August 27, 2024 • 33 mins
Tim Confal began his racing career with a '69 Camaro in the San Fernando Valley in the late 70's which evolved to drag racing a fuel altered. While drag racing, he met Roger Gate and Bill Ward and started crewing on their streamliner at El Mirage and the Bonneville Salt Flats. Tim ended up running his own car, the memorable front engine Lakester named Myrtle.
Tim entered the Bonneville 200 MPH Club in 1989 driving an Opal GT. He connected with Bob Noice, and they began racing roadsters which led to the creation of the iconic Noicemaker roadster. The Noicemaker tragically crashed in 1989. Luckily the driver was not hurt badly but their bond and love for racing endured as they rebuilt another roadster and faced the challenges of the Double A Blown Gas Roadster class. His decision to eventually step away from racing highlights the emotional and physical toll that managing such a demanding sport can take.
Finally, immerse yourself in the world of hot rodding and high-speed racing with stories that capture the unpredictable nature of the sport. From handling a Blown Fuel Lakester that is leaking nitro to crashing in an Opal over 200MPH, this episode delves into the thrill, danger, and determination that define racing excellence.
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Episode Transcript
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Introduction (00:01):
Welcome to Landspeed Legends, a podcast
talking to the men, the women,the legends that make land speed
racing great.
Discover the stories of theseordinary people whose passion
for land speed racing has madethem legendary.
And now here's your host theBonneville Belle, the High Boy,
(00:23):
honey, the salt princess, alisonVolk-Dean.
Allison Volk Dean (00:32):
The legendary Tim Conful is here with us
today to talk about his careerin land speed racing and other
types of racing.
It sounds like You're tellingme how you got started racing of
racing.
Tim Confel (00:44):
It sounds like you were telling me how you got
started racing.
Yeah, I started with a 69Camaro.
Mustang and sold it bought anAltered, built a small block
Chevy injected started racing it.
Allison Volk Dean (00:57):
Where was this at?
Tim Confel (00:58):
This is in the San Fernando Valley.
Allison Volk Dean (01:00):
Oh, well, geez, in what year?
Tim Confel (01:02):
Oh, what year?
Yeah, oh got to be in the 77,78.
Allison Volk Dean (01:08):
Sounds.
Tim Confel (01:09):
And then just met different people like Roger
Gates and Bill Ward and got intoracing at El Mirage with them
and went to my first trip toBonneville in 78, 79.
And all of a sudden everythingchanged Boom.
Allison Volk Dean (01:27):
So you were racing in the San Fernando
Valley, just kind of drag racing.
Yeah, did you do any structureddrag racing, or was it all just
street?
Tim Confel (01:37):
No, Well, it was street stuff with my Mustang,
but I started kind of likestructural racing when I got
ahold of the altered cause youjust can't run one of those on
the street.
Allison Volk Dean (01:48):
No, so you were racing fuel alters.
Tim Confel (01:51):
Well unblown.
Allison Volk Dean (01:52):
Unblown Okay.
Tim Confel (01:53):
Injected alcohol.
Okay, yeah, cause I couldn't, Ididn't have a bunch of money.
Yeah, I just wanted to race.
Allison Volk Dean (01:58):
Oh, that's so fun.
Yeah, that's fun fun.
Tim Confel (02:04):
Well, that's what a lot of people do.
They just want you know to racewhat race what you can, that's.
Allison Volk Dean (02:06):
That's exactly what it was, yeah, so um
how long did you do that forthe drag race?
Tim Confel (02:10):
probably two, three years, and then uh and is this
where you met bill that's andthen I met uh roger gates and
bill ward and um they startedrunning a streamliner at El
Mirage in Bonneville and theyhad more success at El Mirage
than Bonneville.
Allison Volk Dean (02:29):
Yeah, they did with the streamliner.
Yeah, so were you part of theirteam?
Tim Confel (02:34):
Yeah, I just started hanging out with them and going
to races with them and stufflike that and then started, you
know, El Mirage was your firstrace, so what was it like back
then at El Mirage?
Back then you went out onSunday morning and ran the car
and that was it.
Nowadays you're out on Thursdayand Friday and I mean it's just
everything's completelydifferent.
(02:54):
Everything's changed.
The lake bed's changed.
The salt's changed.
Everything's changed since whenI first started going out there
.
Allison Volk Dean (03:00):
Well, what was, what would be some of your
cars that were very memorable?
You were racing at El Mirage,you were just crewing, yeah.
Tim Confel (03:14):
I didn't start racing on El Mirage on the dirt
until like 70, I think it was 79, maybe 80.
80 and uh, I got hooked up withsomebody through don and barry.
Uh, don carr and barry caplanand roger gates and bill ward
they knew a guy that boughtmyrtle from don carr and I put
(03:35):
my motor in myrtle and me andhim ran it for one season.
He didn't like it and so hesold the car and I took my motor
and that was that that was that.
I mean it's like um Al Teagueran out there.
Then I mean it's um trying toremember names is it's hard
(03:57):
because it's so long ago?
Um Bill Temple, Bill Temple, IBill Temple is an awesome guy
and you know he was just abitching guy.
Allison Volk Dean (04:09):
Yeah.
Tim Confel (04:09):
And his wife was awesome and Greg is.
You know, greg lives inColorado.
Somewhere he worked for I don'tknow some airlines out there
and he used to fly in and flyhome and stuff like that and
drive it at El Mirage or driveit, you know, on the salt of
Bonneville.
They had it was called Gotcha.
They ran a roadster yeah,gotcha, so it was.
(04:30):
I was you know people.
It was like that.
Monty Wolf ran out there at ElMirage.
I mean, your dad was runningthere with a roadster and stuff
like that and me and your dadused to have we had bitching
conversations about drivingroadsters and stuff like that
and me and your dad used to havewe had bitching conversations
about driving roadsters andstuff like that, because when
they really get up and start torun a roadster, your dad calls
(04:53):
it doing the hula, because theback end starts moving around
and stuff like that and you justgot to let it go, and the
faster they go the more theywiggle and the fun of the ride
becomes.
Allison Volk Dean (05:04):
Yep, absolutely so.
Well, so you get out there in70, what year did you say it was
75?
Tim Confel (05:13):
No, probably 70, 77, 78, 79.
Allison Volk Dean (05:16):
Oh 78.
Introduction (05:17):
78, yeah.
Tim Confel (05:19):
It was Roger Gates and Bill Warren.
It was a streamliner they had.
Allison Volk Dean (05:23):
Oh yeah, I think you did say that.
Tim Confel (05:24):
Yeah.
Allison Volk Dean (05:26):
What were they running in that?
Tim Confel (05:27):
They used to run a big block.
Chevy twin turbos on alcohol.
Allison Volk Dean (05:33):
And what were the speeds that they were
looking at?
Tim Confel (05:35):
On El Mirage they were running like 270, 275.
Oh, wow, back then, yeah.
Allison Volk Dean (05:42):
Yeah, that's good.
Tim Confel (05:44):
So then I started running.
I ran Myrtle for one year.
Allison Volk Dean (05:50):
So is Myrtle the name of the car.
Yeah, okay.
Tim Confel (05:53):
What is it?
It was a front engine Lakester.
Allison Volk Dean (05:55):
Okay, okay.
Tim Confel (05:57):
From like the early 60s, so it was like a well-known
car.
Okay, it just got a name Myrtleand that just stuck with it.
Okay, it's kind of weird.
Allison Volk Dean (06:07):
Yeah, no, I like it.
Tim Confel (06:10):
People that go back to the early 60s to the 70s,
they'll know who Myrtle is.
They've been around Lansby'sracing.
I mean, it's like I was havingan earlier conversation with
your dad and he had Myrtle inthe garage for a while.
Allison Volk Dean (06:26):
Oh, he did.
Tim Confel (06:26):
Yeah, you know, and your dad put a motor in Myrtle.
I mean, it's just Myrtle's beenaround the block, huh.
Yeah, but the guy who bought itbought it from Don Carr, yeah.
And then I put my motor in it.
We ran it for a year and thenhe didn't want to do it anymore,
so he sold the car.
I took my motor and went andthen I got hooked up with Bill
(06:51):
Ward doing an Opel GT and in 88,I think it was- so you
re-hooked back up with Bill.
Yeah, and then in 88, he got inthe two club with, uh, an opal
gt, with a 300 inch chevrolet,and then I got in in 89 okay, so
(07:13):
he got in 83, did you say?
Allison Volk Dean (07:15):
88 oh he just did it back to back, back to
back.
Tim Confel (07:19):
He got in at 200 and something, 200 point something
miles an hour, and I got in at222.223 or something you pushed
it up.
Allison Volk Dean (07:27):
What'd you guys do different?
Just a little more lead footyeah yeah, that thing is a wild
ride.
It seems like to drive when yousee it go down.
What's it like?
Tim Confel (07:38):
oh yeah, it's uh well.
Normally it's pretty stable,but then all of a sudden, when
you start changing aerodynamicsand stuff and you spin them,
they're not fun at all anymore.
