American Ethanol boats have been making waves across the country this summer. Competitors from around the country participated in two recent powerboat racing competitions – the Lake of the Ozarks Shootout in Missouri, and the Mentor Superboat Grand Prix in Ohio – and many of the top performing boats at each event ran on high-ethanol blends, with over 30 performing at their peak with higher blends at the event in Missouri, including a world record-setting performance.

At the recent Lake of the Ozark’s shootout, Don Onken’s American Ethanol Mystic Powerboats Catamaran broke its own previous record of 208 mph, and took home “Top Gun” honors with a record setting speed of 217 mph while running on a high-ethanol fuel blend. Onken’s speed was the fastest ever recorded for a piston-powered boat at the event. Meanwhile, Garth Tagge and his team came in second place to Onken’s boat at the Shootout in their 36-foot Skater Classic Deck, with a top speed of 194 mph. Garth and crew increased their speed, power and performance this year after they made the switch to a cleaner burning, high ethanol blend.

In Ohio, Keith Holmes claimed a victory in his American Ethanol Cat Can Do Catamaran, earning his sixth victory in 11 starts. “Running ethanol has given us a huge gain in torque with these supercharged Sterling engines which gives us a great advantage coming out of the turns,” said Holmes. “We also have had awesome durability with over 2,000 miles of racing over the last two racing seasons on our first set of these ethanol built engines….We run ethanol because it works.”