photo by Pete Boden

Kehrer’s speed in the Outerlimits SC37 ended up being the second-fastest outboard-powered cat at the event behind the 147-mph clip recorded by the DWR/Doug Wright Powerboats 39 Carbon owned by Waves and Wheels founder Justin Wagner.

Wagner, who as of July is now the owner of DWR/Doug Wright Powerboats, allowed his good friends, Andy Imhof and Mitch Kramer of Maryland Offshore Performance Marine Center in Ijamsville, Md., to run the 39-footer, which is powered by twin Mercury Racing 500R engines enhanced with modifications from Kong Performance and MoTeC.

“I spent a lot of time setting up the boat with support from my amazing team as well as the teams at Kong and MoTeC, so hitting a big number felt great,” Wagner said, adding that the boat hit 150-plus mph on GPS. “Mitch and Andy did amazing out there on Saturday and Sunday. We had to put a crane on our pontoon to lift their testicles out of the boat and put them back onto our boat when they were done.”

Andy Imhof and Mitch Kramer ran the 39 Carbon Doug Wright to a top speed of 147 mph on Sunday. Photo by Pete Boden

Wagner, who was inducted into the Shootout Hall of Fame on Tuesday night and sponsored Wednesday’s Shootout on the Strip, laughed and went back to being serious.

“Even with the big speed in the 39 Carbon, I was just as impressed seeing our customers run their brand new stock Doug Wrights in the Shootout by themselves,” he expressed. “We sold Mick Tedder his 39 Carbon at Desert Storm in Lake Havasu in April and 100 days later we delivered the boat and he ran it up to 111 mph on Saturday. Michael Butterfield also participated in his new 42 Carbon and got his boat up to 124 mph on Sunday. I couldn’t be happier for those guys.

“This year’s event overall has been absolutely incredible,” Wagner continued. “Everyone I’ve dealt with has been so accommodating and professional. I love the new location and the new course. I have a feeling this location is going to help the Shootout continue to raise more money every year for local charities.”

Another couple of outboard-powered catamaran performances worth noting includes Warren Duke’s jaw-dropping 151-mph top speed in his 28-foot Skater on Saturday, which he backed up on Sunday with a 150-mph pass, and Sara Langheim’s 131-mph effort alongside her husband, Reese, in Jackhammer, the 38-foot Valor catamaran he races in the 500R Factory Stock class.

David Hull drove his single-engine DCB M29 catamaran to an impressive 146 mph on Sunday. Photo by Pete Boden

Also impressive was the 146-mph top speed recorded by David Hull in his DCB M29 catamaran powered by a single turbocharged Mercury Racing 1350 engine. Hull was not far behind a trio of twin-sterndrive-powered DCBs that topped 160 mph and was only a few miles per hour behind two radical twin-engine cats that improved their speeds on Sunday—Adam Carpenter’s Pussycat Skater (149 mph) and Kelly O’Hara’s Holy Cow IV MTI (148 mph).

Also improving its speed on Sunday, the XINSURANCE-backed turbine-powered Mystic driven by J.J. Turk and Nick Buis ran 158 mph on the three-quarter-mile course. Jimmy Wessel upped his speed from 88 mph on Saturday to 94 mph on Sunday in his Miss Stress Bracket 400-class raceboat and offshore racer Chris Uzzolina gave it a valiant effort on Sunday in the University of Michigan Electric Boat team’s 22-foot Liberator but only managed to reach 70 mph, falling short of the team’s goals of setting an electric-powered-boat speed record.

Last but not least, Tiffany Ison of Ison Marine added to the girl power behind this year’s event by running two of the Kentucky-based dealership’s center consoles in the contest. Ison drove a 36-foot GSX Powerboats model powered by triple Mercury Racing 500R engines to 97 mph and also reached 90 mph in a Cigarette 41 Nighthawk with four 500R outboards.

Enjoy the slideshow above with additional images from Jeff Helmkamp.

“I am not sure if I can explain how unbelievable this year’s event has been,” said Mark Maasen, the president of the Lake of the Ozarks Shootout board of directors and one of the owners of Poly Lift Boat Lifts. “We had a 242-mph run and a 121-mph run in a PWC, and I’m not sure either would have happened on the previous course. The new course tucked back in there is amazing because there aren’t rogue waves or anything like that. We also had Cleetus McFarland, a famous YouTuber, and Kye Kelley from Street Outlaws here checking the event out.

“I can’t even believe how much the new location would change things—it’s been absolutely amazing,” he continued. “My phone has been blowing up with people saying how this move was the best thing ever. I’ve even gotten phone calls from some of the businesses that were affected by the long no-wake zone before that said they’ve more than doubled their business this weekend because people could get to them easily.”

Tiffany Ison recorded a top speed of 90 mph in a Cigarette 41 Nighthawk center console named Smokin’ At Tiffany’s. Photo by Pete Boden

Maasen wanted to give extra thanks to all of the volunteers and sponsors who support the Shootout each year and to the entire team at Dog Days for stepping up in a big way to welcome the event.

“The team at Dog Days absolutely killed it,” he said. “They brought in extra staff and they were ready, willing and able to make things happen here. One of my friends, who was sitting with me in the VIP section, aka the Dog Pound, was looking out over the property watching the boats go by and said, ‘It feels like the Shootout is home.’ I thought that was a good way to describe it. It almost feels like this is where it should have always been.

“Everyone seemed to love the new venue and course—now we just need to work on taking everything to the next level from here,” he added. “We’ll always keep improving. The Shootout’s mission statement is to put on a world-class race and raise as much money as possible for our local charities that desperately need it. That’s what we’re all about.”

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