Allison Volk Dean (07:49):
Yeah.
Tim Confel (07:50):
The fun factor kind of goes away a little bit.
Allison Volk Dean (07:54):
The oh shit factor comes in.
Tim Confel (07:56):
Well, it's not really.
Oh shit.
It's like okay, let's hang onand find out what it's going to
do.
You got two options.
One it's going on its head.
Two, it just spins around incircles and everything's okay.
So you're just hoping it juststays hoping it's the okay.
Four feet on the ground andit's going around in circles and
everything's okay oh wow.
Allison Volk Dean (08:13):
So how many times did you spin it?
Tim Confel (08:15):
I spun it twice at a usfra meet oh yeah, but you
never went upside down no godgood good, no, I didn't go
upside down until about 2000.
Allison Volk Dean (08:25):
Oh, okay, so well then 2000,.
Tim Confel (08:29):
I got talked into a car I never should have stepped
into, but I stepped into itanyways.
And yeah, I flew it about 40feet in the air and it turned
out to be a giant mess.
Allison Volk Dean (08:38):
Well, what car was it?
Tim Confel (08:41):
It was another Opel GT.
Allison Volk Dean (08:42):
Oh, it was.
Yeah, oh my gosh, but notBill's no.
Tim Confel (08:46):
Okay, no, that car was really stable.
We didn't have the he and theone I crashed.
He had the motor way back in itand he had a lot of.
He had done a lot of stuff,built big spill plates in the
back and had wicker bills on itand all kinds of aerodynamic to
push the back end on the groundkinds of aerodynamic to push the
back end on the ground.
And what had happened is, onceyou got to about 170, the back
(09:07):
end, the front end, had come offthe ground on the back end and
be planted.
So you kind of yeah, thatsounds just terrible, terrifying
.
You know I didn't know at thetime but the guy's wife had spun
it and she got scared anddidn't want to drive it.
Then his daughter spun it twiceand she didn't want to drive it
.
Then he spun it twice and thenhe didn't want to drive it and I
(09:29):
didn't find out till it was toolate.
I got in the car and the firstrun you can almost make it spin
with your right foot.
It was so easy, you get about165 and if you squeeze a little
more you can feel it start towiggle and start to want to go.
And if you squeeze a littlemore you can feel it start to
wiggle and start to want to go.
And then you know, you justlift and it all, everything
settles back down and getsstable.
And so I told him you know hehad no weight in the front of
(09:53):
the car and everything in theback of the car.
And so then he comes back.
So I took this off, I took thisoff, I did this, I did this and
I says why don't we just waittill May and I'll drive it?
I'll drive it.
You know, saturday on the firstmeet, May meet, and we'll see
how it goes.
Then, if you need to changethings, change things around and
make it more stable.
(10:13):
He kept on insisting, he kepton insisting and next thing I
know I'm, I wanted a car up.
Did you get hurt or was it?
I didn't get hurt, seriously.
Allison Volk Dean (10:21):
No, did you get hurt, or was it I?
Tim Confel (10:23):
didn't get hurt seriously no, Did the car get
hurt?
Allison Volk Dean (10:26):
It sounds like it needed to.
Tim Confel (10:29):
You couldn't tell what it was.
Oh wow, the doors were off it,the back window was out of it,
the deck lid was off it, thehood was off it, there was no
battery.
The battery exploded.
There was no battery.
Oh my God, there was no leftaxle in it or wheel.
Allison Volk Dean (10:45):
Wow yeah.
Wow, so you're lucky that youwalked away from it.
I'm very lucky I walked awayfrom it.
Tim Confel (10:50):
Good safety too, but it's make yourself as small as
you can make yourself.
If you can make yourself into agolf ball, you're better off.
Allison Volk Dean (10:59):
Pro tip String cup.
Okay, that's good to know.
So what year was that?
Tim Confel (11:07):
That was about 2000, .
I think it was.
Allison Volk Dean (11:09):
So in between .
So you got in the club in 89, Ithink.
So what were you doing inbetween those years?
Tim Confel (11:17):
I got hooked up with Rich Manchin, needed help with
a car that he bought from JeffCarroll.
That was actually Jeff Carrollwas drag racing, super comp
racing and Rich took it andbuilt it into a Lakester and
started running it at El Mirage.
Then he started taking it toBonneville and I was helping him
(11:38):
on times I was free and stufflike that and going with him and
doing stuff.
And then Bob Noyce approachedme about helping him with his
car and stuff like that andgoing with him and doing stuff.
And then bob noice approachedme about helping him with his
car and stuff like that and hisroadster.
And then I still, you know, Istarted working on his roadster
with him and we started runningit at el mirage and taking a
bonneville and stuff like thatand just having just fun, just
(11:58):
having fun yeah and then, uh, hehad built Bobby built another
Roadster and Randy Scoville wasdriving it an all-wheel drive,
blown big block ChevroletRoadster on gas.
And in 89, it was the same yearI got in the club Randy crashed
(12:21):
that car.
Yeah, Randy crashed the car in89, crashed his second Roadster,
the Roadster he crashed.
Yeah, yeah, Randy crashed thecar in 89.
Crashed his second roadster.
Allison Volk Dean (12:27):
The roadster he crashed.
Wow what happened.
Tim Confel (12:31):
He ended up in the hospital in Salt Lake City for
about six weeks, I think it wasmaybe longer.
Allison Volk Dean (12:38):
Was it a modified roadster?
Tim Confel (12:40):
No, it was just a regular gas roadster, a blown
gas roadster.
Allison Volk Dean (12:45):
I just don't hear about that often.
What happened to this?
It just rolled, did it.
Tim Confel (12:51):
No, something in the front driveline broke and
failed and it crashed Like Endover end.
Whoa, I mean everything, itjust they cut the cage off the
car.
Allison Volk Dean (13:03):
I think I do remember, and it was front, was
it rear wheel drive?
Tim Confel (13:06):
All wheel drive.
Allison Volk Dean (13:07):
I mean all wheel drive.
Yeah, I think I did.
Yeah, I remember what year wasthat.
Tim Confel (13:11):
That was 89 and it was called Bob put a name on the
side of the car.
It was called oh the Noisemaker.
Allison Volk Dean (13:19):
Oh, I remember that car now.
I remember the Noisemaker verywell.
Tim Confel (13:23):
Yeah, yeah that's when it crashed.
Then, after Randy healed andstuff, they built another car.
Allison Volk Dean (13:28):
Yeah, and they didn't call it the
Noisemaker, that other one.
Tim Confel (13:32):
No, it didn't have no name on it.
Allison Volk Dean (13:33):
The Noisemaker was loud it was like.
Tim Confel (13:41):
I mean, I was little in 89, but I remember, I
vividly remember the car yeahthat's the one that randy randy
drove and he had a passion.
I'm so glad he was okay, yeah,and so then after about a year
or, so, two, they started.
Allison Volk Dean (13:52):
He started on another car and then um so he
starts building a new car.
Is randy bob's son or no?
Okay?
Tim Confel (14:04):
randy was randy.
We used to work for ChampionSparkplugs and Bob knows Randy
since Randy was about 17 yearsold.
When Randy was about 17 or 18,bob took him the first time to
Bonneville.
It was Bob and Randy, sethHammond, lee Gustafson, they all
(14:24):
went to Bonneville.
Okay, and you know, when Randystarted out racing, randy worked
for Zuchel and stuff like that,who flew planes and did drag
racing and boat racing and allthat kind of stuff.
Wow, and so Bob has known Randyforever.
And then, you know, theystarted building the car.
Then Randy started driving itand he couldn't drive it anymore
(14:46):
.
And then so Bob started drivingit and after the second time it
spun at about 275, bob steppedout of the car and said I don't
want nothing to do with this, nomore.
Allison Volk Dean (14:58):
And then I started driving it.
Well, put that guy in, He'lldrive it, you know so so did you
ever have any problems withthat?
Tim Confel (15:06):
oh, I spun that thing a whole bunch of times you
know that I do what.
Allison Volk Dean (15:13):
What year was that car?
Tim Confel (15:16):
oh, it was probably finished.
96, I think, is when it firstcame back out, I think.
Allison Volk Dean (15:25):
And were you guys just running a bunch of
different classes?
Tim Confel (15:28):
No, they only ran one class in that car.
What was it?
Double A, just Double A, yeah.
Allison Volk Dean (15:33):
Double A fuel , no Double A gas.
Double A gas roadster.
Tim Confel (15:37):
Yeah, balloon, gas roadster Balloon gas roadster
yeah that's all they ever ran.
Allison Volk Dean (15:41):
Huh.
Tim Confel (15:41):
The only one.
That Bob's Roadster is the onlyone that we ever changed a lot
of motors in and ran differentclasses.
We ran C, we ran B, we ran A,AA, we ran D, we ran all kind of
classes in the street roadster.
Allison Volk Dean (15:54):
In the street roadster.
But this one is and this is.
But this is Bob's Roadster too,right?
