The current overall top speed belongs to, no surprise, the Onken Racing Team’s American Ethanol Mystic Powerboats catamaran, the overall Top Gun-winning boat for five straight years. An hour into the day, throttleman John Cosker, the founder of Mystic in DeLand, Fla., and driver Tony Battiato, of team sponsor Big Thunder Marine in Lake Ozark, rattled off its best speed of the day 202 mph. The team followed up with a 201 mph run after the course re-opened, and Cosker isn’t sure if the boat will run again tomorrow.
Our unlimited hydros on the Columbia River here are faster, but not much (at ends of straightaways), while racing on an oval course. Jet turbine powered, of course.
That 202 this year was his first run on the 3/4 mile course with speed measured by radar and he has to be under 40 mph starting into the 3/4 mile.