One Classy Group: Grimm, Frandsen, Scarpino, Schultz And Trulio Heading Into Shootout Hall Of Fame
By no means is selecting a group for induction into the Lake of the Ozarks Shootout Bob Morgan Memorial Hall of Fame each year an easy task. In fact, it’s become a process that the board of directors for the event, which has brought boaters from all over the country to the lake for more than 30 years, have assigned to a committee to help narrow down nominations.
Jim Schultz, the owner this 51 GTX V-bottom from Outerlimits Offshore Powerboats, is being inducted into the Lake of the Ozarks Shootout Bob Morgan Memorial Hall of Fame in late August. Photo by Pete Boden/Shoot 2 Thrill Pix
Yet this year, the decisions came rather quick and easy because all five members of the class of 2024, who are going to be inducted during a dinner ceremony scheduled for Tuesday evening (August 20) at the Lighthouse in Sunrise Beach, have been a part of the nation’s most impressive and charitable powerboating event for many years.
Starting with a local fire chief who was born and raised at the lake and has been involved with the rescue efforts of a majority of the Lake of the Ozarks Shootouts and moving to the owner the fastest V-bottom in the history of the top-speed contest, a journalist who has covered the event for almost 20 years, a volunteer technical inspector who has been at it for more than 15 years and the person who helped organize the event’s hard-to-handle parking situation when it moved to Captain Ron’s in Sunrise Beach, Mo., in 2008.
So without further ado, let’s get to know the inductees for the 12th annual Bob Morgan Memorial Hall of Fame class a little better starting with arguably the most local person ever inducted into the Hall of Fame.
Hail To The Chief
Scott Frandsen, the Mid-Country Fire Protection District fire chief who has been involved with the Lake of the Ozarks Shootout since the first event at Shooters 21 in 1989, started his career as a firefighter long before he could drive. Born and raised at the lake, Frandsen said he began working alongside his father, who was a fire chief himself, at the age of 10 years old and has worked for three departments at the lake before settling it at Mid-County 15 years ago.
“I won’t say I was expecting (to get into the Hall of Fame), but I was kind of hoping it would happen eventually because I think I’m the only one not in who has been involved since the first one,” said Frandsen, who has been the president of the Missouri Association of Fire Chiefs for 16 years. “I’ve been overseeing the course safety ever since the Shootout moved to Captain Ron’s with the exception of one year because my dad passed away two days before the event. I’m more of the behind-the-scenes guy working in the command bus up on the bridge so you won’t see me out there much.
Mid-Country Fire Protection District fire chief Scott Frandsen (holding radios) has been essential to the event’s rescue team since the Shootout started in 1989. Photo courtesy Mid County Fire Department
“Our department does have the largest footprint of resources at the shootout—we’re the only ones who have dive teams there,” he continued. “Fortunately we’ve been doing it for so long that it is pretty plug and play. Until they throw different things at us, such as the turbine boats or the air show that was added several years ago. In fact, recently we’ve had to adjust our tactics because of the battery-operated boats that have been taking part in the event.”
Frandsen, who joked that cell phones weren’t even invented back when they were originally doing rescue for the Shootout, said he appreciates what the event does for community and how much money it’s helped raise for fire and water rescue resources.
“Every nickel our department gets from the Shootout goes toward water rescue efforts,” he added. “Our district is the largest in the area so we take full advantage of the funds donated from the event.”
Factory Of Speed
There aren’t many powerboat owners quite like Jim Schultz of Lake Zurich, Ill. The owner of Factory Billet, a radical canopied 51-foot Outerlimits V-bottom powered by a pair of in-house built, 3,000-plus engines with three-speed automatic transmissions, Schultz uses his boat pretty much exclusively for the top-speed competition, and he’s been doing so since 2016.
Schultz and his engine-builder, Mike Faucher, do test Factory Billet once or twice ahead of the Shootout, but they never fully push it until they’re on the three-quarter-mile course. And push it they do.
In 2022, the duo established a V-bottom course record of 166 mph, upping its 164-mph mark from 2021. The birth of his daughter knocked Schultz out of the 2020 event—his wife went into labor Friday before the Shootout—but since he and Faucher started competing in the event in 2016, his boat’s top speed has increased every year.
