Latest news with #FreedomOneRacing
Ammon
30-04-2025
- Automotive
- Ammon
Speedboat that flipped midair in 200 mph crash wins race on Arizona lake
Ammon News - A speedboat went airborne and did a complete backward flip while racing at about 200 mph (322kph) before crashing into an Arizona racers inside the boat's covered cabin survived the event, which saw the boat go over 30 feet (9 meters) in the air. They wore harnesses and helmets, and 'were just a little banged up,' according to a social media post on Facebook by the Freedom One Racing team and an account by a race Saturday crash took place on a three quarter-mile course (1.2 kilometer) at an annual speedboat flying boat still managed to cross the finish line and win the contest by registering a top speed of 200.1 mph (322 kph), Speedboat Magazine Publisher Ray Lee said the twin-hull Skater boat is designed to rise up and hydroplane across the surface of the water. Windy conditions and propeller adjustments called trims likely contributed to the boat taking flight, he says it's an inherently dangerous sport, through courses have been shortened from a previous length of 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) that produced speeds in excess of 240 mph (386 kph). Safety precautions include reinforced cockpits with underwater diving One Racing released a video saying its boat operators got out safely and that the vessel was now back on a trailer. The video showed extensive damage to the boat, including splintered for Freedom One Racing did not immediately respond to email and phone messages. The team emphasizes fundraising for Ticknor, president of the company that runs the event, said the boat was participating in a contest to see which vessel could race the course the fastest. He said divers were on hand and responded to the crash within 20 described the relief of seeing both people on board the boat pop open the hatch. 'Oh my gosh, it's just a miracle,' Ticknor said.*AP
ABC News
29-04-2025
- Sport
- ABC News
Footage shows US speedboat soaring into air and crashing into lake at 322kph
A speedboat attempting to break a speed record in the US state of Arizona has spun in the air before crashing back into the water. Footage of the incident from Arizona's Lake Havasu showed the boat zooming off the water's surface and flipping mid-air while travelling at what was said to be a speed of about 322 kilometres per hour. The crash took place at the Desert Storm Shugrue's Shootout annual speedboat race on Saturday, US time. Two racers inside the boat's covered cabin survived the incident in which the boat launched more than 9 metres into the air. According to the Freedom One Racing team and an account by a race witness, the pair wore harnesses and helmets and "were just a little banged up". Freedom One Racing released a video saying its boat operators got out safely and that the vessel was now back on a trailer. The video showed extensive damage to the boat, including splintered fibreglass. Event organiser describes relief at 'miracle' survival The boat still managed to cross the finish line and win the contest by registering a top speed of 322kph, Speedboat Magazine Publisher Ray Lee said. Mr Lee said the twin-hull Skater boat was designed to rise up and hydroplane across the surface of the water, adding that windy conditions and propeller adjustments called trims likely contributed to the boat taking flight. He said it was an inherently dangerous sport, though racecourses had been shortened from a previous length of 1.6 kilometres that produced speeds in excess of 386kph. Safety precautions include reinforced cockpits with underwater diving gear. Representatives for Freedom One Racing did not immediately respond to requests for comment from the AP news agency. Steve Ticknor, president of the company that runs the event, said the boat was participating in a contest to see which vessel could race the course the fastest. He said divers were on hand and responded to the crash within 20 seconds. Mr Ticknor described his relief at seeing both people on board the boat pop open the hatch. "Oh my gosh, it's just a miracle," he said. AP
New York Times
29-04-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Dramatic Video Shows a Speedboat Flipping Through the Air at 200 M.P.H.
