Image Of The Week: Redemption

Leading up to yesterday’s Super Stock-class win at the Offshore Powerboat Association Crystal Coast World Championships in Morehead City, N.C., nothing had been easy for the Jackhammer team of driver/owner Reese Langheim and throttleman Ricky Maldonado. In their final event of 2019—the Race World Offshore Key West Championships—they rolled Langheim’s new 32-foot Victory catamaran. And after waiting the better part of a year for redemption, they rolled the cat again before completing a lap in last month’s Crystal Coast Grand Prix.

Adversity heading into the OPA Crystal Coast World Championships made the Jackhammer team’s first Super Stock-class victory that much sweeter.

That mishap left Langheim, who lives in Illinois, the Florida-based Maldonado and their hardworking crew with plenty of work to do before the two-day Offshore At The Ozarks-Cat Edition event in Central Missouri earlier this month. But they got it done and even took second place in race No. 2 on the first day of action—against formidable competition—on the Lake of the Ozarks.

The second-place finish on their home-water proved to be the confidence spark Langheim and Maldonado needed heading into this weekend’s two-race format OPA world championships. Yesterday’s win was decisive and the cockpit duo was all smiles and laughs on the way back to the wet pits.

The Jackhammer team will be back on the water tomorrow, and anything can happen given Sunday’s longer, full-points format. But regardless, Langheim and Maldonado will exit Morehead City as a couple of winners.

Just look at their faces.

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