Surrounding by his supporting cast of mechanics and engineers, Factory Billet owner Jim Schultz is excited about his Hall of Fame induction. Photo by Jason Johnson
Coming into the 2023 Shootout, Schultz was hoping to eclipse 170 mph. In fact, he reached out to fellow 2024 Bob Morgan Memorial Lake of the Ozarks Shootout Hall of Fame inductee Matt Trulio of speedonthewater.com to let him know that he would be retiring if he achieved it. Working with Trulio and and Jason Johnson, the co-publisher of speedonthewater.com and a member of the 2018 Lake of the Ozarks Shootout Hall of Fame class, Schultz agreed to fund a video on his efforts.
But no one could have predicted, much less scripted, what happened. After a tough first day that didn’t bode well for the rest of the weekend, Schultz and Faucher reached a mind-boggling 184 mph on the three-quarter-mile course on Sunday.
Of course, being the competitive gentleman he is, Schultz shelved his Shootout retirement, at least for now, and he vows to race Factory Billet again in 2024.
“Other than for practice and testing before the Shootout, the only time I run Factory Billet is in the Shootout,” Schultz said. “The 2023 event was supposed to my last. My wife was, well, looking forward to my retirement. And then on Sunday we ran 184 mph and I thought, ‘Gosh, that’s awfully close to 190 mph,’ so I decided to give it another go. Plus, I made Matt Trulio promise me he would put Factory Billet on the cover of the 2024 Speed On The Water Year In Review magazine if we got our number.
“It’s an honor to be inducted into the Shootout Hall of Fame alongside people like John Cosker of Mystic and Tony Chiaramonte of DCB, who year in and year out deliver remarkable performances,” he continued. “But it’s even more of an honor to be associated with an event that does so much good for its local community. It’s a special event produced by special people—and almost all of them are volunteers.”
Consistent Coverage
As indicated, speedonthewater.com’s Matt Trulio is next on the list of 2024 inductees. Of course, speedonthewater.com has provided consistent coverage of the Shootout since Trulio founded it in 2009, but the award-winning writer actually started reporting on the event about 10 years prior to that while working as an editor at Powerboat magazine, which ceased publishing in 2011.
Not only was he an integral part of the team that was instrumental in putting the Shootout in front of national and international audiences, Trulio is still very much present at today’s event alongside his business partner, Jason Johnson, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2018. His numerous articles before, during and after the event have inspired many people to attend the event as spectators or to participate in it as racers.
Speedonthewater.com founder Matt Trulio, left with business partner Jason Johnson, has been covering the Lake of the Ozarks Shootout for 20 years.
“As much as I appreciate this award and am honored and flattered by it, I’ve always looked at producing solid coverage of the Lake of the Ozarks Shootout as just doing my job,” Trulio said. “But on a personal level, the Shootout will always have its own space in my heart. The friends I’ve made at the lake through it—from Roger and Nancy Neighbors and Chuck and Nikki Sorenson to Jeff and Diana Dorhauer and Ron and Nicole Duggan—are some of the kindest and most authentic people I know. Their hearts are always in the right place. And the memories have been both bitter and sweet—the same year at the Shootout that my friend, Mike Fiore of Outerlimits, had the crash that preceded his death, Steve Curtis and Sheikh Hassan bin Jabor Al-Thani ran 244 mph in the Spirt of Qatar Mystic catamaran.
“OK, and I have to admit I’m more than a little stoked to be inducted alongside Jim Schultz of Factory Billet,” he continued. “He’s a rare gentleman, a brilliant soft-spoken guy who lets his performance in all things speak for him. Little known fact, Jim rarely drinks but, according to him, the only two times he’s been tipsy in the past few years is with me, go figure. I have a hunch we’ll have a repeat performance at this year’s Hall of Fame dinner.”
Inspector Grimm
When it comes to ensuring as many boats as possible get a chance to run on the Shootout course, technical inspector Ed Grimm has just as important a role as the teams who handle registration and course management. That’s exactly why the time has come for Grimm to join the Bob Morgan Memorial Lake of the Ozarks Shootout Hall of Fame.
