The smell of burnt fuel and tyres, the screech of wheels spinning past on cars reaching unnatural speeds. The thrill of a racetrack… addictive.
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Work isn’t commonly known to be an exhilarating daily activity, but for Robert Davis, adrenaline is the driving force that led him to pursue the career he loves.
Towing Ford Mustangs around Australia in his Penrite B-double, a 2023 Mercedes Benz Actros 26630, Davis spends 50 per cent of his time driving and the other 50 per cent working in the garages or on racetracks for Penrite Racing.
“I love it. The adrenaline rush keeps you excited to do your job,” he says.
“It’s ideal if you’re a bloke into motorsports, or have ever done motorsport racing in your time. Just being involved with that programme is really good.”
The prime mover changes its design every year. Representing Penrite, it’s predominately black. It includes super single steers, with all stainless-steel guards, fully wrapped and blinged up with extra lighting.
Sponsored through Velocity Truck Centres, the truck carts two race cars. It’s 26m long, standing at a gross weight of 59 tonnes.
Racing has always been a part of Davis’ world. He raced motocross as a junior and into his early adult life. However, he says carting race cars had never occurred to him until his mate told him he was going to start racing, and jokingly suggested Rob could haul his team around.
What started off as a laugh amongst good mates quickly turned into a 20-year career.
While he’s a diesel mechanic by trade, Davis carted liquified petroleum gas (LPG) around for 30 years before he began transporting race cars.
After initially working casually, after hours, hauling race cars turned into full time work and a much-loved career.
As well as driving the Penrite truck, Davis now spends his time at the workshop specialising in inspecting the race tyres and cleaning the rims, ensuring they’re ready for their next battle.
During race events, he oversees both tyres and cars, working closely with the race car engineers, ensuring the tyres go on at the appropriate time.
He says being involved with motorsports and having his own truck trailer to look after is the best part of his job.
But of course, there are cons that come with the pros.
“The worst thing about this job is being away from home for so long at times,” he says.
Davis’ family remain at their home in Melbourne while he chases the infinite white line on Australia’s roads, sometimes for up to two weeks at a time.
His schedule sees him travel to and from Perth, Darwin and Townsville, clocking up 12 hours a day as he races to the next round.
Despite the challenges of being away, Davis describes his family life as a “pretty normal one”. He has two kids and a supportive wife, who doesn’t mind him going away.
“We’ve probably got a perfect relationship, we don’t argue,” he laughs.
“When we do argue, the phone’s breaking up, I can’t hear her. So, it’s perfect!”
When asked if he finds it stressful carting around $5 million worth of cargo daily, he replied with the utmost confidence.
“I don’t find it stressful. I don’t even think about it,” he says.
“They trust me to operate their gear, they know it’s gonna get clean and not damaged.”
There have only been a few instances where Davis has been stressed in this line of work.
He’s had a couple of scares in the middle of the night, when he’s been alone by the side of the road catching up on sleep.
One night he awoke to eight people shaking his truck and banging on the door.
In a confused and dazed state, Davis says his first instincts were to act quickly and escape the situation safely.
“I didn’t get out of the truck, I put the window down and screamed ‘get away from me!’” he remembers.
“I managed to start up the truck and get the hell out of there. It took me a little while to work out what was actually happening because I was in a deep sleep.”
Another challenge for Davis is keeping fit when his job often entails sitting behind the wheel all day. It’s especially important as the nature of working with the race team means he sometimes needs to be able to move quickly.
He does his best to keep his body moving by mountain bike riding whenever he gets the opportunity.
“I usually cart my mountain bike with me wherever I go, and wherever I can, I hop off to go for a ride,” he adds.
When Deals on Wheels spoke with Davis, he had just returned from a 14-day journey to the Darwin Triple Crown race and back and was starting a nine day stint at home before heading out again for the Townsville 500 in Queensland.
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