We spend a weekend in the pits with legendary Melbourne-based Super Truck racer, Frank Amoroso, to see what makes the showman tick on and off the track. Does he live up to the incredible hype that surrounds him? We think so!
We roll into Winton Raceway moments before the first practice session, for round three of the Super Truck Nationals, with the aim of shadowing Frank for the weekend to see if the hype is real.
What we’ll mention straight off the bat is Frank is an almost impossible man to shadow. He’s the energiser bunny, telling jokes to a captivated audience of racers and fans, seconds before climbing into his truck to lay rubber, never staying still for a moment longer than he has to.
“I used to grease trucks with rolled-up overalls at nine years of age because, look, I just had a deep fascination with trucks,” Frank tells us as he tinkers away on his FATE racing truck.
Frank is best known for his on-track showmanship, sliding his Kenworth W-Model race truck in physics-defying fashion, but his transport career was equally colourful and he was even inducted into the National Transport Museum for his on-road achievements.
But like the ‘egg or the chicken’ analogy, was it trucks or racing that made Frank the man he is today?
Young and hungry
When Frank got an exemption to leave school at 13 years of age – the first kid in Australia to get one, he tells us – he wanted nothing more than to drive a truck like his older brother.
But, as relaxed as things were back then, 13 years old was still far too young to take the wheel so a mechanical apprenticeship it was – satisfying both Frank’s fascination for trucks and eagerness to earn a living.
“Even though I wanted to be driving, it was the way people went in those days,” he says.
“Becoming a mechanic first was pretty common and it was good because we learnt to fix things – you didn’t just buy new parts in those days.”
After a year of hard yakka and with a few bucks saved, Frank built a Sidewinder go-kart and set a lap record at the nearby Brookfield racetrack. Not that either of those things is easy to do, mind you, let alone at 14 years old.
He decided he was either going to be a race car driver, or a truck driver, but little did he know at that stage he would become both.
“In those days there was no money in racing, no one got paid to race, so I took the option of trucks after weighing it up,” Frank says.
His first interstate trip was on his 18th birthday, loving every minute of it as a fresh-faced driver who liked going quick. There are rumours of Frank being given a steer well before that time, but we won’t get into that here.
He found quick success storming the Hume in the express days, dabbling in motorsport here and there but, for the most part, knuckling down with the goal of one day buying his own big banger.
“By the time I turned 22 I bought a new Ford Louisville and a few years later I also bought a Ford LNT9000 that I modified with sequential lights and other things to make it an LTL,” he recalls.
Around that time FATE was born, an abbreviation for ‘Frank Amoroso Trucking Enterprise’, because his last name was already being used by his brother Peter who ran Amoroso Transport.
It was all looking up for Frank, but then tragedy struck. One of his best mates, and drivers at FATE, Ian McDonald, was killed in an accident driving the Ford LTL in 1987.
“I nearly stopped altogether after that, actually,” he says, looking out at the track as he recalls a memory that clearly still causes him pain.
That same year, a new motorsport class was born in Australia that caught the attention of truck drivers around the country. None more so than Frank.
Competitive streak
After watching the Australian Super Truck series in 1987, Frank knew he wanted in –whatever he had to do to make it happen.
Frank had bought a Kenworth K100 Aerodyne after the accident to replace his Ford, purchasing it off a mate who needed the money, his first and last cabover but one that would seal his fate.
The idea crossed Frank’s mind to take the Aerodyne racing. Yes it was a working truck, but he couldn’t afford to buy a dedicated racing rig.
“I thought, you know what, I’m going to cage it,” he recalls, lighting up. “So, Recar gave me a hand and we put a roll cage in it without destroying the interior. We put skirts on it, signage on it and went racing.”
Frank would drive all week, before turning up the wick on the big-cam Cummins to 900hp and racing all weekend. Come Sunday, he’d pack up, fix what needed fixing, and get back on the road to fund the dream.
“I only took it away still ‘screwed up’ twice, otherwise I wound it back down for the road because you’re always worried about blowing it up,” he reminisces, hinting at the fun he had in the Aerodyne.
While the concept of using the same truck on the road and track was suitably hardcore, Frank had grand plans to up the ante with a dedicated tracker.
“In 1990 I went to the Army auctions and bought a Diamond Reo – a 1971 model – that is actually coming back to truck racing soon,” he says.
“That originally had an auto in it with a 335 tapered-nose small-cam Cummins and after about 18 months I realised I just couldn’t make that truck any quicker.”
Having well and truly caught the bug, Frank was on the lookout for a faster truck and when he got the chance to buy a competitive Kenworth that had already proven itself on the track, he jumped at it.
“I bought the Kenworth W-Model, FATE, off Richard Blackney who never actually got to race it,” he tells us. “He split up with his missus or something, so I did a deal with him.”
Putting on a show
Frank likes going fast, there are no two ways about that, but he realised early on that racing trucks is a quick way to go broke.
