Photo Essay: The Speed Demons Of Desert Storm
The final element of the annual Desert Storm Poker Run in Lake Havasu City, Ariz., the Shugrues Lake Havasu Shootout concluded yesterday. The results have been posted to the Desert Storm Instagram social media portal.
On scene to capture the action for speedonthewater.com, photographer Jeff Helmkamp described the conditions as “as good as they’ve ever been” since he started covering the event in 2016.
The 2024 Queen of the Desert, Amanda Jones enjoyed at least one low-speed moment on Saturday. Photos by Jeff Helmkamp copyright Jeff Helmkamp Photos.
“The winds were calm, the water was smooth and the weather was cool,” Helmkamp said. “It was perfect.”
And the big winners were Tim Jones, his wife, Miranda, and their daughter, Amanda, a family well-known to Desert Storm fans for their past Shootout performances. Tim Jones laid down a 199.5-mph pass in Dial 911, a Skater Powerboats 388 catamaran to take the 2024 King of the Desert title.
Amanda and Tim Jones used the same 38-footer Skater to claim their titles.
Running the same cat to 187 mph, Amanda Jones became the 2024 Queen of the Desert.
“It was her first run ever in the Shootout, and her first Queen of the Desert win,” said her rightly proud mother, who earned her own Queen of the Desert titles in 2019 and 2022. “Pretty sweet at 187 mph.”
In other noteworthy catamaran performances, Steven Sundling ran 171.5 mph in a DCB Performance Marine M31 Widebody catamaran dubbed Captain Hook, fellow M31 owner Jeff Clark ran 164.8 mph in Liquidated Damages and Nick Child piloted Wild Child, his DCB M37R catamaran, to 141.9 mph.
Matthew Martin enjoyed a fine speed run in his 29-footer from Outerlimits.
On the V-bottom side, Matthew Martin ran his Outerlimits Offshore Powerboats SV 29 called Dark Matter to 127.6 mph.
Additional shootout results are available on the Desert Storm Instagram page.
Though the turnout was light, conditions were ideal for yesterday morning’s top-speed runs on Lake Havasu.
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