Tim Confel (15:58):
Yeah, well, it's Bob and Randy's Roadster Bob is the
Noyce Scoville Noyce Roadster.
Allison Volk Dean (16:04):
Okay, yeah, okay, so that's in and you're
spinning roadsters and having agood time, and this is in the
2000s, yeah, yeah.
And so what?
You guys aren't racing outthere anymore, though.
Tim Confel (16:19):
No, no, bob quit racing two years ago, maybe
three and I quit two years abouta year after him.
It's just too hard to do it byyourself.
Yeah, try to run these cars byyourself.
Allison Volk Dean (16:35):
But you guys were racing all the way up until
just barely.
Tim Confel (16:37):
Yeah, all through the 90s and part of the 2005,.
We used to run all the lakemeets.
We used to run all the saltmeets.
When we first started running alot of the salt meets, it's
like the USFR used to put on ameet.
It was like the last week ofJuly, yeah, and it'd be like 120
(17:01):
degrees out and stuff like that, yeah, our salt meet.
It'd be like 120 degrees out andstuff like that.
And then there were years wherein July it rained and it'd get
rained out and stuff like that.
But we used to run all the time.
Allison Volk Dean (17:14):
Yeah.
Tim Confel (17:14):
We used to constantly run.
Allison Volk Dean (17:16):
Yeah, and you'd run El Mirage and that
With all different motors.
Do you miss it not being outthere?
Not anymore.
No.
Tim Confel (17:24):
No, not being out there, not anymore.
Allison Volk Dean (17:25):
No, no, at first you did yeah, yeah.
Tim Confel (17:30):
It's just Because I've asked people how do you
know when time is up?
You know how do you know?
When to, and they just tell youall of a sudden.
You know, you know and it'sjust like.
Allison Volk Dean (17:43):
It's just like you can't do it by yourself
.
Tim Confel (17:49):
Oh yeah, yeah, you need.
You need friends, you needpartners and stuff like that to
do it.
So basically, me and bob ranfor so many years just by
ourselves.
Yeah, that when one of us isgone, it's just not yeah, well,
it's not easy to find somebodythat wants to spend a bunch of
money and run a car that veryfew people want to run and to be
(18:12):
able to get out.
It's not like running a Corvette, you know.
I mean everybody wants to drive.
I mean people want to driveroadsters, especially street
roadsters.
Yeah, you know, yeah, and so Ijust can't do it by myself, so I
just dumped oh well, maybe younever know what will happen,
maybe one day or no.
You're done, I'm done, ah well,I'm done, driving, I'm done
(18:37):
what are you doing now?
I'm building a 33 three windowokay you're hot rodding yes that
, that's cool, that's acceptable.
Allison Volk Dean (18:45):
I'll allow it .
I'm like no racing, but hotroddings, yeah, fun.
Tim Confel (18:50):
Well, you got a truck.
Allison Volk Dean (18:51):
I know I like my little truck, was that 29?
28.
, 28.
Tim Confel (18:55):
Okay, then your brother's got the 29.
Allison Volk Dean (18:58):
Yep, yeah, it's a.
Yeah, I like my little truck.
Yeah See, yeah.
Well, how many cars had youraced?
You had raced the.
Tim Confel (19:07):
Well, I mean, I mean I'd driven, I'd driven a fuel
Lakester that out there CharlieArnold and I forget Verlin
Marshall owned.
I drove that for two yearsBonneville and El Mirage.
Allison Volk Dean (19:26):
And what kind of car was it?
Tim Confel (19:28):
It was a blown fuel streamliner.
A blown, no, a Lakester.
Blown fuel Lakester.
Allison Volk Dean (19:32):
Blown fuel, Lakester.
What was the records on that?
Like what were you?
Tim Confel (19:36):
going about then, it would run right around the 250
mark.
It needed to run close to likethe 260s.
Oh, 250 mark.
It needed to run close to likethe 260s, oh wow.
You know it was just a dealwhere Verlin had a car, charlie
had a motor and Al had the car,and it was just like you know,
verlin had bounced back andforth between his coupe and the
(19:58):
Lakester, so I mean to get themall on the same page.
I just wanted to drive, so Ijust drove the car.
Yeah, apparently you justwanted to drive, so I just drove
the car.
Allison Volk Dean (20:05):
Yeah, Apparently you just drive
whatever anybody else.
Tim Confel (20:08):
Yeah, pretty much that's what I did.
I mean, I drove Verland's Coupeonce at El Mirage.
You know I've driven all kindsof cars at.
Allison Volk Dean (20:17):
El Mirage.
Tim Confel (20:19):
I drove in different cars at El Mirage.
Allison Volk Dean (20:20):
Would people just come up and be like, hey,
do you want to drive this yeahof cars at Elm Hill?
Tim Confel (20:23):
Would people just come up and be like hey, do you
want to drive this?
More or less people that knowBob and stuff like that are
looking for somebody to driveand stuff like that and.
I just drive it.
Allison Volk Dean (20:29):
That's awesome.
Tim Confel (20:33):
In some respects it's fun.
In some respects you get in alot of trouble.
Allison Volk Dean (20:39):
It's a lot of pressure.
Tim Confel (20:40):
A lot of responsibility.
Well, you don't know whatthey've done to the car.
It's like that Opel.
Well, I didn't know anythingabout it and I drove it and I
crashed it.
So I mean, when you drive, it'slike flying jets.
When you fly enough of them,sooner or later you crash one.
Allison Volk Dean (20:59):
And that's basically what happened I drove
enough different cars.
It was bound to happen.
Yeah, it was kind of likedestiny.
Yeah, well, let's go down thelist of cars.
You know I want to hear it, canyou?
Can you think of all of?
Tim Confel (21:10):
them.
No, I can't think of all theones like jordan.
Allison Volk Dean (21:13):
I don't even have pictures of them oh what
because drivers don't takepictures no, that's true, um you
know I mean it.
Tim Confel (21:20):
Just you just can't remember all the the different
rides you've had from differentpeople that you've known and
you've met and stuff like that,whether it's El Mirage or you
know Bonneville or you knowstuff like that, you know, yeah.
Allison Volk Dean (21:40):
So I mean it's just, I've only driven one
car, so I don't know.
Tim Confel (21:44):
Yeah, but you also knew who built it and who
maintained it.
Yeah, that's right so when youdrive other cars for other
people, you don't know who builtthem, who maintains?
Introduction (21:50):
them.
You don't know nothing aboutthem.
Tim Confel (21:52):
You're just getting dry when you're yelling.
You're done, you don't.
Allison Volk Dean (21:55):
Yeah, you don't care, you drive anything I
used to I didn't care what Idrove was that opal, the
scariest one you drove?
Tim Confel (22:03):
Well, out there in Charlie Arnold's fuel stream
line or Lakester, when I droveit, that wasn't scary, it was
kind of like nerve-wracking alittle bit, because you couldn't
wait to get out of it.
They had a full belly pan in itwhich you were supposed to have
(22:24):
holes in the driver'scompartment, and all of a sudden
your feet started getting warmand you're wondering what's
going on.
You got this funny smell in thecar and you look down there's
nitro and oil all in the frontof the cockpit of the car.
And you're going what the hellis this?
What is this?
And you're going oh my Lord,you shut it off and get out and
(22:44):
you just pull over as fast.
Allison Volk Dean (22:45):
Oh yeah, that's terrible.
Tim Confel (22:47):
I mean, when you crash a car, you're, it's kind
of like getting in an automobile, just an accident on the street
.
Everything slows down and thenall of a sudden, when it's to
the end of it, it accelerates.
So you, really you, you have alot of time to think about
(23:07):
what's going on and about whatyou, what to do.
Allison Volk Dean (23:11):
Yeah.
Tim Confel (23:11):
You know.
So you first thing I do is Ilet go of the steering wheel and
I just grab ahold of theseatbelts and I know they're
tight because I pull them astight as I can get them and you
just wait for the impact.
Allison Volk Dean (23:22):
Yeah.
Tim Confel (23:22):
And the smaller you can make yourself, the more
survivability I think you have,because stuff starts flying
around the inside, especiallywhen the.
I mean I thought it was coolhaving my eyes open, watching
all the shit, watchingeverything fly, watching the
doors leave, watching all therocks and the dirt and stuff fly
all over the place.
(23:42):
And then you know it's like thecar finally stops from going
end over end and side over sideand everything else and it
finally stops and when you lookout the front window there's a
big hole in it and you wonderwhere the hell the hole come
from.
And then you realize that whensomebody tells you they found a
(24:04):
block of concrete.
And then you look at yourhelmet and it and it looks like
you just dragged it down thefreeway and it's a concrete one
by the side of your helmet andthrough the front Lexan window
you go.
Holy shit.
Allison Volk Dean (24:15):
There's where that hole came from, huh.
Tim Confel (24:17):
So I mean, yeah, it was quite an experience, wow
you're very lucky.
Allison Volk Dean (24:23):
How many times have you crashed?
