Image Of The Week: Falling Into A Hole

Though Knucklehead Racing team driver/owner Ed Smith and throttleman Anthony Smith—no relation beyond the extended family of the Offshore Powerboat Association—didn’t face any competition in last Sunday’s contest in Point Pleasant Beach, N.J., that doesn’t mean they didn’t push hard. For proof positive, check out the image below of them displacing big water in their 40-foot Fountain raceboat.

The Extreme Vee-class Knucklehead Racing Fountain found the hole in turn No. 4 in a big way last weekend. Photo by Tim Sharkey copyright Sharkey Images.

The big splash happened in turn No. 4, according to photographer Tim Sharkey, who was in an also-turning helicopter to capture the rowdy moment.

“That happened in the notorious hole on the fourth turn by Jenkinson’s Pavilion,” said Sharkey, who knows the 4-1/2-mile course—as a former racer and a photographer—and had his pilot hover over the turn several times during the contest.

Sharkey is still uploading images to his website—he shot thousands. He returned pumped from the rough-water event, which he has captured at least 10 times during his photography career.

“We had great racing all day,” he said. “I walked away from this weekend thinking, ‘You don’t bring a cat to a V-bottom race’—not one cat showed up on the course this year. That just might be a first.”

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