May 8-10, 2009 Valletta, Malta The three days of exciting racing action was the perfect platform to host the team’s honored guest of Eric J. Lednicky, Lieutenant Commander, U. S. Navy, who had been granted permission to include this stop on his return home after completing his tour of duty in the Middle-East. In his official capacity he was responsible for the daily operations of all maritime patrol and Reconnaissance aircraft in the U.S. Central Command Theater of Operations with 1,200 personnel spread from Iraq to Afghanistan and down to the Horn of Africa. The #77 team was also graced during the weekend with visits from the Prime Minister of Malta, Lawrence Gonzi, the President, Edward Fenech-Adami and the Minister of Finance, Tonio Fenech and his family, who stopped for pictures with the team in the #77 Lucas Oil Budweiser Outerlimits.The action heated up with the Power Pole on Friday, where the #77 Lucas Oil Budweiser Outerlimits was announced as taking first place, with the #88 OSG Outerlimits taking second, which was later reversed with a time slit of only 2/10th of a second to divide the two Outerlimits teams. The green flag dropped on Saturday’s Sprint race with 14 race boats lined up off the transom of the pace boat. While the #77 Lucas Oil Budweiser Outerlimits jumped out to an early lead in very close contention was Luca Fendi driving the #10 Cigarette, and the #88 OSG Outerlimits in hot pursuit. Both the latter two race boats had noticeably navigated to the wrong side of the safety buoy, Bravo, supposedly incurring a 3 minute penalty. This was later dismissed due to a possible misinterpretation in the English to Italian translation at the mornings Pilots Briefing. The #10 subsequently slipped into first place. Saturday’s sprint race finished as started with the Italian teams, #10 and #88 taking first and third respectively, the American team #77 in second, Germans, #66 Searex in fourth and the British entry, #47 Silverline in fifth. On Sunday, the endurance race began in similar fashion. Dodging the penalty from the day before for taking the safety buoy clearly had no effect as the Italian #10 Cigarette repeated the infraction. "We knew it had been made crystal clear this time in the Pilots Briefing that a 3 minute penalty would be strictly enforced, so we knew our strategy to just sit on their transom would be sound this time" said Hook, Throttleman of the #77 Lucas Oil Budweiser Outerlimits. "This puts a ton of pressure on a team, when you push them from behind", added Hook. By lap four the #10 Cigarette took a dive inside a slower boat on corner F and spectacularly spun out. "I saw it coming" said Joe Sgro, driver of the #77 Lucas Oil Budweiser Outerlimits, "it was right in front of us and all I could do was steer out of their way, which was into first place!" added Sgro. From there until four laps left the American team ruled first place on the race course, but a gremlin would intervene in the form of a simple