Steve Ticknor, President of Desert Storm 2.0, and Leah Martin, Executive Director of the Lake of the Ozarks Shootout, have announced that a Shootout National Championship is being created by the two largest events in performance boating. Changes are being made to enable teams competing in the Desert Storm Shugrues’ Shootout (Saturday, April 26 on Lake Havasu, AZ) to collect points to combine with those to be earned at the Lake of the Ozarks, MO (Aug. 23-24) thus making the inaugural National Shootout Championship Series for Performance Boating.

To facilitate this, Desert Storm will adopt the competitor classifications currently in use by LOTO to provide compatibility. Along with it, common safety protocols and operational standards will be adopted and implemented by these two major events. This will develop standardization while being proactive in the running and insuring of these high speed, crowd pleasing events. It will give added recognition to the teams that campaign these awesome boats in addition to the local and regional awards they now earn. Other Shootout events may want to join with Desert Storm and LOTO in the future.

For 2025, the Desert Storm Shootout will launch the Jones Family Cup Awards with a cash purse of $20,000 for contestants. This is generously hosted by long time shootout competitor Tim Jones and his family. Details will be available shortly.

‍