The Super Stock class in offshore racing is about to become a lot more colorful.
A brand-new team, Demon Bikini, with an unmistakable hot pink livery, is set to debut at Race World Offshore's World Championship in Key West next week when it kicks off on Nov. 6. The driver is Leanna Shadlow, CEO of Rogers, AR-based Demon Bikini, manufacturers of custom swimwear. (Shadlow frequently poses for Speedboat Magazine wearing her own brand).
Team owner Chad Havens of Orange, Texas ultimately hopes to find a second woman to join Shadlow in the cockpit as a driver, at which point they will be an all-female team and Shadlow will be in control of the sticks.
Until a second female pilot has been scouted, Havens will serve as throttleman at the Key West event. (Interested parties can submit their resumes on Instagram @demon.bikini.race.team or via email: racing@demonbikini.com)
The story begins in 2023, when Havens sponsored the Savage offshore race team, featuring owner/driver Bryan Marquardt and throttleman Randy Sweers. Havens, who has been participating in the poker-run and shootout circuit for the last six years tells Speedboat that he preferred the action on the race course.
"I’m a competitor by nature," he says. "I've played pretty much played every sport there is, including the professional rodeo events, Steer Wrestling and Team Roping. So I suppose it was just a matter of time before I turned to competition in boating."
Shadlow is also a competitor by nature. She’s been riding motorcycles for years and has always been a gear head at heart, despite her feminine physique. “I’ve worked in the auto body collision industry for 12 years prior to starting Demon Bikini," Shadlow says. "I have painted, welded, written estimates, and basically learned the whole body shop inside out. I love boating and have been boating my whole life but got into powerboats in 2015…I have a deep passion for going fast and have the need for speed.”
Havens says his goal was to assemble an all-girl race team, and the Demon Bikini boat will be the realization of that vision. The boat is a 2022 32' Doug Wright carbon-fiber Gen 3 hull with upgraded glass windshields.
"We've been taking baby steps with it," Havens says. "I’ve been working with Leanna on driving cat hulls for the last six months, and she's gotten very good at it. She actually picks up on a lot of things faster than a lot of men do—being able to feel when the boat's running tight, when it's running loose, getting it docked and trailering them. She just seems to have a natural finesse with moving the boat around. I try to never miss an opportunity for her to take the wheel and I’ve seen huge boosts in her confidence, comfort, and skill level in the past months.”
In preparation for racing, Shadlow took Tres Martin's course at his Performance Boat School, which offers advanced, hands-on training. "It was awesome," she tells Speedboat. "I was a little nervous at first, but Tres worked with me on many of the things related to safe operation and there were a great many of those lessons that quickly tied together, from a physics/safety perspective that were also part of the assistance I previously learned from Chad.”
In fact, Havens is quick to point out, he’s trained with Tres Martin on multiple occasions and even consults Tres regularly for advice.
"There are a lot of really great drivers out there who can teach you how to push these boats to their limits," he says. "But I wanted to start her out with the safety fundamentals and come away with a good understanding of the physics and the nature of these boats."
The duo knows that they’re going into the most competitive class in offshore racing and plans to race somewhat conservatively, with the primary goal of remaining safe, not only for themselves and others, but for hot pink boat.
“I’m extremely excited to see how quickly we learn, we adapt, and learn from these race conditions to do as well as we can,” said Havens. “I want to be very analytical about it and get the boat safely back on trailer at the end of each race.”
“I’m excited and honestly a little bit nervous too,” admits Shadlow. “Not so much about the racing, but more about the unknown. I want to experience what it feels like to have the spray against the windshield, to have the other boats next to you, to have the swells going in different directions…that’s what I’m excited for,.”
The entirety of RWO’s Offshore World Championship in Key West runs from Nov. 3-10 and the livestream can be viewed on Race World Offshore’s digital pages.