Nevada: Speedboat flies into air at more than 200 mph during doomed race
The drivers of the speedboat, who were going by the pseudonyms John Wayne and Clint Eastwood, were trying to break the record of 206 mph at Saturday's 2025 Desert Storm Shootout boating event. Shortly after they started, their Skater 388 took flight on Lake Havasu. Footage showed the boat flying in the air before slamming back down into the water. Horrified onlookers looked on as the speedboat flipped several times, video shared by Speedboat Magazine shows.
Fortunately, both the drivers survived the crash with minor injuries. 'They came to Lake Havasu earlier in the week intending to break the record here for the desert storm shootout,' the magazine's Ray Lee said, according to the New York Post. 'That was their first pass of the day and when they went over, the radar picked them up at 200.1 mph.'
The drivers are racers with Freedom One Racing based out of Kansas City, Missouri. They were using the names of Hollywood action heroes Wayne and Eastwood in an effort to protect their identities.
Another video, shared by Freedom One Racing on Facebook, shows the inside of the cockpit at the moment of impact.
Fellow competitor Jeff Clark described the crash as 'horrendous.' 'My heart dropped when I saw that boat get airborne. It's never something you want to look at when you're out having fun as a driver for sure,' he said.
It is believed that while windy conditions may have been responsible for the crash, it also ironically saved the lives of the people onboard. 'Best-case scenario, because of the wind, when the boat cut it, it held it up there longer than had there not been such substantial wind,' Lee said.
Meanwhile, Clark said the boat's design may have saved lives. 'Those guys are alive for one reason and one reason only. That boat was built not to come apart,' he said. 'I tip my hat to … the crew that built that boat because it saved that guy's life, it saved both of their lives, there's no doubt about it.'
According to Motorsport Memorial, there have been as many as 11 fatal racing crashes in Lake Havasu since 1963. The deadliest crash took place in 2018, when three people lost their lives in a tragedy involving a boat called the Lickety Split.
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