Jackhammer Team Taps Julian Maldonado To Throttle For 2022 Season
With Super Stock-class Jackhammer throttleman Ricky Maldonado moving to the 450R Factory Stock class after three seasons with the Illinois-based team, owner/driver Reese Langheim had to find a new throttleman for the upcoming season. But he didn’t have to look far as Maldonado’s son, Julian, will throttle the team’s 32-foot Victory catamaran.
The son or former Jackhammer throttleman Ricky Maldonado, Julian Maldonado will join Reese Langheim in the cockpit of Jackhammer this season. Photos by Pete Boden copyright Shoot 2 Thrill Pix.
In 2022, Julian Maldonado throttled the Steele Industries team Super Stock-class raceboat with owner with owner/driver Dominick Steele.
“We’re thrilled to have Julian throttle for us,” said Langheim. “Ricky and I had a great run together and we’re all good, but it was time for a change.”
“Julian and I ran together in the 2021 Offshore Powerboat Association World Championships in Englewood Beach,” he added. “We won both races.”
The younger Maldonado also throttled the Jackhammer team’s Bracket 700-class boat for the past three seasons.
Jackhammer team owner Reese Langheim (right, with Sterling Performance engines principal Mike D’Anniballe in the foreground) is hoping to repeat his 2022 season result with another Maldonado in the cockpit. Photo by Cole McGowan copyright Powerboat P1.
The Jackhammer team finished first in the 2022 American Power Boat Association Offshore National Championship Series in dominant fashion. Langheim and Maldonado entered the Race World Offshore-produced Offshore World Championships in Key West, Fla., with high hopes. But an incident with the Super Stock PlayTradez raceboat—the PlayTradez cat took a flyer and connected with Jackhammer seconds after landing—effectively ending the team’s hopes for a world title.
The incident also left the Jackhammer team with significant repair work to do in the off season.
“We completely took the boat apart, fixed the holes and de-rigged it,” Langheim explained. “All we have to do is put it back together.”
It’s going to be a busy year for Maldonado, as he also will be throttling alongside Steele in a 38-foot Doug Wright Powerboats catamaran, which is scheduled to be completed by mid-season. In addition, Maldonado plans to continue throttling the Jackhammer team’s Bracket 700-class raceboat.
And all of that will have to fit with running Manatee Marine Unlimited in Palmetto, Fla., a full-service dealership his owns with Sarah Langheim.
“Reese and I are pretty synced up in a boat,” said Maldonado. “The way our friendship is, we just understand each other very well. We don’t have to talk very much in the cockpit.”
Captured here with Dominick Steele (left), Julian Maldonado has a strong history with the Jackhammer team.
At some in the distant future, Maldonado’s throttleman services will no longer be required by the team. Sarah Langheim eventually—a key word to be sure—will move into the Jackhammer driver’s seat and her husband will take the sticks.
“That’s the plan for down the road and I would love to it right now, but someone has to raise these kids,” Sarah Langheim said, then laughed.
“We would do it this year but, yeah, someone has to raise them,” her husband said, then laughed even harder. “I don’t like the kids that much, so I don’t want to raise them.”
Langheim and the Maldonado shared the cockpit at the 2021 OPA Englewood Beach Waterfest World Championships and won both races.
That could be a while as the Langheim’s youngest child, Callie, is just six years old. In the meantime Julian Maldonado has the seat.
Related stories
Sequence Of The Week, II: PlayTradez Glass With Jackhammer
Jackhammer Running Mercury Racing 300R Outboard In Bracket 700 Class
Jackhammer Raceboat To Join Shootout Competition Fleet
.
