If you hope to win the world’s longest river race, you’ll want a boat from this Kansas City shop

River Hawk Boat Shop in Lee's Summit crafts sleek, state-of-the-art racing boats that are in demand for the MR340, a 340-mile river race that kicks off this week from Kansas City. Their boats have won every race for the past eight years, and the new owners are hoping to do it again.
Adam Burns and John Sonderman are wrestling with a giant plastic bag.

Inside Burns’ workshop in Pleasant Hill, they wrap the bag around a dark, elongated shape. The crinkling drowns out the sound of Boston’s “More Than A Feeling,” playing from a speaker hung above a workbench.

They will eventually suck the air out of the bag, squeezing together a mix of resin, Kevlar and carbon fiber around a fiberglass mold.