Tim Confel (24:25):
That's the one, just the one.
I've had a lot of times.
There's been times where it'sbeen close, yeah, in the other
cars Spin outs or like gets realloose, because every time you
spin out, the car always has achance to go upside down.
It's got a 50-50 shot.
Allison Volk Dean (24:40):
Yeah.
Tim Confel (24:41):
You spun a car before.
Allison Volk Dean (24:44):
Yeah, barely.
It was a pretty sad spin.
But what was your favorite carto drive?
Maybe, or what was?
Tim Confel (24:54):
Oh, believe it or not, it was that Roadster, the
774.
Okay, yeah, okay, yeah, yeah,trying to run 300.
That's all we wanted.
It was run 300, that's I meanit's like.
It's like because it's anall-wheel drive, it's an
all-wheel drive car, it's likedriving on ice the car, like
when you drive a normal roadster, the back end Sassier, when it
(25:15):
starts to run hard, or you know,you can tell when it's going to
.
You're going to kind of tellwhen it's going to spin when it
kicks the back end out.
You know, when you get to acertain point, you know you've
lost it.
It starts spinning.
This thing.
It's like line to line, it'slike an all-wheel drift, side to
side, and the faster you go,the faster the thing slides back
(25:37):
and forth from from the rightlane to the left lane, to the
right lane to the left lane, andhe, or sometimes it goes on the
outside of the course, causeyou don't know where it's going
to go.
Allison Volk Dean (25:47):
It doesn't.
It's going to go over, youdon't know nothing.
Tim Confel (25:50):
Oh wow, and you don't know which way it's going
to go.
Know which way it's going to goanytime, as soon as you gather
it back in, yeah.
And so then, all of a sudden,like it washes the front end out
because of because, and ittakes off spinning and I guess
it's just like it's just tryingto run 300.
(26:10):
One of those things is it'sreally really hard, they're
really really, especially ongasoline.
Allison Volk Dean (26:16):
Oh yeah.
Tim Confel (26:17):
So I mean we ran 287 .
We ran 285.
We've never been able to backanything up.
Either it rained or we spun itor broke a valve train part.
It always did something thatcaused us not be able to run the
car the following day.
To get the record, yeah.
(26:38):
And that's just part of running.
I mean, you can't do nothingwith Mother Nature.
Yeah, when it hurts a part, youcan't do nothing with it.
Allison Volk Dean (26:47):
Right.
Tim Confel (26:48):
Because you only have a certain time period to
run the car.
Allison Volk Dean (26:50):
Yeah, and you know a story like that where
people just I mean I got in the.
I have a different perspectiveof the club, but people who just
come in and just get in theclub and get out and acts like
it's, sometimes it's really hardand it's a big deal for people,
it's really hard.
Tim Confel (27:08):
It's really hard.
It took me.
It took me six runs to get intothe two club where it takes
some people.
Only takes two runs to get in,Because when I got in you had to
qualify yeah, you had to do theold-fashioned way three times
yes yeah and then when I did getin, I got protested on a gas
deal so they wiped it off and soI had to start and where the
(27:32):
record sat and the guy who saidit, and then I had to get the
guy who said it, and then I hadto get in.
The guy who said it protested it.
Is that right?
Well, when I got in, we had thefastest car between four cars,
so I let the slowest guy run,then the next, then the next,
(27:53):
and people got upset because Idid that.
That's how it should be.
Why should I go out there, eventhough I was number one and
just have nobody else in theclub?
Allison Volk Dean (28:04):
No.
You did it the right way.
Tim Confel (28:07):
I mean so, yeah, I took a gamble that I may not get
in, because I let cars go thatwere capable, you know Right,
and I ended up hurting myselfbecause I did it that way.
So then I had to re-qualify thecar faster than what the record
was, yeah, which was 219.
Allison Volk Dean (28:29):
This is when you're getting in the club.
Tim Confel (28:30):
Yeah in 89.
My partner was all upset aboutit, but it's either going to
happen or it's not.
I mean it's not that.
To some people it's the end all.
To me it was.
It didn't make any difference.
The car's either going to runthe number or it's not going to
run the number.
It's either going to make itthree runs or it's not, and it's
(28:53):
either going to.
I'm either going to get in orI'm not, and if it's not this
year, maybe I'll have to workharder and make it the next year
.
But I got lucky.
The car ran 222, 222, 222.
And I got in and then the peoplethat protested then they felt
sorry because they heard whathappened and then they kind of
(29:14):
felt bad.
But it didn't, it didn't make adifference.
I got in and it was meant to.
It was meant for me to get inthat year and it was meant for
me to do it the way I did it.
Allison Volk Dean (29:23):
So I don't have nothing that could be your
lucky number there.
Play lottery numbers like that222, 222, 222.
Tim Confel (29:31):
You know, everything just happened.
Everything just worked out.
Yeah, but then when we ran theall-wheel drive Roadster,
nothing worked out.
Mm-hmm.
Allison Volk Dean (29:44):
Yeah, that's what I just was going to say,
but you guys were going for ablue hat in that one.
Tim Confel (29:48):
Yeah, you were going for a 300-mile-an-hour record
Oof.
Yeah, we wanted to be the firstcast Roadster to run over 300.
That's what we wanted.
Allison Volk Dean (29:57):
It just didn't.
Who's done it?
Tim Confel (30:00):
Nobody has ever done it.
Allison Volk Dean (30:00):
I was going to say has it been done yet?
Tim Confel (30:02):
Yeah, They've done it.
Robinson holds the record foran unblown fuel roadster at 311,
I think, or 307.
And then you had Davidson thathas it with a blown fuel record.
And then there's anotherroadster that's run, I think,
(30:25):
one more that's run over 300.
Allison Volk Dean (30:27):
Yeah.
Tim Confel (30:28):
I think there's three roadsters, but all of them
are either blown fuel or fuelroadsters.
Yeah, nobody's ever done it ongas.
Allison Volk Dean (30:34):
It has to be really hard.
You guys are trying gettingclose.
It is what, on gas, it has tobe really hard.
You guys are trying gettingclose, but it is what it is.
It is what it is.
Well, yeah, that's awesome.
Is there anything else that youwant to add?
Any stories?
Nope, I should get you and mydad down here telling stories.
You guys were yapping it up,bringing up all sorts of
different situations.
Tim Confel (30:55):
Way back when.
Yeah, your dad is an awesome,awesome guy.
Allison Volk Dean (30:59):
Yeah.
Tim Confel (31:01):
And I get a big smile on my face every time I
see your dad because theconversations we've had, your
dad is like God.
He's great.
He's like my partner Bob Noyce.
Yeah, we can talk to him forhours about racing stuff.
Oh yeah, and it's a lot of funyeah.
Allison Volk Dean (31:18):
You can talk to him for hours about racing
stuff.
Tim Confel (31:20):
Oh yeah, and it's a lot of fun.
Yeah, he loves racing and wegot a lot, a lot of we got a lot
of a lot of friends that haveStrasburgs.
Allison Volk Dean (31:25):
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, all those Strasburgs.
Oh yeah, they're amazing.
Yeah, I listen to my podcastwith their interviews.
Tim Confel (31:33):
You know, probably the funniest one is Lindsay.
Allison Volk Dean (31:37):
Oh yeah, mm-hmm.
Oh yeah, they're awesome.
Tim Confel (31:42):
Mike.
Mike is more laid back now.
Jeff is still go, go, go, go,go.
Allison Volk Dean (31:50):
Oh those guys , but they all.
Tim Confel (31:52):
they all come from.
I mean, that's a great family,yeah, People, but they all come
from.
Allison Volk Dean (31:55):
I mean, that's a great family of people,
yeah, yeah yeah, all theirwives are fun to hang out with
and be around Mm-hmm Anita, herson, go-kart races.
We pit next to him go-kart racewith our kids.
Tim Confel (32:13):
Yeah, because Anita's married to Jeff.
Allison Volk Dean (32:15):
Yeah, yeah, and so we see them out there
once in a while with our kids.
Yeah, because Anita's marriedto Jeff.
Yeah, yeah, and so we see themout there once in a while with
the kids.
And her little grandson'sadorable that races too.
But yeah, it's kind of fun, allthe connections, just starting
up the next generation here,getting them ready to race.
Tim Confel (32:28):
That's it.
Yeah, that's just fun.
Look what your dad would dowith you and your brothers.
Allison Volk Dean (32:32):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, brothers, yeah, yeah, my
yeah, we're getting ready tobring the well, megan dallas's
daughter would be thirdgeneration.
So racing?
There's a few of them out there, but not a lot of third
generation yeah, but they'redriving other cars, not driving
roadsters.
Tim Confel (32:47):
Yeah, all you guys got into roadsters oh yeah, but
the frutigers they're.
Allison Volk Dean (32:51):
They're third generation and almost shane has
a daughter that will be fourthgeneration if she races.
Tim Confel (32:56):
Yeah, but yeah.
Allison Volk Dean (32:58):
Yeah, roadsters are the coolest, I
agree.
