The 21st annual Mark Hahn Memorial 300 endurance race, with Factory Kawasaki and the Performance Fiberglass team behind 3 of the 4 overall top race finishers, featured calm waters, fast times, some intense battles, and some disappointments, both on the water and off.
The results sheet tells a part of the story. In the final tally, with slightly fewer than two dozen entrants, it would be Brandon Warner who nailed down the win, piloting his #21 Kawasaki to the overall win with a time of 4:38:22.8, ahead of the Mark Gomez & Ryder Bliss team, also a Kawasaki entry, with the Overall top three finished out by Chris Stark and Mike Perry on the #555 Sea-Doo – a final tally of the overall placings put Kawasaki in 1st, 2nd, 4th, 6th, 7th and 10th, with Sea-Doo taking 3rd, 5th, 8th and 9th, and Yamaha holding down the next 5 slots.
Drilling down to the class results, in RunAbout 1100 Stock, Chris Ennis & Gabriel Cowley (Yamaha) won the class with a time of 4:51:27.8, wile in the RunAbout 4-stroke stock class of 7 entrants, Chris Stark and Mike Perry (Sea-Doo) nailed down the win with a time of 4:44:46.9 over 2nd place team Jonathan Phan & Emi Kanamori (Kawasaki).
For the RunAbout Mfg Stock class, Renee Hill & Jackson Rod (Kawasaki) finished out with a time of 4:44:16.2. In Pro-Am 4 Open, Brandon Warner’s (Kawasaki) 4:38:22.8 overall win topped the class, followed by Gomez and Bliss (Kawasaki), with 3rd place taken by 2024 winners Jon Ford and Mike Maniscalichi (Sea-Doo), who finished last year’s race with a record-setting time of 4 hrs, 9 min & 29 seconds on a Dean’s Team tuned Sea-Doo.
The grueling race featured its fair share of mechanical mishaps and strategy errors that ended some entries far short of the final lap, but that is nothing new for this race, and those disappointments were matched, or perhaps exceeded by the frustration of event promoters and sponsors, who have pushed each year lately for enough turnout to keep the event viable, but this year saw the total number of entries even fall well short of pre-registration.
Event promoter Ross Wallach, of RPM Racing, told The Watercraft Journal that the event went well other than the low turnout, and he congratulated Warner for the Overall and Ironman win.
Audio PlayerHe said the Saturday race featured near-perfect conditions, but required an extra mile due to water levels.
Audio PlayerHe talked about the fast pace of the race due to flat water, including near-record lap times put in by Warner.
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Once again this year, the race staged from Lake Havasu State Park, and Wallach said the move still counts as a great decision.
Wallach said that, despite the low turnout, the race is seeing new entrants scattered in among the veteran racers.
Audio PlayerThe purpose and meaning behind the race – honoring Mark Hahn and his contributions to PWC racing – always remains in the forefront, Wallach said, and talked about Mark Conroy winning the Mark Hahn Memorial Award.
Audio PlayerHe closed out the interview urging racers to step up for the 2026 race so the event can continue.
Audio PlayerAll photos courtesy Ken Gallagher Photography.
