Jamniczky To Join Diorio In SV Offshore Racing Cockpit

Locals at the Lake of the Ozarks, especially those who live in the vicinity of Osage Beach, may have noticed the SV Offshore Racing Outerlimits Offshore Powerboats catamaran running on the Central Missouri waterway a couple of chilly weekends ago. Team owner Vinnie Diorio, who made news last week when he announced he was swapping out his fuel-injected Mercury Racing 860 engines for Super Cat-spec carbureted mills from Sterling Performance at Osage Beach-based Performance Boat Center, was practicing with new SV Offshore Racing team driver Matt Jamniczky in the 39-footer in advance of the Race World Offshore-produced 7 Mile Grand Prix, April 28-30, in Marathon, Fla.

With new engines under the hatch and new driver Matt Jamniczky alongside throttleman Vinnie Diorio in the cockpit, the SV Offshore Racing team is poised for its strongest season yet. Photo by Jeff Helmkamp copyright Helmkamp Photos

Diorio, who lives in Wisconsin, and Canada-based Simon Prevost, the team’s original driver, have amicably parted ways.

“When Simon told me he really wasn’t that into it anymore, I started looking for a new driver,” Diorio said. “I first met Matt at Lake Cumberland, I think in 2015, when he had a Sunsation F-4 and I still had my Outerlimits SV 43. We went to a swimming hole and he was the only one in our group without an Outerlimits.

“Of course, we had to tease him and he took it really well,” Diorio added, then laughed. “And now he’s on our team text group and he fits right in.”

Among the friends Diorio spoke to when he began searching for a driver to fill Prevost’s seat was Stephen Miles of Stephen Miles Design. Like Miles, Jamniczky, who lives in Indiana, has a houseboat at Kuttawa Harbor Marina in Kentucky.

“Vinnie called me out of the blue one morning and gave me the skinny on what he was looking for,” Miles said. “But given the family environment that’s evolved within the SV Offshore team, I immediately told him that Matt Jamniczky would be perfect and is one of my favorite human beings. We call him ‘Billy Bob’ around here because he could be Billy Bob Thornton’s kid brother.

“Matt is hands-down not only one of my favorite humans and his family is top notch,” he continued. “And I’ve had a front-row seat to witness the raw passion of powerboating get its claws into not only Matt, but also his family.”

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Vinnie Diorio and Matt Jamniczky (in hat) will share the cockpit of the Super Cat-class SV Offshore Racing team catamaran this season.

Like Diorio and his wife, Danielle, Jamniczky and his wife, Jennifer, have young children. The family is on its second MTI 340X catamaran—they sold the first one to Miles.

For Matt Jamniczky, joining Diorio, who handles throttling duties, in the catamaran is something of a dream come true.

“I have always thought about it but I never thought I would have the opportunity to do it,” he said. “I am more excited than anything else, but I’d have to be nuts if I weren’t a little nervous.”

Diorio described his new teammate as “a natural” in the cockpit, and the Jamniczky family as a perfect match for his own.

“He catches on really quickly,” Diorio said. “And he’s a family guy so he fits right in with us.”

Diorio paused to chuckle.

“Our team has a lot going on, for sure, but it’s all going in the right direction,” he said. “I think we are going to be way more competitive this season.”