Jackhammer Running Mercury Racing 300R Outboard In Bracket 700 Class

When the green flag flies for the Bracket 700 class this Sunday at the Sarasota Powerboat Grand Prix—the third contest in the six-race American Power Boat Association Offshore National Championship Series—in Southwest Florida, the Jackhammer team’s 22-foot Velocity raceboat will have something new on its transom. The boat will be powered by a Mercury Racing 300R V-8 outboard engine.

With a new Mercury Racing 300R outboard on the transom of their Bracket 700-class 22-foot Velocity, Jackhammer’s Julian Maldonado and Brian Guy are ready for action in Sarasota, Fla., this weekend.

The power move is within the rules for the thriving class, which has flourished under Offshore Powerboat Association umbrella and is limited 60 mph for open-cockpit V-bottoms no longer than 22 feet and powered by one outboard engine up to 300 hp

Julian Maldonado, the son of the Super Stock-class Jackhammer team throttleman Ricky Maldonado, will run the 22-footer with new driver Brian Guy.

“It’s great because it pushes new technology to the racecourse,” said the younger Maldonado, who co-owns Manatee Marine Unlimited in Palmetto, Fla., with Reese Langheim, who also owns the Jackhammer teams and drives its Super Stock raceboat. “We’re taking this as preparation for when they allow these engines in the Super Stock class, whenever that may be. We’ll have the bugs all sorted out from running this motor in our Class 700 boat.

“And being a Mercury Marine and Mercury Racing Platinum dealer we feel it is extremely important to help promote these engines in a race setting,” he added.

Racing action on the multi-turn Sarasota course off Lido Beach is scheduled to begin Sunday at 10 a.m., starting with Bracket classes according to the P1 Offshore schedule. (Powerboat P1/P1 Offshore is co-producing the APBA-sanctioned event with Visit Sarasota County.) Fans can catch all the day’s races in real time via the P1 Offshore Facebook page livestream. Benefitting Suncoast Charities for Children, the Sarasota Powerboat Grand Prix is part of the weeklong Suncoast Summer Fest event.

Said Langheim on the power move, “It’s going to be great for Mercury Racing and our teams.”

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