RIP Frank Grossi

[DG7050]

Thank you Dan for starting this thread. The heart warming comments from so many friends are much appreciated. We will be sure his wife Sharon, daughter Amy and son Kevin see everyone's memories of him.

Frank is the twin brother of my dad Jim sr. They were partners in a farming business that my brothers Jim jr and Sante all starting working on as early as 10 years old. I started out making 50 cents an hour, Jim a bit more. We worked long hours 7 days a week which allowed Jim to build a 427 1972 Camaro at 16 years old and me a V8 Vega at 14. Frank and my dad raced in the 1960's but had given it up for family and business. It didn't take long for both of them to get the bug again, that's when Frank partnered with Harvey Lawson on his candie apple SS/EA 1969 427 Camaro. His Camaro was covered in Car Craft magazine which declared it the most beautiful Camaro in the world. My dad soon built a 1967 Camaro stocker for Jim. Frank gave me a 1984 Cutlass stocker to get me going. This was the beginning of an incredible life full of great friendships among our racing family.

Fortunately, Frank and my dad had one last trip to Indy last year. He hated to miss any races and always raced with class. Drag racing brought him joy even when he couldn't make it to the track in the last year of his life.

A Celebration of Life will be on Saturday, August 31st 10:00 am at Draper Mortuary in Ontario CA. Everyone is invited to come out a share memories of Frank with family and friends.

Darin Grossi

[Jimmy D]

Thank you for posting this Dan. Frank deserves all of the time and kind words in this thread. Darin, thank you for sharing some history and also the service day/time.

Frank Grossi was a great racer and above that, a wonderful person and friend. I am so thankful that we got to share so many family, particularly racing memories with Frank. There can be many many pages written on Frank's character and the man he was as well as his great sense of humor. The man that Frank was and the life he lived is reflected in his entire family, from wife Sharon to son Kevin, daughter Amy, Frank's twin brother Jim and each of his sons - Jim, Darin and Sante. Each of the Grossi family members are among the most amazing people I have ever been blessed to know and call friends. I hope and pray that we have the opportunity to share many more great conversations and memories together and that we will always speak about Frank and remember him also.

Could write pages about Franks great sense of humor but this one story has been on my mind the most this past few days. We all attended a race in Houston Texas in the late 1990's - Frank, Big Jim, Jimmy, my dad, myself and other friends from southern California. We made a visit to one of our favorite places, Dairy Queen. There were a few of us in each (2) rental vehicle as we drove through the drive-through. I was riding with Frank in the second car when he rear-ended my dad in the drive-through line and started to push him forward, my dad proceeded to place his rental car in reverse and push back and the two cars started smoking the tires against each other and then filled the drive-through window and the whole dairy queen with tire smoke. Hilarious to see grown 50 year old men do this...certainly not as funny for those inside the DQ! LOL After the burnouts we pulled up to the window to get our orders and yet again it was my turn to buy as I lost another bet to Frank! As stated earlier in this thread, Frank was always one step ahead and unfortunately I did not realize this until several years had past and all bets were lost to Frank haha. The bill was around $20, I handed the person at the drive-through a $100 bill to get change and Frank took off and yelled out the window "keep the change" and peeled out and left. It was worth every laugh and fun time with Frank & family.

God Bless you Frank and your family always. You will always be missed and always thought of.

Jimmy DeFrank & Family.

[Mark Yacavone]

I can't say enough good things about Mr. Frank, without being repetitious ,

So, RIP, my friend.

[pauldilcher]

Rip

[Bruce Fulper]

AW Dang Dang it. Very sad. Frank was always nice to me. We'd talk engine stuff. And I told him I was building a Sunfire like his and was coming after him. He liked that. always with a laugh or chuckle. Now I'll never get the chance. Time for another goal. RIP Frank. You were great. I've got a cool picture of him giving Art Peterson grief when he won at Pomona by breaking on the starting line, then Gary with the '64 Comet, Ol' Smokey ran it out the back door and broke out.