Szolack To Run Piston- And Turbine-Engine-Powered Cats In 2024 Lake of the Ozarks Shootout
Lake of the Ozarks Shootout veteran Ron Szolack, who has a home on the shore of the Central Missouri Waterway, has taken top honors five times in whatever class he happened to be running. But there’s one thing Szolack—or anyone else for that matter—hasn’t done in the top-speed contest.
Run a turbine engine-powered catamaran and a piston engine-powered catamaran in the same event, which is celebrating its 36th anniversary this year.
And come August 24-25, Szolack is planning to change that.
Szolack’s Skater 388 will soon have new Kasse Racing engines.
As reported in late December 2023 on speedonthewater.com, Szolack purchased an eight-seat Skater Powerboats 388 Widebody catamaran and a pair of 50-foot Mystic Powerboats catamarans including Low Altitude from Louisiana’s James Branton. Waves And Wheels of Osage Beach, Mo., recently dressed Low Altitude in new graphics for the noted powerboat horse-trader, but other than that no changes have been made to twin 1,850-hp turbine-engine cat.
But there are big changes in store for the 38-footer, which Szolack originally commissioned and was displayed at the 2019 Miami International Boat Show. The boat will be repowered with turbocharged engines currently be completed at Jon Kasse Racing Engines in Winder, Ga.
“I won’t know exactly how much power they will make until Kasse gets them off the dyno, but I do know they will be dual-fuel and the first setting will be 1,425 hp on 91-octane fuel,” said Szolack.
Evan Ramsey of Hydroflat Custom Fiberglass built and painted new scoops for the 38-footer.
Szolack plans to have Mystic Powerboats founder John Cosker, no stranger to the Lake of the Ozarks Shootout, in the cockpit with him when he runs the turbine engine-powered. Performance Boat Center’s Myrick Coil, another Shootout veteran, will join him in the Kasse engine-powered Skater 388.
But Szolack’s goal isn’t simply to run two catamarans with radically different power in the 2024 event. He wants to reach 200 mph in each of them on the same day.
“To own two boats and run over 200 mph in both of them on the same day at the Shootout would be cool,” he said.
Low Altitude will soon have a new trailer to move around the Lake of the Ozarks.
Though Szolack would like to add bigger power to Low Altitude in the form T-55 turbine engines, he’s yet to nail down a set. But in the meantime, he’s done something equally important for the cat.
“I just made a deal today with CTS Custom Trailers to be one of my sponsors,” he said. “They are building a new trailer for Low Altitude for the Shootout.”
Related stories
Lake Of The Ozarks Shootout ‘Experience’ Package Going On The Block In Kuttawa
Scism Returns To Chair Lake Of The Ozarks Shootout Live Auction At New Venue With $100,000 Set Up For Donor Matching
Lake Of The Ozarks Shootout Bringing Back APBA-Sanctioned Kilo Runs
Registration Now Open For All Lake Of The Ozarks Shootout Events
Shootout Offshore Releases Event Schedule
Powerboat P1 To Produce ‘New’ Shootout Offshore Race At Lake Of The Ozarks
Szolack Gifts Himself A Very Merry Three-Catamaran Christmas
.