Well, I appreciate you coming.
Well, you're going back toCalifornia?
Yeah, yeah, stop by.
And my dad said, hey, I got aninterview for you and I was like
, great, I need one.
So, yeah, thank you so much fortaking the time, I appreciate
it, yeah, not a problem.
Tim Confel (33:15):
Always, Allison always.
Introduction (33:17):
Thank you.
Thanks for listening to LandSpeed Legends.
Make sure you subscribe so youdon't miss any future episodes.
In the meantime, keep up withthe show on Facebook and
Instagram under Land SpeedLegends.
Until next time.
Welcome to Landspeed Legends, a podcast
talking to the men, the women,the legends that make land speed
racing great.
Discover the stories of theseordinary people whose passion
for land speed racing has madethem legendary.
And now here's your host theBonneville Belle, the High Boy,
(00:23):
honey, the salt princess, alisonVolk-Dean.
Allison Volk Dean (00:32):
The legendary Tim Conful is here with us
today to talk about his careerin land speed racing and other
types of racing.
It sounds like You're tellingme how you got started racing of
racing.
Tim Confel (00:44):
It sounds like you were telling me how you got
started racing.
Yeah, I started with a 69Camaro.
Mustang and sold it bought anAltered, built a small block
Chevy injected started racing it.
Allison Volk Dean (00:57):
Where was this at?
Tim Confel (00:58):
This is in the San Fernando Valley.
Allison Volk Dean (01:00):
Oh, well, geez, in what year?
Tim Confel (01:02):
Oh, what year?
Yeah, oh got to be in the 77,78.
Allison Volk Dean (01:08):
Sounds.
Tim Confel (01:09):
And then just met different people like Roger
Gates and Bill Ward and got intoracing at El Mirage with them
and went to my first trip toBonneville in 78, 79.
And all of a sudden everythingchanged Boom.
Allison Volk Dean (01:27):
So you were racing in the San Fernando
Valley, just kind of drag racing.
Yeah, did you do any structureddrag racing, or was it all just
street?
Tim Confel (01:37):
No, Well, it was street stuff with my Mustang,
but I started kind of likestructural racing when I got
ahold of the altered cause youjust can't run one of those on
the street.
Allison Volk Dean (01:48):
No, so you were racing fuel alters.
Tim Confel (01:51):
Well unblown.
Allison Volk Dean (01:52):
Unblown Okay.
Tim Confel (01:53):
Injected alcohol.
Okay, yeah, cause I couldn't, Ididn't have a bunch of money.
Yeah, I just wanted to race.
Allison Volk Dean (01:58):
Oh, that's so fun.
Yeah, that's fun fun.
Tim Confel (02:04):
Well, that's what a lot of people do.
They just want you know to racewhat race what you can, that's.
Allison Volk Dean (02:06):
That's exactly what it was, yeah, so um
how long did you do that forthe drag race?
Tim Confel (02:10):
probably two, three years, and then uh and is this
where you met bill that's andthen I met uh roger gates and
bill ward and um they startedrunning a streamliner at El
Mirage in Bonneville and theyhad more success at El Mirage
than Bonneville.
Allison Volk Dean (02:29):
Yeah, they did with the streamliner.
Yeah, so were you part of theirteam?
Tim Confel (02:34):
Yeah, I just started hanging out with them and going
to races with them and stufflike that and then started, you
know, El Mirage was your firstrace, so what was it like back
then at El Mirage?
Back then you went out onSunday morning and ran the car
and that was it.
Nowadays you're out on Thursdayand Friday and I mean it's just
everything's completelydifferent.
(02:54):
Everything's changed.
The lake bed's changed.
The salt's changed.
Everything's changed since whenI first started going out there
.
Allison Volk Dean (03:00):
Well, what was, what would be some of your
cars that were very memorable?
You were racing at El Mirage,you were just crewing, yeah.
Tim Confel (03:14):
I didn't start racing on El Mirage on the dirt
until like 70, I think it was 79, maybe 80.
80 and uh, I got hooked up withsomebody through don and barry.
Uh, don carr and barry caplanand roger gates and bill ward
they knew a guy that boughtmyrtle from don carr and I put
(03:35):
my motor in myrtle and me andhim ran it for one season.
He didn't like it and so hesold the car and I took my motor
and that was that that was that.
I mean it's like um Al Teagueran out there.
Then I mean it's um trying toremember names is it's hard
(03:57):
because it's so long ago?
Um Bill Temple, Bill Temple, IBill Temple is an awesome guy
and you know he was just abitching guy.
Allison Volk Dean (04:09):
Yeah.
Tim Confel (04:09):
And his wife was awesome and Greg is.
You know, greg lives inColorado.
Somewhere he worked for I don'tknow some airlines out there
and he used to fly in and flyhome and stuff like that and
drive it at El Mirage or driveit, you know, on the salt of
Bonneville.
They had it was called Gotcha.
They ran a roadster yeah,gotcha, so it was.
(04:30):
I was you know people.
It was like that.
Monty Wolf ran out there at ElMirage.
I mean, your dad was runningthere with a roadster and stuff
like that and me and your dadused to have we had bitching
conversations about drivingroadsters and stuff like that
and me and your dad used to havewe had bitching conversations
about driving roadsters andstuff like that, because when
they really get up and start torun a roadster, your dad calls
(04:53):
it doing the hula, because theback end starts moving around
and stuff like that and you justgot to let it go, and the
faster they go the more theywiggle and the fun of the ride
becomes.
Allison Volk Dean (05:04):
Yep, absolutely so.
Well, so you get out there in70, what year did you say it was
75?
Tim Confel (05:13):
No, probably 70, 77, 78, 79.
Allison Volk Dean (05:16):
Oh 78.
Introduction (05:17):
78, yeah.
Tim Confel (05:19):
It was Roger Gates and Bill Warren.
It was a streamliner they had.
Allison Volk Dean (05:23):
Oh yeah, I think you did say that.
Tim Confel (05:24):
Yeah.
Allison Volk Dean (05:26):
What were they running in that?
Tim Confel (05:27):
They used to run a big block.
Chevy twin turbos on alcohol.
Allison Volk Dean (05:33):
And what were the speeds that they were
looking at?
Tim Confel (05:35):
On El Mirage they were running like 270, 275.
Oh, wow, back then, yeah.
Allison Volk Dean (05:42):
Yeah, that's good.
Tim Confel (05:44):
So then I started running.
I ran Myrtle for one year.
Allison Volk Dean (05:50):
So is Myrtle the name of the car.
Yeah, okay.
Tim Confel (05:53):
What is it?
It was a front engine Lakester.
Allison Volk Dean (05:55):
Okay, okay.
Tim Confel (05:57):
From like the early 60s, so it was like a well-known
car.
Okay, it just got a name Myrtleand that just stuck with it.
Okay, it's kind of weird.
Allison Volk Dean (06:07):
Yeah, no, I like it.
Tim Confel (06:10):
People that go back to the early 60s to the 70s,
they'll know who Myrtle is.
They've been around Lansby'sracing.
I mean, it's like I was havingan earlier conversation with
your dad and he had Myrtle inthe garage for a while.
Allison Volk Dean (06:26):
Oh, he did.
Tim Confel (06:26):
Yeah, you know, and your dad put a motor in Myrtle.
I mean, it's just Myrtle's beenaround the block, huh.
Yeah, but the guy who bought itbought it from Don Carr, yeah.
And then I put my motor in it.
We ran it for a year and thenhe didn't want to do it anymore,
so he sold the car.
I took my motor and went andthen I got hooked up with Bill
(06:51):
Ward doing an Opel GT and in 88,I think it was- so you
re-hooked back up with Bill.
Yeah, and then in 88, he got inthe two club with, uh, an opal
gt, with a 300 inch chevrolet,and then I got in in 89 okay, so
(07:13):
he got in 83, did you say?
Allison Volk Dean (07:15):
88 oh he just did it back to back, back to
back.
Tim Confel (07:19):
He got in at 200 and something, 200 point something
miles an hour, and I got in at222.223 or something you pushed
it up.
Allison Volk Dean (07:27):
What'd you guys do different?
Just a little more lead footyeah yeah, that thing is a wild
ride.
It seems like to drive when yousee it go down.
What's it like?
Tim Confel (07:38):
oh yeah, it's uh well.
Normally it's pretty stable,but then all of a sudden, when
you start changing aerodynamicsand stuff and you spin them,
they're not fun at all anymore.
Allison Volk Dean (07:49):
Yeah.
Tim Confel (07:50):
The fun factor kind of goes away a little bit.
Allison Volk Dean (07:54):
The oh shit factor comes in.
Tim Confel (07:56):
Well, it's not really.
Oh shit.
It's like okay, let's hang onand find out what it's going to
do.
You got two options.
One it's going on its head.
Two, it just spins around incircles and everything's okay.
So you're just hoping it juststays hoping it's the okay.
Four feet on the ground andit's going around in circles and
everything's okay oh wow.
