In the ’80s, everybody at Six-Mile Cove thought their boat was the fastest.
Long before the crowds, before the million-dollar boats, before anyone called it the Shootout, folks just tied up.
Drag boats. Jet boats. Flat-bottoms. V-drives. Every kind of hull the Lake had to offer, floating side by side. Everyone sure their boat was the fastest.
But talk is cheap, so somebody decided to prove it.
Depending on who you ask, that decision came in 1988 or 1989. The record isn’t clean. Early Shootout history lived in memory more than paperwork, passed down by the people who were there.
It started as the Lake Rescue Shootout, hosted at Shooters 21, a spot at the 21 Mile Marker that exists now only in memories. A handful of locals built the race as a way to raise money for the fire department’s water rescue efforts. Randy Scism ran the fastest boat that first year, topping out at 101 mph.
From day one, it was open to everybody. Amateurs lined up against professionals. Anyone could throw their hat in the ring to be crowned the fastest boat on the Lake of the Ozarks.
This weekend is the 38th Annual Shootout. Boats from around the country are here on the Grand Glaize Arm, chasing bragging rights the same way that first crowd at Six-Mile Cove did. The idea is the same. The boats are faster. Last year’s winning run hit 242 mph. More than double what it took to win in 1989.
The racing draws the cameras. But the reason behind it never changed. It’s still the same mission as that first race at Shooters 21: banding together for the people who’d pull you out of the water if something went wrong. Last year, that meant $815,000 handed straight to local charities and first responders.
Some things at the Lake don’t change. They just get faster.
#LakeOfTheOzarks #LakeOzarkShootout #Shootout2026 #OzarksHistory #LakeHistory #MissouriHistory
Photos:
2005 Shootout at Shooters 21 (images 1, 2, and 4): Jason Curtis, via Vintage Lake of the Ozarks
2011 Shootout flotilla (image 3): J.B. Simpson/LakeExpo.com
This is the Ozarks
Every place carries a story. This is the Ozarks about the history, character, and landscape of the Missouri Ozarks, the towns, the roads, and the people that shaped who we are and why it still matters.
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