“I was always content to be able to run in the top six, because I was never going to go broke to go racing,” he explains.
Frank’s charisma in the pits and hell-for-leather driving style on the track are no mistake, after receiving advice early on to put on a show rather than obsess over winning.
“Mal Halligan was the operations manager of Oran Park back then, and he put it into my head that we are showmen first and the crowd loves us for it,” he says.
Heeding that advice, Frank became known for hanging the rear end out, perhaps not the quickest way around a track but by far the most spectacular, as well as a healthy amount of contact or, as it’s colloquially known, ‘paint swapping’.
“If you’re not rubbing, you’re not racing,” he laughs, shrugging off any concerns about bumper-to-bumper contact.
Mind you, he’s still a front runner and despite doing things on a budget – rather than buying his way to top spot – he did win the championship in 2014.
“I didn’t expect to win, but I had plenty of seconds and thirds along the way so when I had a shot I gave it a little bit more – it was mine to lose that year,” he recalls.
Frank is to Super Trucks what Peter Brock was to Australian Touring Cars, half showman and half wheelman. However, you wouldn’t catch him admitting that because he’s also a rare mix of humble and talented.
In fact, back in the 1990’s the Super Trucks actually pulled a bigger crowd than the Touring Cars, with as many as 25,000 spectators flocking to Oran Park to watch the ‘sooters’ duke it out.
It was also commonplace for Touring Car drivers to jump into the trucks during the 1990s, putting on a show for crowds, which perhaps rubbed off on Frank.
“All the popular drivers had a go at driving the trucks,” he says. “Brocky, Gricey, Win Percy, Barry Sheene, the lot of them!” he says.
In fact, Allan ‘Gricey’ Grice actually drove the FATE W-Model in 1987 before Frank snagged it and made it his own.
More than a racer
In between practice sessions Frank can be found throwing banter with other teams, fettling his truck, or in his decked-out bus – trying to get some shut eye between laps. A tall order for a man with so much energy.
At one point, looking for Frank, Super Trucks Championship president Charlie Zammit suggests the quickest way to find him is to coax him out with the sound of an air start.
“He’s probably in his bus, but don’t worry, he’ll be out the moment he hears us fire the trucks up,” Charlie laughs.
That sums Frank up, because he’s as excited by the sound of a truck firing into life as he was the first time he heard it. The suggestion some truckies have ‘diesel in their veins’ is overused, but if it’s true of anyone it would be true of Frank.
Frank and his wife Marie, accompanied by their loyal crew, call a 1980 Domino Starliner home on race weekends. Sure enough, Frank has managed to build a rolling hotel that’s got plenty of pep.
“It’s got a 6V92 turbo GM in it, with a six-speed Spicer overdrive gearbox … it’s pretty quick and ‘should’ be good for a buck-fifty!” Frank jokes, with a confidence that suggests minimal embellishment to the claim.
He recalls long nights on the road, behind the wheel, as rowdy racers and his pit crew partied through the night aboard the Domino.
“They would all try to talk to me at once while I was just trying to drive through the night before a race! It’s great fun, though,” he says of the tour bus shenanigans.
Frank’s quite often the designated driver because he’s never been much of a drinker, instead getting his kicks on the track. Not that it really matters, though, because he well and truly matches the energy of the other racers around the esky after a round.
When it comes time to race, not much changes, but instead of being the designated driver he’s the calm energy that keeps everyone grounded. We get the feeling he does this on purpose.
Cool as a cucumber, all of 10 minutes before qualifying, Frank is the most relaxed racer here. “I’ve never been a nervous driver,” he laughs. “Guys have needed to vomit or take a piddle before races, but I’ve always been fine.”
Around the pits he’s the joker, advice giver and above all else he’s everyone’s mate. He’s doing something right, because more people know who Frank is than any other truck racer. We witnessed a young boy come up to Frank for an autograph, not common in grassroots motorsport but unsurprising given who he is.
Talking to his pit crew we found out he has a fanbase that’s stuck around since the 90’s, too. Apparently, one fan actually got Frank’s autograph tattooed on his arm.
Looking forward
Something unique to Australian truck racing is that drivers take family, friends, and fans for hot laps during each and every meet. “It’s good for the sport and puts a smile on people’s faces,” Frank says.
Truck racing is a spectator sport that is best consumed in person. The sounds, smells and smiles make truck racing more than the sum of its parts, which is hard to portray on TV.
Frank agrees with us, suggesting though that the internet can be used to promote the sport and rekindle in-person support.
“My FATE Racing page on Facebook has posts that have reached over 120,000 views and comments. There’s no reason it can’t grow.”
The only thing left for Frank to tick off his list, he reckons, is to race three generations of Zammits – a family of champion truck racers.
“I started racing with Charlie, and then Steven, both great drivers. Now I want to race against their grandson Jason!” he says.
