Offshore racers, poker runners and thousands of performance-boat enthusiasts transformed Arizona's Lake Havasu into powerboat heaven.

Originally published July 2008 issue

By Jason Johnson

Watch out Key West. A lake in the middle of the desert is threatening to become the "performance-boat capital of the world." How can that be? Ask anyone who made the trip to Lake Havasu in Arizona for the Desert Storm Poker Run and its surrounding festivities and you'll understand how.

Not only did the organizers of one of the largest poker runs in the country decide to add a shootout to this year's event, but two offshore racing organizations, Pacific Offshore Powerboat Racing Association (POPRA) and Offshore Super Series (OSS), joined the fun with races over the late-April weekend.

In turn, Lake Havasu might have established itself as the epicenter of performance boating.

Think that's far-fetched? Take it up with Martin Sanborn, one of the most familiar faces and voices in the performance-boating community.

"I get to do this all over the country, all over North America and this year I get to do it in Europe too, and I think you'd be hard-pressed to find a more high-performance atmosphere than Lake Havasu City," Sanborn said after finishing his broadcast of Sunday's OSS competition on TalkOffshore.com. "And the way they rolled out the red carpet for everybody ... I mean that street party they had Thursday night, it kind of put (Key West's) Duval Street to shame.

"Duval Street is impressive—it is a lot of fun and Key West is cool—but I'll tell you what: this was nothing but high-performance boats," he added. "A mile and a half of powerboats on both sides of the street, and you could hardly walk down the street there were so many people."

A former world champion offshore racer who knows Key West well, Sanborn was blown away by the boat show and street party on McCulloch Blvd., which lasted more than four hours the night before the poker run. And he wasn't exaggerating about the size or the crowd. Thousands of people walked up and down the street to get a closer look at race boats such as Bud Light and AMSOIL, and check out the latest and greatest from manufacturers such as Eliminator, MTI and local builders such as Conquest and E-Ticket.

There was even a stereo battle going on between the super-custom Alpine V-bottom and the crew from Waves & Wheels Audio who came out from Lake of the Ozarks, Mo.

And all that was just the kickoff to a weekend filled with performance boating.

Of course the main reason many of the hottest boats on the planet were in town was the Desert Storm Poker Run, which has grown into one of the nation's premier events over the past few years. As one of the first events of the season, the poker run provides an opportunity for everyone to show off their new hardware.

Filled to its capacity of 200 boats, the event attracted the highest of high-end V-bottoms and catamarans from Cigarette and Fountain to Nor-Tech, Skater and more.

"You know what, I've never been out here before—this place is unbelievable," said Billy Mauff, driver of the WHM Motorsports Skater, which finished second in OSS Cat Supercharged action on Sunday. "You come out here and see 200 poker-run guys and you start to really say to yourself, 'These guys are into their toys.' We as racers are into our toys, but these guys are really into their toys."

The wildest part was that the boats weren't the only things to stand out—there were so many custom Ford F-650s and International RXTs painted to match, that the rigs were just as mind-blowing. Even companies such as Hering Propellers and Nordic Boats pulled out all the stops with massive semi-trailers to promote their products.

"There was certainly no shortage of bling," said Florida Powerboat Club President Stu Jones, who came out to the run in his new Nor-Tech 3900 Super Vee King of Clubs. "Obviously the boats were impressive, but I was also blown away by the quality of tow vehicles and trailers."

At the first stop of a summer-long poker-run tour to celebrate the club's 15th anniversary, Jones especially enjoyed his first visit to Lake Havasu.

"(Havasu) was probably everything I expected and more," said Jones, who knows a thing or two about producing large-scale events. "It was nice to finally get out there and see everything. One of the highlights of the trip had to be The Channel by the London Bridge. I must have idled through there eight times."

Of course The Channel, along with the lake's popular Sandbar, were still happening places. But a great deal of the action took place at the host hotel—the Nautical Inn Resort—and out on Thompson Bay in front of the resort.

Tons of familiar boats lined up for Friday's poker run, including Best of Times, the 36 Skater owned by Richard Monical of Seabrook, Texas, the Factory Billet Outerlimits and the Team CRC MTI race boat with owner Mike DeFrees at the wheel. DeFrees, who owns a home overlooking The Channel, is a regular poker-run participant.

"We had a great run," DeFrees said. "This is my stomping ground here in Havasu. The whole weekend was great. This is huge for Havasu."

