Firing up a few more stories from Australian transport and truck racing legend, Frank Amoroso

In the first part of our interview with Frank Amoroso, we chatted about Frank’s early years, the highs and lows of life on the Hume Highway, his road-going Kenworth Aerodyne turned race truck and plenty more. You can read it here.

This time, we’re focusing on Frank’s life in the 21st Century. But we’re also going to break that rule almost immediately with a few bits and pieces from the nineties that we didn’t cover the first time around.

As ever, Frank was in fine form for the second part of our chat, recalling some fantastic tales from the road and racetrack. We’ll cover the story of his beautiful Kenworth W-model prime mover, his bid for a maiden Australian Super Trucks championship in 2014 and what keeps his Frank and the FATE Racing operation ticking after more than 30 years in truck racing. We’ve weaved in a few of Frank’s other yarns, too.

We spoke with Frank for almost two hours amidst Melbourne’s ongoing lockdown, and once again, it was a pleasure to share the line with a legendary character of the Australian transport industry, and a star of the local truck racing scene.

We hope you enjoy the read.

Truck versus plane

We’re starting part two in the 1990s, when Frank was not only competing against other race trucks on the track, but also against some bigger and louder machinery in the sky.

“I used to run some very quick International S-Line rigids on the Hume Highway doing air freight for Sky Roads,” shared Frank. “They were all configured for the job of carrying freight that was supposed to go by plane, but needed to travel by road instead.

“These were some seriously quick trucks with a hell of a lot of horsepower. We used to cart four and a half tonne, and they were putting out around 450 horsepower. You can imagine with that power to weight ratio, they were a racing car to drive.

“At the time, the speed limit was 100 kilometres per hour, but I had the trucks de-rated to 13-tonne by International because that meant they were allowed to do 110 kilometres per hour in Victoria and New South Wales. Every minute counted. And on top of that, with that weight, you didn’t need a log book.”

Frank remains proud of FATE Express’ performance right through until the contract finished in 2002.

“We’d quite often have the freight in before the planes. In the 20-odd years that I did the air freight, my strike rate was 99 per cent. When you compare that to the plane’s rate, it was only 69 per cent at that time. They’d be fogged in or moving the seats around to try to get extra weight in, and we’d just take off down the road and get it done. Plus, it was much cheaper to move it all by truck.”

The pride and joy

While Frank’s rigids were burning up the tarmac on the Hume Highway, another truck entered his fleet. And this one was his favourite from the first turn of the key.

“My wife’s name is Marie, but her nickname is George,” explained Frank. “That was an ex-John George truck. If you add two and two together, that’s why we named the truck George.

“When I first bought that truck second-hand back in 1993, there were bits and pieces missing off it everywhere,” Frank recalled. “But with the help of Brian Ginger at Re-Car, we wrangled together the missing bits and put it all together.

“It still has a chassis number, but it was never built as a full W-model out of Kenworth. At that stage in the 1980s, you could buy a glider kit from Kenworth, which was just a cabin, bonnet, radiator, front axle and the two chassis rails. You’d then put your own suspension, motor and gearbox in it. John George bought a heap of those. He was importing the motors over from Canada and assembling them here.”

And as Frank explained, there’s plenty in common between his road truck and his race truck.

“My race truck is a 1986 W-model, and my road truck is a 1981 W-model. The race truck is technically newer than the road truck. I still have the original mechanical motor in the road truck, and the same motor is in the race truck.

“I bought George to tow the race trucks, and for me to drive during busy periods between October and Christmas to subsidize my racing,” Frank explained. “You can imagine the mileage slowed down given she used to pull fuel tankers from Melbourne to Canberra every day. But she still did a lot of work as a backup prime mover in my fleet.”

Saving George

Frank was familiar with what it took to rebuild a truck, but he didn’t expect to be doing it with the pride of his FATE fleet.

“Only certain blokes were allowed to drive my pride and joy,” laughed Frank. “On what felt like a normal day in December 2003, one of my guys was driving George to take a load to the tip at Bulla north of Melbourne.