The high-powered speedboat skimmed across Lake Havasu in Arizona, its throttle pressed harder and harder by its operator until the boat reached more than 200 miles per hour. Then the boat was sucked into the air by its own aerodynamic design and flipped repeatedly before slamming back into the water. Spectators at the Desert Storm race on Saturday were stunned into silence, aside from some gasps and expletives, according to video that was widely shared online and picked up by national media organizations. Shortly after the boat came to rest upright in the water, its driver and throttle man, who were not named but are known by their race aliases as John Wayne and Clint Eastwood, emerged from the cockpit. 'Safe and in good condition,' the boat's team, Freedom One Racing, posted online after the race. Fans of speedboat racing in the United States have seen such acrobatics before, although perhaps not as dramatic as this one, said Ray Lee, the publisher of Speedboat Magazine, who was at the starting line while his videographer recorded nearby. Videos of the event, held on a windy day on the lake, racked up millions of views. 'The boat was suspended in the air for much longer than we are accustomed to seeing,' he said in an interview on Tuesday. 'Others go up and flip and come down.' 'Because of the force of the winds,' he added, 'the boat was higher and spun around, which you don't usually see.' So what do you call that? Did it spin? Did it corkscrew? Was it a 360? Was it a somersault? 'It is hard to say,' Mr. Lee said. 'Any adjective would work.' The Freedom team's boat reached 200.1 miles per hour and traveled a distance of three-quarters of a mile, he said. Speedboat racing in the United States has greatly evolved since its beginnings more than a century ago. In June 1904, light, 20-foot long speedboats slipped through the Hudson River in New York in an organized race among local yacht clubs called the Gold Cup, which eventually led to the establishment of the American Power Boat Association. 'It was really slow back then,' said Dana Potts, the operations director of the American Power Boat Association. 'Two guys in a boat, one shoveling coal into the motor,' he continued. 'It has come a long way.' The Freedom One Racing team, which was not immediately available for comment on Tuesday, said on Facebook that it had raised $20,000 from the event for its military and hospital charities. Mr. Lee noted that the team had won the race. Speedboat race records vary across the United States depending on the types of boats, the length and layout of the courses and the rules chosen by event organizers. The American Power Boat Association, which was not affiliated with the Lake Havasu race, oversees events among its 5,000 members from 90 clubs across the United States. Its record for the fastest boat at one of its races stands at 140.3 miles per hour, set in 2023 by a Super Cat, a type of catamaran, Mr. Potts said. The world record for boat racing may still belong to Ken Warby of Australia, who reached a speed of 317.58 mph in a jet-powered hydroplane, Spirit of Australia, in 1978, according to the Guinness World Records. A Qatari team speedboat called 'The Spirit of Qatar' reached 244 miles an hour in 2014, but that was achieved on a one-mile course. The Desert Storm Race was challenging from the beginning. The waters were slightly cooler than usual because of the off-season. Wind gusts were aggressive enough to delay the start by about an hour, to 11:30 a.m., said Mr. Lee. The high-performance, 38-foot Catamaran, built mainly of fiberglass, has two drag car racing engines, estimated to pack up to 10,000 horse power, Mr. Lee said. The course was dotted with buoys, marking the start and finish. The Freedom One driver and throttle man were strapped in with multipoint harnesses and helmets. There was an escape hatch on the bottom, in case the craft landed upside down in the water. It entered the starting point of the race at about 40 miles per hour, as rules allow. Winds were about 20 miles per hour, Mr. Lee estimated. The boat's unique shape meant that its two outside rails created a tunnel between them. 'Air gets packed into that tunnel, essentially lifting the boat out of the water,' Mr. Lee said. As the propellers were lifting and speed was building, there was increasingly less drag in the water. 'Then there was a gust of wind and everything came together at once, causing the boat to lift and flipping it around,' said Mr. Lee. 'Which was obviously spectacular.'
Hindustan Times
29-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Hindustan Times
Nevada: Speedboat flies into air at more than 200 mph during doomed race
A shocking video shows the moment a speedboat flew into the air at more than 200 mph during an attempt to break a speed record. The boat then flipped over several times before slamming into a Nevada lake. 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.
Indian Express
29-04-2025
- Climate
- Indian Express
Speedboat goes flying in air during record-breaking competition in Arizona lake; chilling video goes viral
A high-speed boating event in Arizona took a dramatic turn when a speedboat travelling at 200 mph lost control, flew into the air, and flipped before crashing upside down into the water. The incident occurred on April 26 during the annual Desert Storm Shootout at Lake Havasu, located around 150 miles south of Las Vegas, USA Today reported. Both racers suffered only minor injuries and are reportedly in good health. A viral video shows the Freedom One Racing boat, a powerful twin-hull Skater model, taking off the surface, twisting mid-air, and somersaulting before slamming down. The chilling moment was captured by the audience. A voice in the video can be heard shouting, 'No, no, no! Oh my God. Oh my God,' while others scream in the background as the crash occurs. Watch here: View this post on Instagram A post shared by Daily Mail (@dailymail) The video amassed an array of reactions, with a user commenting, 'Speed thrills and in most cases kills, lucky they walked away with minor injuries.' Another user commented, 'Notice how the boat hovers temporarily over the water. GTA San Andreas got it right.' 'with that speed falling into the water will feel like concrete,' a third user chimed in. When the accident occurred, the boat was reportedly attempting to break the lake's speed record of 206 mph. Although they fell short, hitting 200.1 mph, it was still fast enough to win the competition. According to Speedboat Magazine publisher Ray Lee, the Freedom One boat crossed the finish line despite the crash and was declared the contest winner based on its recorded top speed. Lee explained that the boat is designed to hydroplane across the water's surface, but windy conditions and trim adjustments, changes to the boat's propeller angle, likely caused it to lift off uncontrollably. 'It's an inherently dangerous sport,' Lee said. He added that safety has improved, with modern boats featuring reinforced cockpits and emergency underwater diving gear. Freedom One Racing later confirmed in a video that the operators exited the boat safely and that the damaged vessel was now back on its trailer. The clip revealed significant damage, including splintered fibreglass from the violent impact, PEOPLE reported.