Allison Volk Dean (08:13):
So how many times did you spin it?
Tim Confel (08:15):
I spun it twice at a usfra meet oh yeah, but you
never went upside down no godgood good, no, I didn't go
upside down until about 2000.
Allison Volk Dean (08:25):
Oh, okay, so well then 2000,.
Tim Confel (08:29):
I got talked into a car I never should have stepped
into, but I stepped into itanyways.
And yeah, I flew it about 40feet in the air and it turned
out to be a giant mess.
Allison Volk Dean (08:38):
Well, what car was it?
Tim Confel (08:41):
It was another Opel GT.
Allison Volk Dean (08:42):
Oh, it was.
Yeah, oh my gosh, but notBill's no.
Tim Confel (08:46):
Okay, no, that car was really stable.
We didn't have the he and theone I crashed.
He had the motor way back in itand he had a lot of.
He had done a lot of stuff,built big spill plates in the
back and had wicker bills on itand all kinds of aerodynamic to
push the back end on the groundkinds of aerodynamic to push the
back end on the ground.
And what had happened is, onceyou got to about 170, the back
(09:07):
end, the front end, had come offthe ground on the back end and
be planted.
So you kind of yeah, thatsounds just terrible, terrifying
.
You know I didn't know at thetime but the guy's wife had spun
it and she got scared anddidn't want to drive it.
Then his daughter spun it twiceand she didn't want to drive it
.
Then he spun it twice and thenhe didn't want to drive it and I
(09:29):
didn't find out till it was toolate.
I got in the car and the firstrun you can almost make it spin
with your right foot.
It was so easy, you get about165 and if you squeeze a little
more you can feel it start towiggle and start to want to go.
And if you squeeze a littlemore you can feel it start to
wiggle and start to want to go.
And then you know, you justlift and it all, everything
settles back down and getsstable.
And so I told him you know hehad no weight in the front of
(09:53):
the car and everything in theback of the car.
And so then he comes back.
So I took this off, I took thisoff, I did this, I did this and
I says why don't we just waittill May and I'll drive it?
I'll drive it.
You know, saturday on the firstmeet, May meet, and we'll see
how it goes.
Then, if you need to changethings, change things around and
make it more stable.
(10:13):
He kept on insisting, he kepton insisting and next thing I
know I'm, I wanted a car up.
Did you get hurt or was it?
I didn't get hurt, seriously.
Allison Volk Dean (10:21):
No, did you get hurt, or was it I?
Tim Confel (10:23):
didn't get hurt seriously no, Did the car get
hurt?
Allison Volk Dean (10:26):
It sounds like it needed to.
Tim Confel (10:29):
You couldn't tell what it was.
Oh wow, the doors were off it,the back window was out of it,
the deck lid was off it, thehood was off it, there was no
battery.
The battery exploded.
There was no battery.
Oh my God, there was no leftaxle in it or wheel.
Allison Volk Dean (10:45):
Wow yeah.
Wow, so you're lucky that youwalked away from it.
I'm very lucky I walked awayfrom it.
Tim Confel (10:50):
Good safety too, but it's make yourself as small as
you can make yourself.
If you can make yourself into agolf ball, you're better off.
Allison Volk Dean (10:59):
Pro tip String cup.
Okay, that's good to know.
So what year was that?
Tim Confel (11:07):
That was about 2000, .
I think it was.
Allison Volk Dean (11:09):
So in between .
So you got in the club in 89, Ithink.
So what were you doing inbetween those years?
Tim Confel (11:17):
I got hooked up with Rich Manchin, needed help with
a car that he bought from JeffCarroll.
That was actually Jeff Carrollwas drag racing, super comp
racing and Rich took it andbuilt it into a Lakester and
started running it at El Mirage.
Then he started taking it toBonneville and I was helping him
(11:38):
on times I was free and stufflike that and going with him and
doing stuff.
And then Bob Noyce approachedme about helping him with his
car and stuff like that andgoing with him and doing stuff.
And then bob noice approachedme about helping him with his
car and stuff like that and hisroadster.
And then I still, you know, Istarted working on his roadster
with him and we started runningit at el mirage and taking a
bonneville and stuff like thatand just having just fun, just
(11:58):
having fun yeah and then, uh, hehad built Bobby built another
Roadster and Randy Scoville wasdriving it an all-wheel drive,
blown big block ChevroletRoadster on gas.
And in 89, it was the same yearI got in the club Randy crashed
(12:21):
that car.
Yeah, Randy crashed the car in89, crashed his second Roadster,
the Roadster he crashed.
Yeah, yeah, Randy crashed thecar in 89.
Crashed his second roadster.
Allison Volk Dean (12:27):
The roadster he crashed.
Wow what happened.
Tim Confel (12:31):
He ended up in the hospital in Salt Lake City for
about six weeks, I think it wasmaybe longer.
Allison Volk Dean (12:38):
Was it a modified roadster?
Tim Confel (12:40):
No, it was just a regular gas roadster, a blown
gas roadster.
Allison Volk Dean (12:45):
I just don't hear about that often.
What happened to this?
It just rolled, did it.
Tim Confel (12:51):
No, something in the front driveline broke and
failed and it crashed Like Endover end.
Whoa, I mean everything, itjust they cut the cage off the
car.
Allison Volk Dean (13:03):
I think I do remember, and it was front, was
it rear wheel drive?
Tim Confel (13:06):
All wheel drive.
Allison Volk Dean (13:07):
I mean all wheel drive.
Yeah, I think I did.
Yeah, I remember what year wasthat.
Tim Confel (13:11):
That was 89 and it was called Bob put a name on the
side of the car.
It was called oh the Noisemaker.
Allison Volk Dean (13:19):
Oh, I remember that car now.
I remember the Noisemaker verywell.
Tim Confel (13:23):
Yeah, yeah that's when it crashed.
Then, after Randy healed andstuff, they built another car.
Allison Volk Dean (13:28):
Yeah, and they didn't call it the
Noisemaker, that other one.
Tim Confel (13:32):
No, it didn't have no name on it.
Allison Volk Dean (13:33):
The Noisemaker was loud it was like.
Tim Confel (13:41):
I mean, I was little in 89, but I remember, I
vividly remember the car yeahthat's the one that randy randy
drove and he had a passion.
I'm so glad he was okay, yeah,and so then after about a year
or, so, two, they started.
Allison Volk Dean (13:52):
He started on another car and then um so he
starts building a new car.
Is randy bob's son or no?
Okay?
Tim Confel (14:04):
randy was randy.
We used to work for ChampionSparkplugs and Bob knows Randy
since Randy was about 17 yearsold.
When Randy was about 17 or 18,bob took him the first time to
Bonneville.
It was Bob and Randy, sethHammond, lee Gustafson, they all
(14:24):
went to Bonneville.
Okay, and you know, when Randystarted out racing, randy worked
for Zuchel and stuff like that,who flew planes and did drag
racing and boat racing and allthat kind of stuff.
Wow, and so Bob has known Randyforever.
And then, you know, theystarted building the car.
Then Randy started driving itand he couldn't drive it anymore
(14:46):
.
And then so Bob started drivingit and after the second time it
spun at about 275, bob steppedout of the car and said I don't
want nothing to do with this, nomore.
Allison Volk Dean (14:58):
And then I started driving it.
Well, put that guy in, He'lldrive it, you know so so did you
ever have any problems withthat?
Tim Confel (15:06):
oh, I spun that thing a whole bunch of times you
know that I do what.
Allison Volk Dean (15:13):
What year was that car?
Tim Confel (15:16):
oh, it was probably finished.
96, I think, is when it firstcame back out, I think.
Allison Volk Dean (15:25):
And were you guys just running a bunch of
different classes?
Tim Confel (15:28):
No, they only ran one class in that car.
What was it?
Double A, just Double A, yeah.
Allison Volk Dean (15:33):
Double A fuel , no Double A gas.
Double A gas roadster.
Tim Confel (15:37):
Yeah, balloon, gas roadster Balloon gas roadster
yeah that's all they ever ran.
Allison Volk Dean (15:41):
Huh.
Tim Confel (15:41):
The only one.
That Bob's Roadster is the onlyone that we ever changed a lot
of motors in and ran differentclasses.
We ran C, we ran B, we ran A,AA, we ran D, we ran all kind of
classes in the street roadster.
Allison Volk Dean (15:54):
In the street roadster.
But this one is and this is.
But this is Bob's Roadster too,right?
Tim Confel (15:58):
Yeah, well, it's Bob and Randy's Roadster Bob is the
Noyce Scoville Noyce Roadster.
Allison Volk Dean (16:04):
Okay, yeah, okay, so that's in and you're
spinning roadsters and having agood time, and this is in the
2000s, yeah, yeah.
And so what?
You guys aren't racing outthere anymore, though.
Tim Confel (16:19):
No, no, bob quit racing two years ago, maybe
three and I quit two years abouta year after him.
It's just too hard to do it byyourself.
Yeah, try to run these cars byyourself.
