As seemingly “common” as topping 200 mph during the Lake of the Ozarks Shootout has become, it is anything but. Competitors who have achieved the lofty feat are a tiny fraction—far less than 1 percent—of the thousands of powerboats that have competed in the Central Missouri event during the past 37 years. It is an exclusive club—and one that that the Texas-based Team Yahoo pairing of throttleman Curtis Morris and driver Jamin Jones hope to join this year during the August 29-30 top-speed contest in their open-cockpit Skater 368 powered by 580-cubic-inch, twin turbocharged engines built by Alexi Sahagian of Boostpower USA Marine fame.
Team Yahoo is heading into its sixth year of Lake of the Ozarks Shootout competition. Photos by Pete Boden copyright Shoot 2 Thrill Pix.
“The engines won’t fit on a dyno, so I can’t tell you what their horsepower output is,” Jones said, then chuckled, during a telephone interview yesterday. “What I can say is that they are high-rpm engines that peak in 8,000 rpm range built by the “mad scientist” of high-output power.
“Reaching 200 mph on the three-quarter-mile-course has been one of our goals for the past several years,” he added. “And I think we’re in a good position to achieve that this time.”
Morris and Jones have competed in the Shootout for the past five years and taken top honors in their class each year. During last year’s event, they notched an official 185-mph result.
But it wasn’t their fastest mark so far during the Lake of the Ozarks affair, which raised more than $800,000 for local charities in 2026. The team achieved 196 mph on of its passes that year, but the effort was nullified as the team exceeded the speed-limit at the entry to the course.
Morris and Jones tested the 2009 model-year cat, originally built for pleasure use and powered by 500-hp Mercury Racing engines, earlier this week and were buoyed by the results.
“We installed three-speed transmissions last year,” Jones said, then chuckled again. “We actually down-shifted going into a turn yesterday. “I’ve never experienced anything like it.”
Jones emphasized that the 368 is a pleasure-boat.
“We still run it in poker runs,” he quipped. “It has six seats and a windshield. It was not built as a raceboat.
“We are not professionals,” he added. “We’re just a bunch of yahoos. That’s why the boat has that name.”
The goal for the team, which includes crew chief TR Hernandez and “super star” crew member Terry Murray, is for the Skater to become the fastest open-cockpit pleasure-boat in Shootout history.
But they are not taking their decidedly dangerous endeavor lightly.
“We want to be safe,” Jones said. “We have been shooting for 200 mph for the past three years. It’s all about taking things slowly and getting comfortable with what the boat is going to do.”