“What they’d do is put the light stuff at the bottom of the tipper and put the glass over the top, meaning it was very top-heavy,” Frank explained. “This guy was going around the corner at the same speed as he did seven times a day. The next thing, the truck fell on its side. And even worse, there was a tipper coming the other way. He ended up hitting the dog trailer on the oncoming truck.

“For my driver to get out, he had to climb between the dog trailer and the guard rail on the other side of the road to get out. It was a miracle that he just needed a few stiches and was absolutely fine. The truck wasn’t so well though. It was basically destroyed from the Kenworth emblem on the bonnet all the way through to the tipper.”

That’s when the rescue mission began.

“Thankfully, we were able to get most of the stuff off the road and I was there directing the tow truck driver to stand it back up,” described Frank. “We put it back on its wheels, and I started to think about how we were going to unload it, because three quarters of the freight was still in it.

“I jumped into this destroyed truck, turned the key, hit the start button and it fired! The tow truck hooked onto it and took us into the tip. I fired up the truck again, tipped the rest of the load out and then the tow truck brought it into the depot. It was in a shocking state.”

No stranger to plotting a rebuild after rolling his Ford Louisville rolled on the Hume Highway in the eighties, Frank planned to rebuild George even better.

“We lifted the cab up eight inches, because I wanted to put a subframe underneath it with airbags and everything on it,” he explained. “And we joined the cabin and the sleeper as one piece.

“I also had to slice the bonnet on it. The headlights and bonnet mount locations are still the same as a regular W-model, but I split the bonnet halfway up the sides and added eight inches of fiberglass to match the cabin that we’d changed. We rebuilt the inside of it, and it came out magical. That’s how it is today.”

Frank then reflected on George’s current workload. “Since I rebuilt it, I’ve probably done around 360,000 kilometres. But more recently, the only time it goes to work is when we go to the truck racing.”

The Power Tour

Truck racing drew some of the biggest crowds in motorsport throughout the 1990s, with established protagonists, big fields of trucks and a spectacle that few categories could match. But there was a big shift in 2001; the Power Tour.

“They were trying to do something more with truck racing, to have it like the touring cars,” said Frank. “We had a licencing system where we paid money into the Power Tour, which guaranteed our appearance money if we turned up at every round.

“I always thought it was never going to work, because it wasn’t anyone’s prime business like the touring cars were. For truck racers, it’s our hobby. We all had businesses to run as well. I was doing air freight at the time, which was demanding. But we all signed up to do six or seven rounds per year. That was a lot of work to be doing, with seven rounds as well as looking after your fleet and business.”

Frank was right. The Power Tour concept only lasted for a couple of years, but it did produce a few memorable moments at Calder Park in Melbourne’s northern suburbs.

“I’d just had a back operation, and I wasn’t driving my truck,” Frank recalled. “Darren Palmer from Palm Trans was driving it.

“In one of the races, Darren was heading into turn one, and Joe Scarcella ran into the side of him and ripped out the fuel tanks and air tanks and everything else. Darren kept on driving because he didn’t realize the damage. That was, until he got to the end of the back straight, put his foot on the brake and realized there was nothing there.

“He sailed off into the sand, and the next thing we knew, the truck was on its side. Thankfully we were able to put it back on its wheels, repair everything and get the truck going.”

Instead, it was a damaged part on Scarcella’s truck that proved the most memorable fix of the race meeting.  

“Funnily enough, there’s always been a bit of a shit-stir that I can weld anything,” laughed Frank. “I’ve been doing it since I was a kid, and there aren’t too many things that have worried me where there’s a welder involved.

“Joe Scarcella’s truck actually broke an eye off the front spring. We were all gathered around having a look at it, and I said, ‘don’t worry, I’ll weld it!’ They all said, ‘you’ll what?’ I said, ‘I’ll weld it!’

“I welded the spring together, and that spring actually did another two race meetings. Charlie Zammit from SRZ Racing still has it as a spare spring in his toolbox just in case.”

Farewelling Oran Park

After the Power Tour ended, the Australian Super Trucks joined the Shannons Nationals bill. And while they’d continue to race around Australia, Oran Park remained the spiritual home of truck racing Down Under.

“It broke my heart that it was being sold,” said Frank. “That was a fantastic track. I couldn’t help but think it was the end of an era during the last race weekend. I knew we’d go and race somewhere else, but Oran Park was a brilliant place to race trucks.

