“I got a call on a Tuesday one day and the caller says, ‘Hey, Bob this is Glen Niebel. We‘d like to go to Winchester and shake the car down tomorrow and see what it‘s doing. Would you shake it down for me?‘” Frye related. “I jumped at the chance.”
Frey got the ride for the rest of the year and won the Sammy Sessions Snowball 100 in November.
Frey kicked off the 1981 season with the second biggest victory of his career to that point, wheeling the Niebel car to victory during the Copper World Classic at the one-mile Phoenix Raceway.
At the time it was the most prestigious pavement sprint car event on the West Coast.
Frey parlayed that victory into a ride for the Indy car race at Phoenix with team owner Tom Frantz. He finished 13th aboard an older flat-bottomed ‘73 Eagle/Cosworth TC. Next came Frey‘s dream of logging laps at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
“We went to Indy. With that old Eagle we weren‘t going to do much,” Frey said. “But it did get me through my rookie test. That‘s what I wanted. In those days owners weren‘t crazy about putting all those miles on a car for a rookie driver to go through and complete the different phases of the rookie test.
“So I went to Indy knowing I‘d at least get my rookie test in. The car wasn‘t competitive and something happened to this day I didn‘t wanna be part of,” Frey continued. “In those days they paid $1,000 to the last car in line to qualify and Ton Frantz of course was scraping for money. It was humiliating to me even at the time. It was a phony deal that he timed it so that we would be the last car to go out to qualify for the Indy 500.
“We knew we didn‘t stand a snowball‘s chance in hell of making the race. Frantz needed the money, so he timed it to be the last car in line. We had no intentions of trying to qualify. It was all a put-on show for Frantz to get the $1,000.”
In 1982, Frey won the Copper World Classic again with Niebel and he was tabbed to drive the Jet Engineering ‘81 Eagle at Indianapolis.
“Butch and Max Dowker were the mechanics on it. I knew the Dowkers from sprint cars and supermodifieds. Steve Chassey drove it the year before. The car was only a year old,” Frey explained. “They had limited success because of the engines. That‘s when the stock-block Chevys were trying to compete with the Cosworths. I had to take a refresher test, but I blew through that easily.
We went out to practice the next day after I did a refresher course. The car felt good. I knew I could quickly get up to speed. We blew an engine,” Frey added. “They had come down with three stock-block Chevys. Bob Soltow had Jet Engineering, which made titanium aircraft components. He was bound and determined to run a stock block with titanium valve springs and all that. I understand that because he was trying to promote his business. The motors wouldn‘t last.”
Through two weeks, the team “went through five or six motors” and failed to make the race.
“That was really my last deal in Indy car racing,” Frey said. “I could see if you didn‘t have a sponsor to bring thousands of dollars all you were going to get were cars that make you look bad. I could see the handwriting on the wall. All it did was make me look bad. Basically, I came to realize it didn‘t look like it was going to happen.”
After Frey‘s Indy car exploits, returned to sprint car racing. USAC had removed pavement from its sprint car schedule and Midwest pavement sprint car races were far and few between. Frey moved to Arizona in 1984 to focus on business interests. First, a trucking company and, eventually, a mortuary.
Frey and Niebel continued to race together and in most years, they ran only the Little 500 and Copper World Classic. From 1982-‘87, they won three more Copper World Classics.
Between 1985 and 199, the duo won the Little 500 four times and finished second twice. To say they were the team to beat was an understatement.
Prior to the 1984 season, Niebel informed Frey he was developing a V-6 engine for use in pavement sprint car racing.
“Niebel told me one day he had gotten a deal with Billy Howell from K-Tech Engineering, which was a development arm of Chevrolet. He had a deal with them to run V-6s,” Frey explained. “If Glen thought it was a good deal, I did too. That‘s how much confidence I had in him. One thing about my relationship with Glen Neibel was he never questioned my bravery, or my bravado and I never questioned his mechanical ability or his race car savvy. If he thought this V-6 program was really going to take off and we could do good, I was all for it.”
Frey and Niebel won the 1985 Copper World Classic with the V-6.
“When we got to Phoenix it handled better with the V-6 than it had with the V-8,” Frey said. “I knew we were sitting ducks going down the straightaway and dog leg, I‘d lose 1-2 car lengths. I could make up what I lost on the straightaways and maybe more in the corners.”
The 1988 season was one of Frey‘s finest in terms of quality of wins. In addition to his third Little 500 victory, he earned a pair of USAC sprint car races ad his only USAC Silver Crown Series triumph.