Allison Volk Dean (16:35):
But you guys were racing all the way up until
just barely.
Tim Confel (16:37):
Yeah, all through the 90s and part of the 2005,.
We used to run all the lakemeets.
We used to run all the saltmeets.
When we first started running alot of the salt meets, it's
like the USFR used to put on ameet.
It was like the last week ofJuly, yeah, and it'd be like 120
(17:01):
degrees out and stuff like that, yeah, our salt meet.
It'd be like 120 degrees out andstuff like that.
And then there were years wherein July it rained and it'd get
rained out and stuff like that.
But we used to run all the time.
Allison Volk Dean (17:14):
Yeah.
Tim Confel (17:14):
We used to constantly run.
Allison Volk Dean (17:16):
Yeah, and you'd run El Mirage and that
With all different motors.
Do you miss it not being outthere?
Not anymore.
No.
Tim Confel (17:24):
No, not being out there, not anymore.
Allison Volk Dean (17:25):
No, no, at first you did yeah, yeah.
Tim Confel (17:30):
It's just Because I've asked people how do you
know when time is up?
You know how do you know?
When to, and they just tell youall of a sudden.
You know, you know and it'sjust like.
Allison Volk Dean (17:43):
It's just like you can't do it by yourself
.
Tim Confel (17:49):
Oh yeah, yeah, you need.
You need friends, you needpartners and stuff like that to
do it.
So basically, me and bob ranfor so many years just by
ourselves.
Yeah, that when one of us isgone, it's just not yeah, well,
it's not easy to find somebodythat wants to spend a bunch of
money and run a car that veryfew people want to run and to be
(18:12):
able to get out.
It's not like running a Corvette, you know.
I mean everybody wants to drive.
I mean people want to driveroadsters, especially street
roadsters.
Yeah, you know, yeah, and so Ijust can't do it by myself, so I
just dumped oh well, maybe younever know what will happen,
maybe one day or no.
You're done, I'm done, ah well,I'm done, driving, I'm done
(18:37):
what are you doing now?
I'm building a 33 three windowokay you're hot rodding yes that
, that's cool, that's acceptable.
Allison Volk Dean (18:45):
I'll allow it .
I'm like no racing, but hotroddings, yeah, fun.
Tim Confel (18:50):
Well, you got a truck.
Allison Volk Dean (18:51):
I know I like my little truck, was that 29?
28.
, 28.
Tim Confel (18:55):
Okay, then your brother's got the 29.
Allison Volk Dean (18:58):
Yep, yeah, it's a.
Yeah, I like my little truck.
Yeah See, yeah.
Well, how many cars had youraced?
You had raced the.
Tim Confel (19:07):
Well, I mean, I mean I'd driven, I'd driven a fuel
Lakester that out there CharlieArnold and I forget Verlin
Marshall owned.
I drove that for two yearsBonneville and El Mirage.
Allison Volk Dean (19:26):
And what kind of car was it?
Tim Confel (19:28):
It was a blown fuel streamliner.
A blown, no, a Lakester.
Blown fuel Lakester.
Allison Volk Dean (19:32):
Blown fuel, Lakester.
What was the records on that?
Like what were you?
Tim Confel (19:36):
going about then, it would run right around the 250
mark.
It needed to run close to likethe 260s.
Oh, 250 mark.
It needed to run close to likethe 260s, oh wow.
You know it was just a dealwhere Verlin had a car, charlie
had a motor and Al had the car,and it was just like you know,
verlin had bounced back andforth between his coupe and the
(19:58):
Lakester, so I mean to get themall on the same page.
I just wanted to drive, so Ijust drove the car.
Yeah, apparently you justwanted to drive, so I just drove
the car.
Allison Volk Dean (20:05):
Yeah, Apparently you just drive
whatever anybody else.
Tim Confel (20:08):
Yeah, pretty much that's what I did.
I mean, I drove Verland's Coupeonce at El Mirage.
You know I've driven all kindsof cars at.
Allison Volk Dean (20:17):
El Mirage.
Tim Confel (20:19):
I drove in different cars at El Mirage.
Allison Volk Dean (20:20):
Would people just come up and be like, hey,
do you want to drive this yeahof cars at Elm Hill?
Tim Confel (20:23):
Would people just come up and be like hey, do you
want to drive this?
More or less people that knowBob and stuff like that are
looking for somebody to driveand stuff like that and.
I just drive it.
Allison Volk Dean (20:29):
That's awesome.
Tim Confel (20:33):
In some respects it's fun.
In some respects you get in alot of trouble.
Allison Volk Dean (20:39):
It's a lot of pressure.
Tim Confel (20:40):
A lot of responsibility.
Well, you don't know whatthey've done to the car.
It's like that Opel.
Well, I didn't know anythingabout it and I drove it and I
crashed it.
So I mean, when you drive, it'slike flying jets.
When you fly enough of them,sooner or later you crash one.
Allison Volk Dean (20:59):
And that's basically what happened I drove
enough different cars.
It was bound to happen.
Yeah, it was kind of likedestiny.
Yeah, well, let's go down thelist of cars.
You know I want to hear it, canyou?
Can you think of all of?
Tim Confel (21:10):
them.
No, I can't think of all theones like jordan.
Allison Volk Dean (21:13):
I don't even have pictures of them oh what
because drivers don't takepictures no, that's true, um you
know I mean it.
Tim Confel (21:20):
Just you just can't remember all the the different
rides you've had from differentpeople that you've known and
you've met and stuff like that,whether it's El Mirage or you
know Bonneville or you knowstuff like that, you know, yeah.
Allison Volk Dean (21:40):
So I mean it's just, I've only driven one
car, so I don't know.
Tim Confel (21:44):
Yeah, but you also knew who built it and who
maintained it.
Yeah, that's right so when youdrive other cars for other
people, you don't know who builtthem, who maintains?
Introduction (21:50):
them.
You don't know nothing aboutthem.
Tim Confel (21:52):
You're just getting dry when you're yelling.
You're done, you don't.
Allison Volk Dean (21:55):
Yeah, you don't care, you drive anything I
used to I didn't care what Idrove was that opal, the
scariest one you drove?
Tim Confel (22:03):
Well, out there in Charlie Arnold's fuel stream
line or Lakester, when I droveit, that wasn't scary, it was
kind of like nerve-wracking alittle bit, because you couldn't
wait to get out of it.
They had a full belly pan in itwhich you were supposed to have
(22:24):
holes in the driver'scompartment, and all of a sudden
your feet started getting warmand you're wondering what's
going on.
You got this funny smell in thecar and you look down there's
nitro and oil all in the frontof the cockpit of the car.
And you're going what the hellis this?
What is this?
And you're going oh my Lord,you shut it off and get out and
(22:44):
you just pull over as fast.
Allison Volk Dean (22:45):
Oh yeah, that's terrible.
Tim Confel (22:47):
I mean, when you crash a car, you're, it's kind
of like getting in an automobile, just an accident on the street
.
Everything slows down and thenall of a sudden, when it's to
the end of it, it accelerates.
So you, really you, you have alot of time to think about
(23:07):
what's going on and about whatyou, what to do.
Allison Volk Dean (23:11):
Yeah.
Tim Confel (23:11):
You know.
So you first thing I do is Ilet go of the steering wheel and
I just grab ahold of theseatbelts and I know they're
tight because I pull them astight as I can get them and you
just wait for the impact.
Allison Volk Dean (23:22):
Yeah.
Tim Confel (23:22):
And the smaller you can make yourself, the more
survivability I think you have,because stuff starts flying
around the inside, especiallywhen the.
I mean I thought it was coolhaving my eyes open, watching
all the shit, watchingeverything fly, watching the
doors leave, watching all therocks and the dirt and stuff fly
all over the place.
(23:42):
And then you know it's like thecar finally stops from going
end over end and side over sideand everything else and it
finally stops and when you lookout the front window there's a
big hole in it and you wonderwhere the hell the hole come
from.
And then you realize that whensomebody tells you they found a
(24:04):
block of concrete.
And then you look at yourhelmet and it and it looks like
you just dragged it down thefreeway and it's a concrete one
by the side of your helmet andthrough the front Lexan window
you go.
Holy shit.
Allison Volk Dean (24:15):
There's where that hole came from, huh.
Tim Confel (24:17):
So I mean, yeah, it was quite an experience, wow
you're very lucky.
Allison Volk Dean (24:23):
How many times have you crashed?
Tim Confel (24:25):
That's the one, just the one.
I've had a lot of times.
There's been times where it'sbeen close, yeah, in the other
cars Spin outs or like gets realloose, because every time you
spin out, the car always has achance to go upside down.
It's got a 50-50 shot.
Allison Volk Dean (24:40):
Yeah.
Tim Confel (24:41):
You spun a car before.
Allison Volk Dean (24:44):
Yeah, barely.
It was a pretty sad spin.
But what was your favorite carto drive?
Maybe, or what was?
Tim Confel (24:54):
Oh, believe it or not, it was that Roadster, the
774.