“The spectators turned out in their thousands to see it. There were times when you couldn’t see a blade of grass between all the people.”

The last truck race at Oran Park was in 2009, but Frank still remembers lapping the western Sydney circuit like it was yesterday.

“We were going over the dogleg at Oran Park at 160 kilometres per hour,” said Frank, smiling. “You needed a set of balls to do that, because your brain kept saying lift off, but you couldn’t. That’s because if you landed and the truck was unsettled, it would head straight for the concrete wall. You needed to be smooth and use a lot of the ripple strips to make it work.

“You’d then come onto the front straight, and you had to keep it in tight. There used to be a sign that said, ‘Drive for milk’, and that’s where you pointed the truck. The back bumper bar would always scrape the concrete wall coming onto the front straight. If you weren’t scraping it, you weren’t trying hard enough.

“I absolutely loved that track. It was a terrible shame to see it go.”

A year like no other

Truck racing powered on after the closure of Oran Park, and so did Frank, despite a couple of back surgeries.

“Everybody made a big deal of the fact that I’d been racing for a quarter of a century and never won a championship, but to be honest, I was out there to have fun and put a show on for the crowd,” explained Frank. “I learned years ago that you’re an entertainer, and the camera goes where the action is. Giving the crowd a thrill was always enough for me.

“But 2014 was different,” he continued. “It was partially some modifications to the truck that got me into a position to compete for the championship. It was also the fact that Steven Zammit had a problem with his motor during the first round, and I won two of the four races. I ended up being a bunch of points in front and started to think with my head a little bit more.”

Frank had a sniff of the championship title, banking race after race of solid points in his FATE Racing Kenworth throughout the season.

The stage was set for an enthralling duel in the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales.

“By the time we got to the last round at Wakefield Park, I had a 15-point lead at the top of the championship,” Frank recalled. “However, at the last corner of the first race, I broke the torque rod bracket off the top of the diff, and the diff turned. It was rattling and banging and crabbing around. I knew I had to get it over the line, and thankfully I managed to finish third. That meant I dropped a few points to Steven, but it wasn’t a disaster.

“We had a couple more races, and by the time we got to the Super Prix at the end of the weekend, only three points separated myself and Steven Zammit. That was the only year where there were four of us in contention for the championship right down to the wire. It was myself, Steven Zammit, Paul Reyntjes and Beau Hewat.”

On a tense Sunday afternoon at Wakefield Park, the teams began their final preparations for the title deciding race.

“I was starting to get a bit worried, because I knew I had to finish in front of Steven Zammit to win this thing,” said Frank.

“Low and behold, just before we went out for the Super Prix, the heavens opened up. I’ve always loved racing in the rain. It’s one of the best equalisers. If you’re down on horsepower or turning ability, rain is your best friend.

“All of a sudden, I had a smile on my dial. Steven was trying that hard that he went off the track three times. He was pulling some desperate moves, and on the day, they didn’t pay off. There was only one lap where I went a little bit wide and hit the dirt, but I glided it home and won the championship by a couple of points.”

We asked Frank how it felt to win the championship in his 26th year in the sport.

“I was very emotional, but I was actually happier for my team that had put in so much work. We were all ecstatic. For all those years, I was never going to go broke to go truck racing. I was content with running in the top six, but to win the thing was a fantastic feeling.

“I was pumping my fists and screaming over the radio when I crossed the line.”

Under the knife

Frank has never been missing from the track for long, despite having some major surgeries to alleviate lingering back problems.

“My last back operation was not the nicest of all, which was back in 2012,” he recalled. “I’d already had three back operations. I was the 11th person in the world to have the ‘Wallis implant’ put into my back. They came up with a little H piece, which was made from plastic. They open your disc spacings, put that in, and they tie it in. That stabilised my back and lasted nearly six years.

“It wasn’t until they actually opened me up that they realised it had broken a corner of the block off,” continued Frank. “They then took out two discs and put two carbon fiber cages where the discs were. They used marrow from inside my hip to fill up the cage, and titanium plates and screws held it all together until the bone knitted.

