It’s hard not to root for the big, bad Black Thunder V-bottom each year at the Lake of the Ozarks Shootout in Central Missouri. The owner of the boat—Minnesota’s Dennis Parvey—is easily one of the nicest, smartest, most humble human beings you could ever meet. He also has one of the craziest need-for-speed desires that only and he and his son, Jason, have been able to satisfy as they’ve rocketed along the event’s one-mile and now, as of two years ago, three-quarter-mile courses for the past two decades.
Minnesota’s Dennis Parvey is just starting the tuning process for the new turbocharged engines in his 43-foot Black Thunder. All photos courtesy Jason Parvey