Okay, yeah, okay, yeah, yeah,trying to run 300.
That's all we wanted.
It was run 300, that's I meanit's like.
It's like because it's anall-wheel drive, it's an
all-wheel drive car, it's likedriving on ice the car, like
when you drive a normal roadster, the back end Sassier, when it
(25:15):
starts to run hard, or you know,you can tell when it's going to
.
You're going to kind of tellwhen it's going to spin when it
kicks the back end out.
You know, when you get to acertain point, you know you've
lost it.
It starts spinning.
This thing.
It's like line to line, it'slike an all-wheel drift, side to
side, and the faster you go,the faster the thing slides back
(25:37):
and forth from from the rightlane to the left lane, to the
right lane to the left lane, andhe, or sometimes it goes on the
outside of the course, causeyou don't know where it's going
to go.
Allison Volk Dean (25:47):
It doesn't.
It's going to go over, youdon't know nothing.
Tim Confel (25:50):
Oh wow, and you don't know which way it's going
to go.
Know which way it's going to goanytime, as soon as you gather
it back in, yeah.
And so then, all of a sudden,like it washes the front end out
because of because, and ittakes off spinning and I guess
it's just like it's just tryingto run 300.
(26:10):
One of those things is it'sreally really hard, they're
really really, especially ongasoline.
Allison Volk Dean (26:16):
Oh yeah.
Tim Confel (26:17):
So I mean we ran 287 .
We ran 285.
We've never been able to backanything up.
Either it rained or we spun itor broke a valve train part.
It always did something thatcaused us not be able to run the
car the following day.
To get the record, yeah.
(26:38):
And that's just part of running.
I mean, you can't do nothingwith Mother Nature.
Yeah, when it hurts a part, youcan't do nothing with it.
Allison Volk Dean (26:47):
Right.
Tim Confel (26:48):
Because you only have a certain time period to
run the car.
Allison Volk Dean (26:50):
Yeah, and you know a story like that where
people just I mean I got in the.
I have a different perspectiveof the club, but people who just
come in and just get in theclub and get out and acts like
it's, sometimes it's really hardand it's a big deal for people,
it's really hard.
Tim Confel (27:08):
It's really hard.
It took me.
It took me six runs to get intothe two club where it takes
some people.
Only takes two runs to get in,Because when I got in you had to
qualify yeah, you had to do theold-fashioned way three times
yes yeah and then when I did getin, I got protested on a gas
deal so they wiped it off and soI had to start and where the
(27:32):
record sat and the guy who saidit, and then I had to get the
guy who said it, and then I hadto get in.
The guy who said it protested it.
Is that right?
Well, when I got in, we had thefastest car between four cars,
so I let the slowest guy run,then the next, then the next,
(27:53):
and people got upset because Idid that.
That's how it should be.
Why should I go out there, eventhough I was number one and
just have nobody else in theclub?
Allison Volk Dean (28:04):
No.
You did it the right way.
Tim Confel (28:07):
I mean so, yeah, I took a gamble that I may not get
in, because I let cars go thatwere capable, you know Right,
and I ended up hurting myselfbecause I did it that way.
So then I had to re-qualify thecar faster than what the record
was, yeah, which was 219.
Allison Volk Dean (28:29):
This is when you're getting in the club.
Tim Confel (28:30):
Yeah in 89.
My partner was all upset aboutit, but it's either going to
happen or it's not.
I mean it's not that.
To some people it's the end all.
To me it was.
It didn't make any difference.
The car's either going to runthe number or it's not going to
run the number.
It's either going to make itthree runs or it's not, and it's
(28:53):
either going to.
I'm either going to get in orI'm not, and if it's not this
year, maybe I'll have to workharder and make it the next year
.
But I got lucky.
The car ran 222, 222, 222.
And I got in and then the peoplethat protested then they felt
sorry because they heard whathappened and then they kind of
(29:14):
felt bad.
But it didn't, it didn't make adifference.
I got in and it was meant to.
It was meant for me to get inthat year and it was meant for
me to do it the way I did it.
Allison Volk Dean (29:23):
So I don't have nothing that could be your
lucky number there.
Play lottery numbers like that222, 222, 222.
Tim Confel (29:31):
You know, everything just happened.
Everything just worked out.
Yeah, but then when we ran theall-wheel drive Roadster,
nothing worked out.
Mm-hmm.
Allison Volk Dean (29:44):
Yeah, that's what I just was going to say,
but you guys were going for ablue hat in that one.
Tim Confel (29:48):
Yeah, you were going for a 300-mile-an-hour record
Oof.
Yeah, we wanted to be the firstcast Roadster to run over 300.
That's what we wanted.
Allison Volk Dean (29:57):
It just didn't.
Who's done it?
Tim Confel (30:00):
Nobody has ever done it.
Allison Volk Dean (30:00):
I was going to say has it been done yet?
Tim Confel (30:02):
Yeah, They've done it.
Robinson holds the record foran unblown fuel roadster at 311,
I think, or 307.
And then you had Davidson thathas it with a blown fuel record.
And then there's anotherroadster that's run, I think,
(30:25):
one more that's run over 300.
Allison Volk Dean (30:27):
Yeah.
Tim Confel (30:28):
I think there's three roadsters, but all of them
are either blown fuel or fuelroadsters.
Yeah, nobody's ever done it ongas.
Allison Volk Dean (30:34):
It has to be really hard.
You guys are trying gettingclose.
It is what, on gas, it has tobe really hard.
You guys are trying gettingclose, but it is what it is.
It is what it is.
Well, yeah, that's awesome.
Is there anything else that youwant to add?
Any stories?
Nope, I should get you and mydad down here telling stories.
You guys were yapping it up,bringing up all sorts of
different situations.
Tim Confel (30:55):
Way back when.
Yeah, your dad is an awesome,awesome guy.
Allison Volk Dean (30:59):
Yeah.
Tim Confel (31:01):
And I get a big smile on my face every time I
see your dad because theconversations we've had, your
dad is like God.
He's great.
He's like my partner Bob Noyce.
Yeah, we can talk to him forhours about racing stuff.
Oh yeah, and it's a lot of funyeah.
Allison Volk Dean (31:18):
You can talk to him for hours about racing
stuff.
Tim Confel (31:20):
Oh yeah, and it's a lot of fun.
Yeah, he loves racing and wegot a lot, a lot of we got a lot
of a lot of friends that haveStrasburgs.
Allison Volk Dean (31:25):
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, all those Strasburgs.
Oh yeah, they're amazing.
Yeah, I listen to my podcastwith their interviews.
Tim Confel (31:33):
You know, probably the funniest one is Lindsay.
Allison Volk Dean (31:37):
Oh yeah, mm-hmm.
Oh yeah, they're awesome.
Tim Confel (31:42):
Mike.
Mike is more laid back now.
Jeff is still go, go, go, go,go.
Allison Volk Dean (31:50):
Oh those guys , but they all.
Tim Confel (31:52):
they all come from.
I mean, that's a great family,yeah, People, but they all come
from.
Allison Volk Dean (31:55):
I mean, that's a great family of people,
yeah, yeah yeah, all theirwives are fun to hang out with
and be around Mm-hmm Anita, herson, go-kart races.
We pit next to him go-kart racewith our kids.
Tim Confel (32:13):
Yeah, because Anita's married to Jeff.
Allison Volk Dean (32:15):
Yeah, yeah, and so we see them out there
once in a while with our kids.
Yeah, because Anita's marriedto Jeff.
Yeah, yeah, and so we see themout there once in a while with
the kids.
And her little grandson'sadorable that races too.
But yeah, it's kind of fun, allthe connections, just starting
up the next generation here,getting them ready to race.
Tim Confel (32:28):
That's it.
Yeah, that's just fun.
Look what your dad would dowith you and your brothers.
Allison Volk Dean (32:32):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, brothers, yeah, yeah, my
yeah, we're getting ready tobring the well, megan dallas's
daughter would be thirdgeneration.
So racing?
There's a few of them out there, but not a lot of third
generation yeah, but they'redriving other cars, not driving
roadsters.
Tim Confel (32:47):
Yeah, all you guys got into roadsters oh yeah, but
the frutigers they're.
Allison Volk Dean (32:51):
They're third generation and almost shane has
a daughter that will be fourthgeneration if she races.
Tim Confel (32:56):
Yeah, but yeah.
Allison Volk Dean (32:58):
Yeah, roadsters are the coolest, I
agree.
Well, I appreciate you coming.
Well, you're going back toCalifornia?
Yeah, yeah, stop by.
And my dad said, hey, I got aninterview for you and I was like
, great, I need one.
So, yeah, thank you so much fortaking the time, I appreciate
it, yeah, not a problem.
Tim Confel (33:15):
Always, Allison always.
Introduction (33:17):
Thank you.
Thanks for listening to LandSpeed Legends.
Make sure you subscribe so youdon't miss any future episodes.
In the meantime, keep up withthe show on Facebook and
Instagram under Land SpeedLegends.
Until next time.
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