Besides walking away with the two biggest checks from the third annual Lake Race on Missouri’s Lake of the Ozarks, Bob Bull stole the show with his CMS offshore racing team fleet of orange and black MTI catamarans at the docks in front of Beavers at the Dam. There’s no doubt Bull, who owns a home on the lake, was out to win back the “Run What You Brung” class trophy that he and MTI owner Randy Scism took home at the inaugural race in 2013.

Bob Bull’s collection of MTI catamarans is downright impressive. Photo courtesy CMS 03 throttleman John Tomlinson/TNT Custom Marine

And that’s exactly what he did as his CMS 3 boat edged out the CMS 03 boat driven by Jeff Harris and throttled by John Tomlinson during Sunday’s main event on the five-mile course with thousands of spectators watching from homes on the shoreline, boats on the course or along the historic Bagnell Dam.

Scism, who was excited to have both CMS raceboats as well as Bull’s pleasure version canopied MTI at the event, said that the race was great and that it keeps getting better every year. Last year, Bull and Scism finished behind Keith Holmes and Barry Glovick in the Cat Can Do Skater Powerboats cat after being disqualified in the first race for missing a buoy. This year Holmes’ CK Motorsports team hurt an engine early in the race and wasn’t a factor.

“I’ve never been to the lake other than to test or run in the Shootout,” said Tomlinson, who has won the Lake of the Ozarks Shootout Top Gun several times with Nauti-Marine’s Dave Scott, who handled broadcasting duties with Brendan Matthews during the KRMS-produced TV and radio coverage on Saturday and Sunday. “It was a cool event and it ended up being a great test session for our team because we could run the boats hard but we didn’t have to push the equipment. We also don’t get to run that often in flat water.”

The slideshow above includes action-packed images from Lake Race courtesy of Pete Boden/Shoot 2 Thrill Pix.

Tomlinson, who had never competed in an Offshore Powerboat Association event, gave a lot of credit to the organization that sanctioned the race like it did last year.

“From the way they did the drivers’ meeting to the assistance they provided the teams, you could tell the OPA guys were there for the racers,” Tomlinson said. “It was a real no-nonsense group, which was nice. Everything went smooth.”

Sharing the same sentiments as Tomlinson, Ryan Beckley, who has traveled from Florida to Missouri all three years, brought home the Super Stock/Cat Lite class victory as he and driver Tanner Lewis finished first both days in the Cedar Ridge Plantation Skater to edge the Smart Marine tandem of Chris Schoenbohm and Shaun Torrente and the FJ Propeller team of Gary Ballough and Nick Dorcich.

“The guys at Lake Race and OPA put on a truly awesome event—we are stoked to come back to LOTO every year,” said Beckley, who thanked his wife, Debbie, for supporting his passion and taking care of their two-year-old son and future boat racer, Connor. “Winning here is an awesome accomplishment for the DoublEdge Motorsports team. We work hard on the boat—my 17-year-old son, Chris, and I do most of the work and our driver Tanner Lewis is super excited and positive all the time.”

Ballough, who won the Super Stock class race last year with driver Tyler Chastelet, was excited for Beckley and his team.

“It’s nice to see Ryan get the Lake Race win this year,” Ballough said. “Several people told me we had the best race of the day on Sunday and I believe it because we had our boats nose to nose a couple of times out there.”

The Lake Ozarks Marine bikini team grabbed photographer Pete Boden’s attention—as well as everyone else’s—during the street party.

The largest class of the weekend was the six-boat fleet in Class 5 with the Wazzup II Carrera, which finished first both days, besting Wanna Race? and Reinforcer for the top spot on the podium. Class 6 featured four boats as the Early Detection Racing Bat Boat edged out the Smith Brothers Racing/CRC Joker and the BOOM Shaka Laka Switzer-Craft. Lil Squirt finished first and second on Saturday and Sunday to top the three-boat Class 7 field.

With two boats doing battle in Class 4, Smokin’ Section finished ahead of RDC Racing in each race. Class 3 featured a pair of Fountains battling on the course with Wazzup edging out Strictly Business on both days, while Class 2 included three boats and the order was the same each day as the Bat Boat MTI got the best of the second-place Team Wicked and third-place RDC Racing.

In the competitive four-boat Super Vee Lite class, BoatFloater.com finished ahead of LSB Racing, Pirate Racing and Typhoon. The Super Cat class went uncontested as the Cleveland Construction Skater looked good running the course.

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