Diamond Bay Motorsport takes The Standard through its sprintcar truck

The Diamond Bay Motorsport owner and crew chief spends five weeks on the road each summer, stopping in South Australia, New South Wales and Victoria.

The Classic, now in its 47^th year and considered the biggest sprintcar event in Australia, is the main prize on offer.

Stathy’s truck, emblazoned with the blue, black and silver colours which adorn his W26 car, is loaded with the tools required to challenge for the title.

“Everything I have in the shed, I have in here,” he told The Standard during a truck walkthrough on Wednesday.

Stathy, 53, combines with crew member Jamie Kennett, a Hamilton-raised, Warrnambool-based worker who spends much of his time in America on the World of Outlaws circuit, to prepare and maintain the cars.

This year he has American Cory Eliason, a 27-year-old from California, behind the wheel.

Fellow US driver, the late Jason Johnson, drove for Stathy in the past two Classics.

“I was looking for a driver to replace Jason and was looking at an experienced campaigner or youth and I thought youth would be the way to go,” Stathy said.

“I kept looking and Cory stood out to me and then Adam (Currie, Eliason’s former car owner) all of a sudden rang me. It all glued together and it’s quite good actually.

“Our results have been pretty damn good actually, we’ve been fast. 

“We’re sick of running second and third. We’ve led four races and got pipped or, hit the tyre or got taken out.”

Stathy is hoping the preparation he’s done with Kennett, 28, will ensure Eliason is in the running at the Classic.

The Diamond Bay Motorsport truck houses two spare engines, two spare rear ends and three spare front ends.

“We carry three front wings, two top wings and we carry flatpack extras as well, just in case things turn bad,” he said.

“We carry two spare engines. One is at the repair shop at the moment getting a service. I’d prefer it to be in here but it’s not. It had a vibration in it and we’re just getting the crank checked and the rods checked, just to make sure it’s OK.

“We carry a spare car in kit form which is pretty much complete. It has brakes, steering, steering box, power steering.

“Everything is in there and basically we pull that down and in four hours, maybe five, we could have that pretty much put together ready to start.”

A tyre groover, shock absorbers, an engine heater and radius rods all have their place in the truck.

“We carry all of our consumables – brake fluids, coolants, WD, all the sort of stuff – and you’ve got your shock absorbers which are important on the car,” Stathy said.

“We have to carry quite a good range of shock absorbers and oil filters which we replace every night after racing. The first thing we do is cut the filter open and check for metal or brass in the filter. If there’s anything in there above what there should be, we have to start looking to see why.”

Stathy said he had “three or four cupboards” of shock absorbers.

“Different brands for different tracks and different situations,” he said.

“Sometimes we have to run a different gear, whether it’s fast or slow or (to do with) track diameter. (We have an) engine heater so we can put some heat into the motor before we actually start it and get it up to near operating temp, (it’s) just less stress on the engine when you first start it.”

The roadside becomes Stathy’s third workshop.

“I am in the carpark or on the road verge normally,” he said. “I don’t mind it like that, I prefer to do things my own way.”

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