Every year for the better part of a decade, Grimm, and a team he hand-picks depending on availability and technical knowledge, has been classifying registered boats and making sure they adhere to the event’s safety standards. That’s no easy task, especially considering the number of boats that compete in the two-day event annually, and the variety of boats that now show up from all across the country to run on the three-quarter-mile course.
Not only has Ed Grimm been inspecting boats for the Lake of the Ozarks Shootout for more than a decade, he’s also participated in the top-speed contest. Photo courtesy Ed Grimm
Grimm said he’s witnessed the boats and engine options change dramatically in the 10-plus years he’s been overseeing inspections, leading the event to update and add new classes regularly. Whether it was the new sterndrive power, such as the Mercury Racing HP700SCi engines or the Fond du Lac, Wis., company’s turbocharged QC4v engines that range from 1,100 to 1,750 hp, or the insurgence of outboard engine power that has rejuvenated the catamaran market and made center console-style boats cooler and more powerful than they’ve ever been, Grimm has observed a lot of powerplant differences at the docks.
“We’ve had to create new classes to keep everyone interested in running, whether they have the older or the newer technology,” said Grimm, who not only inspects boats before and during the event but has competed in the Shootout in a Nor-Tech Hi-Performance Boats V-bottom and a Cigarette Racing Team V-bottom owned by his good friend and fellow Hall of Famer Charlie Schaefer. “The bottom line is that we want to see as many boaters go down the course as possible so we don’t want to have someone with the older 300XS outboard engines have to compete against someone with the 450R or 500R outboards. If I had my way, I’d give everyone a trophy with their speed on it because they’re really only out there racing against themselves to test the limits of their own boats, and better their previous speeds.
“I am beyond ecstatic about being inducted into the Hall of Famer,” he continued. “It’s a tremendous honor to be recognized by my peers and my friends. I’ve truly enjoyed meeting so many competitors and developing some real friendships in the process.
Parking Phenom
Anyone who knows how many vehicles arrive at the Captain Ron’s property to attend the Shootout over the course of several days in late August appreciates Frank Scarpino, who retired from his career as the international locomotive sales manager at General Motors in La Grange, Ill., and moved to the lake in 2000.
Upon arriving at the lake, Scarpino and his wife, Jacki, took their volunteering efforts seriously. Scarpino became active in the Laurie Elks Lodge, where he served as president two times as well as the Missouri Elks State Drug Awareness Chairman. He also joined the Knights of Columbus at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Laurie and eventually volunteered to help park cars for the first Shootout at Captain Ron’s in 2008.
“The first year Captain Ron’s took over the Shootout, I volunteered to park cars, and boy was it a mess,” Scarpino said. “And I told Ron Duggan just that, and he said ‘You think you can do it better? Do it.’ So I did for 12 years. Eventually, I even joined the Shootout board and served as a member for nine years.
“With help from my wife, who has so much patience, we got to know all of the volunteers each year and she placed all 180 of them covering four days of parking—many working multiple four-hour shifts—in a position their health and agility could handle,” he added.
Retiree Frank Scarpino was shocked to learn he was being inducted into the Shootout Hall of Fame. Photo courtesy Frank Scarpino
Not only was Scarpino a board member, he helped improve the parking situation year in and year out. He even had a trail paved without anyone’s authority and no money to pay for it. The paved road made Scallywags into a functional parking lot, he said.
“I was totally shocked when I received a phone call from Mark Maasen telling me I was going to be inducted to the Shootout Hall of Fame; it may sound corny but it is like a dream come true,” said Scarpino, who moved from the lake to Fort Myers, Fla., in 2020 to be closer to his wife’s sister. “Even at 80 years old I felt like crying. I feel truly honored to become an official part of the Shootout family. The event has never left my soul; I will always have the greatest respect for it because of what it means for the local community’s fire departments and so many other charitable organizations.
“I made a lot of friends thanks to my years helping with the Shootout and I continue supporting it here in Florida, in my own way, by wearing one of my event T-shirts on a regular basis,” he continued. “I almost miss even being called the ‘Parking Nazi’ and the many stories from folks on why they shouldn’t have to pay the parking fee. Do you know how many times I heard, ‘But I know Ron Duggan so I get to park up front’ come out of someone’s mouth? A lot.”
Editor’s note: Details on how to get tickets for the Bob Morgan Memorial Hall of Fame ceremony will be available later this month.
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