Some boatbuilders even debuted new models at the poker run, including LaveyCraft Performance Boats. Owner Chris Camire was on hand with the company's new 39 Evo, and not only did he get to run the 39-footer as a pace boat for the poker run, but for most of the weekend he sat back and showed off the beautiful V-bottom from the cozy confines of the Nautical Inn cove.

Darrell Holcomb, who brought his Baja 30 Outlaw to Lake Havasu from Madison, Wis., really enjoyed his first trip to the lake.

"We're glad we had the opportunity to come out here and be a part of it," said Holcomb, who produces a handful of poker runs in the Midwest, including the Lake of the Ozarks Poker Run in late August. "This place is beautiful. The women are hot, the boats are fast and that's really what it's all about."

Holcomb said that the early season event was an ideal place to promote both of his Web sites—www.PokerRunTour.com and www.PowerboatParty.com—but that he also wanted to learn from organizers Jim Nichols and Art Witzell. "It's such a professionally run event," he added.

Never dreaming the event could get as large as it has, Nichols was amazed by the excitement and camaraderie.

"It's a good feeling," he said. "But I always go back to the prime example of a poker-run team that went beyond expectations, and that's Bruce and Myra Gibson. They came to every poker run with toys for the kids, with shirts and hats and stuff they handed out. To lose Myra in 2006 at Lake Texoma was just a hell of a blow. Everything I do is in her memory."

Nichols was extremely proud that the event raised more than $20,000 for the Soldiers Angels Foundation and two local charities—Havasu for Youth and the Patrick Tinnell Memorial Park.

An admirable gesture, a few of the poker-run participants offered up rides for the military members who were in town for the festivities. David Gill, who grew up in Lake Havasu City, was lucky enough to catch a ride with Mike Stevenson and his crew in Stevenson's Mamba, a 47 GTX from Outerlimits.

"The whole event was out of this world—I've lived here for 12 years and I've never seen anything like this," said Gill, who has served four tours in Iraq and is currently stationed at California's Camp Pendleton. "Mamba was pretty cool. Mike Stevenson and his family are all awesome. So are the Outerlimits guys. This is the coolest thing I've ever been in."

After Friday's poker-run festivities, boaters lined up Saturday morning to watch some of the fastest boats take part in the event's first shootout, which was modeled after the legendary Lake of the Ozarks Shootout. While more than 20 passes made the event fun to watch, the event fell short of expectations due to windy conditions and a late start.

Posting the fastest speed with a 165-mph pass was DeFrees and throttleman Jeff Harris in Team CRC. Not far behind was Gary Smith, who ran 161 mph in his 40-foot Skater Predator. The third-fastest speed—152 mph—was recorded by offshore racer John Tomlinson in Adam Garcia's new Mach F-32 from Dave's Custom Boats.

Gary Taylor, owner of Taylor Performance Inc., a Southern California engine builder, was excited to win his class with a 107-mph run in his Howard 28 Bullet.

"I probably got up to about 118 mph at the halfway mark, but I caught some side rollers that I felt were unsafe so I slowed it down toward the end," Taylor said. "All I could think was this was a first time out for everybody, the first shootout in Havasu, and we needed to run safe and just have a good time."

With an incident-free poker run and shootout out of the way, it was time for the racing, which started with the POPRA race on Saturday afternoon.

Once the shootout spectator fleet was cleared from the course, the wind-whipped lake provided some action-packed competition, especially among the P3 class, which featured seven boats.

Three boats in the class finished within 15 seconds of each other with Worthy Risk edging out Wild Ride and Under Destruction. Other class winners included AMSOIL (P1), Sea Flash (P4) and Team CRC (PX).

"The offshore racing was a perfect match for the weekend," said Kevin Cooper, president of POPRA and Powerboat's eastern sales manager. "It fit right in with the poker run, which had already established itself as one of the largest events out West. And it gave the poker runners something else to do. The weekend was huge for POPRA. Between all the racing I've done and all the races I've produced, I can't think of any (races) where we had that many spectator boats tied up on the course."

And those are four days Lake Havasu City is not about to let go.

"I was here last year and saw the boats (at the street party), but this year was phenomenal, absolutely phenomenal," said Mark Nexsen, the mayor of Lake Havasu City. "The community loved it—these are the types of events we enjoy. The whole weekend was just fantastic. We hope everyone comes back next year. We'll just try to make it bigger and better."

If you like what you're reading, get more by subscribing to Powerboat magazine here.

Click to enlarge.