“Once you’ve got two discs fused together, it tends to put more pressure on the upper and lower discs, which is why I’m still suffering from a bit of pain.”

It’s not a perfect solution, but Frank is determined to keep on racing.

“If I could make a pill out of the adrenaline rush, I’d be laughing,” he said. “I can sit in a race seat, and once I’ve got my harness all strapped in, as long as my back stays straight, I haven’t got a problem. But I can’t bend over and tune an engine or change an injector or anything like that. Or if I do, I’m suffering badly after it.

“While the adrenaline is pumping during the weekend, I’m as good as gold,” emphasised Frank. “But come Sunday night, I don’t feel like just my truck has run over me. I feel like the whole field has run over me!”

A damaged W-model

Frank’s race truck has also been under the knife, or should we say angle grinder, in recent years.

“It got badly bent up at Winton in 2018,” reflected Frank. “I never wanted to strip it down. Over so many years, there were dozens of small fixes and modifications we’d made, and it was easily the heaviest truck out there. I had a 500-kilogram disadvantage. Every corner, I had to stop that extra weight and then accelerate it again.

“The team ended up stripping it down to two chassis rails, and we left the cabin, motor and gearbox in it. Then, we started again. We got rid of all the old stuff and redesigned everything. I always took the truck by the scruff of the neck and drove it as hard as I could, but I’ll happily admit it wasn’t a good, flowing truck.”

The truck, originally raced by 20th Century touring car hero, Allan Grice, is now a very different beast.

“Since we did that, I’ve been able to overtake trucks around the outside of the sweeper at Winton. That’s how much better the handling is these days. It’s much lighter, and the way we engineered the torque rods underneath it meant we could make some big adjustments to the suspension and the chassis.

“I haven’t actually weighed it, so I don’t know how much lighter it is. But we spent about 800 hours of labour putting this thing back together, and it’s made a big difference on the track”

Frank’s future in truck racing

We asked Frank to reflect on his scariest moment behind the wheel of a race truck.

“I don’t think I’ve ever had one! Most drivers get nervous and some even want to go and throw up before a race. I’ve never been like that. Perhaps that’s why I’m no different now to how I was back in 1988. If someone leaves me a six-foot hole, I’m going to take it. The day I don’t take it, I’ve got to stop racing.”

Frank won’t be winding up his truck racing career any time soon, with ambitions to fulfill a long-held desire to race against three generations of the Zammit family.

“I need to keep going for a few more years, because I raced against Charlie Zammit and now I’m racing against his son, Steven. I need to go for another three or four years to race against Steven’s son, Jason. If I can race Jason, that means I’ve raced against three generations of a brilliant racing family. That would be very special.”

Frank also shared his views on the state of truck racing Down Under.

“I’d say it’s the best it’s been in years. There used to be a huge discrepancy in the front-runners and the rear of the field. Nowadays, it’s a lot closer. You can throw a blanket over us in the first few laps. That’s what’s making the racing so exciting these days.

Frank continued, “Yes, there aren’t as many trucks as there were in the nineties, but the quality of the trucks out there is far ahead of anything we’ve ever had in Australia. And reliability is much better now, meaning more trucks are on the track throughout the weekend.”

When the engines fire again

While the 2021 Australian Super Trucks season has been disrupted by COVID-19 outbreaks on the east coast of Australia, Frank can’t wait to get behind the wheel again. Looking ahead to the 2021 season finale, he offered some words to anyone who hasn’t seen truck racing before.

“It’s not about the carnage. It’s far more than that. It’s how the ground vibrates as the trucks go past. It’s the amount of close racing every time. It’s the anticipation as we drive into the marshalling area before a race.

“I think it’s one of the most spectacular sports you could ever find for spectators. Most people who get a taste of it go back. I don’t think I’ve ever heard someone say they didn’t like it and leave the race meeting.

“And as a driver, I can honestly say that I still get the same buzz today that I did back in 1988. I’ve been doing this for 32 years, and I don’t have any intention to stop.”

Another big thank you to Frank for being so generous with his time. You can follow Frank and the FATE Racing squad on Facebook, and with any luck, the big rigs will be back in action at Wakefield Park on November 27-28.

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