The Dirt Legal Sponsored Velocity Punisher Wins Class in Shootout!
Photo credit: @velocity_factory_race_team
Well, the 36th Annual Lake of the Ozarks Shootout has come to a close and as with all racers there were winners and losers. This is the first year of the Shootout that Dirt Legal has entered the fray and sponsored a boat, so we were thrilled to find out that Team Velocity Boats had placed!
Brad Christopher had his 300 single absolutely balls to walls to nail an impressive 89 mph and an award from the Shootout team. Very nicely done, Brad.
89 MPH With A Single Engine
Alright, we’re all gearheads and knuckle draggers around here, so let’s talk specs: what was Brad piloting to almost hit the century mark with a single engine?
The boat in question is a brand new, 2025 Velocity Powerboats Carbon Punisher. This complete stud of a boat is running a Mercury Racing 300 R single engine. So what does that mean? I had to look it up because I am just not that familiar with boats, and dang, it is impressive.
The 300 R is a 4.6l V8 rated at a thunderous 300 horsepower at full throttle, which is 5,800 RPM on the tach.
To put this into perspective, this is 300 horsepower on a carbon fiber boat that only weighs in around 2,600 lbs. I don’t care what kind of vehicle you’re talking about here, 300 horsepower in anything that only weighs a little over a ton is gonna scoot.
What’s So Great About Carbon Fiber?
So, what is so great about carbon fiber?
Carbon fiber is a composite, and is used for all kinds of vehicles and projects, from boats to airplanes. Carbon fiber itself is a cloth that is kind of unassuming. The hull of the boat is built very similar to airplanes and airplane components that use composite composition, which is to sculpt the shape of the hull out of foam and then wrap it in carbon fiber cloth.
The cloth is then impregnated with some type of epoxy that then hardens when cured. When the epoxy is applied properly, carbon fiber is far lighter than steel but exhibits incredible strength-to-weight ratios, typically around five times stronger than steel.
Finally, the best thing about it is that it can be customized to just about any shape you could ever want. This is ideal for boats, where tiny amounts of aerodynamic and hydrodynamic improvements can mean the difference between an L and a W.
The Racer & The Race
Like we said previously, we sponsored Velocity Powerboats team for this beautiful Punisher boat, and the boat was piloted by old pro Brad Christopher. Brad hales from Green Cove Springs.
How about the race itself?
The Lake of the Ozarks Shootout is a fixture of the Ozarks and is well known to most people from the region. Every year, thousands of avid boaters and casual observers alike descend on the area to check out the racers and watch some crazy fast boats.
How fast? Crazy fast. The record so far was set in 2014 by the Spirit of Qatar at an insane 244 mph. That is not a typo. So far, that record stands but every year boaters from all over the world set their sights on it, and every year returns runs exceeding 200 mph.
Obviously, this is not the norm for every class, and there are a bunch of classes of racing boats with speeds ranging from 60 mph to over 200. That’s what makes the Shootout so popular and why it has lasted so long: it is accessible to people from all walks of life. You have locals from Missouri racing, and you have literal sheiks from Qatar shipping their boats around the world to race.
Course Length
The course itself is about ¾ of a mile long, although that is kind of a misnomer since there is so much buffering along the course. It is an infamous straightaway on the lake that is right in front of Captain Ron’s and Pirate’s Point.
Photo Credit: Lake of the Ozarks Shootout
Now, the total length of the course is much longer with lead-ins and shut down areas, not to mention the safety zones.
Class
The Velocity Punisher 22 with a 300 R engine is a Lake Racer class boat, which falls under the NIDBA Boat Classification. These are boats that run outboard engines exceeding 280 horsepower, and these boats have been racing on lakes in the region for a long, long time. Like, since the 70s long-time.
More specifically, the Punisher 22 that Brad owns and operates is in the MV10B1 class, which routinely runs in the 80-100 mph ranges.
Future Plans
We loved watching Brad take home a trophy over the weekend, and to be honest, we loved seeing his boat wearing orange black with “Dirt Legal” on the side.
Will we be back next year? We sure hope so, and we hope they bring home some sweet hardware next year
Photo credit: @velocity_factory_race_team
In the meantime, Dirt Legal does offer products to help boaters when it comes to titling and registering your watercraft. We know that recovering a title for watercraft can be a hassle if one you own goes missing, or you want to buy a boat that needs a title but doesn’t have one. Also, since we title and register through Montana, there is zero sales tax so you can save a lot of money using our program.
And again, great job to Brad Christopher on his win, and we hope to see him on the stage getting even more hardware next year!
Dirt biking remains a vibrant and evolving culture as we head into 2025. Gas-powered bikes continue to see steady, incremental improvements, while electric dirt bikes are rapidly advancing with lighter components, longer battery life, and impressive torque. Legislative efforts like House Resolution 906 aim to empower riders with the right to repair their own vehicles, fostering independence within the community. Despite restrictive state regulations, dirt biking culture thrives, with growing sales and creative solutions like Montana LLC registration ensuring riders can hit the trails legally. The future of dirt biking is a blend of tradition, innovation, and resilience.