'50 88 with Chariot Red, Garnet Maroon and Cream Top
Oldsmobile dominated the circuits at the Kansas State Fairgrounds in 1950



http://winfield.50megs.com/Hutch_Nat.../20Sep1950.htm

 

'75 Winternats Paul Greenberg

 

 

 

 

 

Cale Yarborough's '77 Cutlass coming up for auction at B-J next week:

http://www.barrett-jackson.com/appli...ln=707&aid=466

 

277_zps9fc27dbf.jpg

 

I want everybody to know that Jack Robinson a.k.a. as "Doctor Oldsmobile" is alive and well. He and the former mechanic on the "Anderson Olds" cars, Frank Augustine were at the York Reunion this past summer. I tracked down "Augy" and invited him and Jack to York to see me and my car, the '69 W-31 Anderson Olds F/S. Those guys had a blast and so did I talking about old racing and such.
I took some pics with Frank Augustine standing next to my car where his name is lettered on the fender. It was great to hear him talk about the car and verify the best ET of 12.38 (with a "not" class legal carb). He actually drove the car several times in competition and practice.
Keep the racing pics coming........................

 

Bill Trovato's 7 second SBO powered Starfire.

 

1950 88

 

Willard Wright was killed in a freak accident at Orlando Dragway (now Orlando Speed World) when he broke the driveshaft in his Super Stock car. Just after the mph light in the shut down area he opened his door, bent over to see what was making a noise and the driveshaft came out from under the car and hit him in the head killing him. Later that night a track crew member found the car still running and Willard dead hanging out of the car. Yes he had a helmut, but appearently it was not enough to protect him. Sad, sad day for us Oldsmobile factory racers. He was a person filled with joy, a funny person to be around and a very true southern good old boy. Even though I was a" yankee" he always mentored me, treating me as a fellow Olds guy! I miss him! God speed Willard I hope to see you again!

 

This 1966 Olds 442 the Acquittor, raced under the Thunderbay Racing Team banner is the ex Brainbeau Olds 442 C/S NHRA Nationals Champ.

 

Do you have any documentation regarding this car on p. 14 of this thread? Gene Horn owned the 66 Brainbeau car for a long time, and Woodland got it back a few years ago.

 

Interesting! I see it is D stocker in the picture so it would be 1968 or so... So thats where the 66 Brainbeau car went....cool!

 

Hello Joe, this is Gene Horn. I'm attaching or trying to attach a letter that I received from Mr. Sykes regarding his Acquitter 442 drag car also known as the ex Brainbeau Olds drag car.I am not sure if this is going to work. His reponse was "I am sorry but I cannot help you on these matters. The car was desposed of over 10 years ago.
Gene

 

yes that is Dick with the 1971 trophy

BTW: a lot of people did not know that dick had a flying 73' "B" body wagon. Ran about 7 or 8 tenths under the record, which he had set. He would drive it down from Lansing to Orlando for the winter. His wife would come with him to either Orlando Dragway and Bradenton. While he raced , she knitted! He also raced in the Turkey Trots at Gainesville and the Snowbird Nats in Bradenton. When you win rounds of course you had to stop for "fuel check" and weight your car. I was behind him waiting in line and was curious what the car weighted. Now the scales only went to 5,000 #s, so he pulls on and pegs the scale. The car weight tag said 5400 #s min. The tech guy says "pass, anything that heavy has got to be legal, next car". I ran him in the semi finals, he like had almost a 4 second head start. I thought I would never catch him, but I caught him in the lights, but I ran under my record by 2 hundredths! He went on to win in the final.

 

Thanks for the info. Would be great to find a picture of that car but I guess the chances are slim. Sure didnt know about that car. According to Boyce's Junior Stock book, Dick Griffin would buy a car from John Troxell as quick as he could build them. The Vista Cruiser wagon later raced by Paul Mayo, the 71 SX convertible, and the Cutlass Cruiser wagon. I guess Troxell finally settled on the white 72 Cutlass S of which the Junior Stock book said was a big block car but I found more than one source that said the 72 S was a small block car.

 

Welcome aboard Gene We welcome any and all input you may have

 

Welcome, Gene. I responded earlier but my post was eaten by the forum, somehow.

 

Thank you GAOldsman.

 

Thanks Joe.

 

Here's my last correspondence from 1992 with Mr. Sykes concerning the 1966 Olds 442 the Acquittor, aka the 1966 Brainbeau Olds 442 years earlier. I don't know how this is going to work out. My last letter post came out smaller than I thought it would. Sorry.

 

Well that didn't work out too good either. Maybe this photo will.
Gene

 

Too bad he couldn't help with the whereabouts of the car, but cool history of an already historic Oldsmobile

They both came out fine Gene, just click on them to enlarge.

 

 

At the time of this 1992 letter I had already bought the car. I couldn't remember the name of the car when Mr. Sykes sponsored it so I wrote to him again.

When I click on the letter and photo thumbnails to enlarge them they do get larger but not as large as what I downloaded.

 

Piece of crap Waibel Hope that guy is deceased!

 

Wow Dave what gives?

 

GAOldsman: do not get me started! He screwed me, several Olds racers, several other non-Olds racers big time, and I do not mean just financially in building engines, heads, etc. but costing some records, because he built components not within the rules.

Example: In 1975 at the Warner Robins points meet a guy he screwed big time stepped in front of Waibels SS/O car in the staging lanes, trying to keep him from the first round of Super Stock and Jim Waibel ran over him breaking the guys leg! Waibel did not even get out of the car to see how the guy was. That is how pissed the guy was at Waibel. I was at a Super Stock/Stock Combo race and Waibel complained about a racers car being illegal. He told the NHRA inspectors the following, " I know they are illegal cause I built the heads"! I know this as fact because I was there.

I could go on and on, however it makes no difference now. Jim Waibel caused me a lot of lost races from blown short blocks (5) and $$$ over two years. I would have never thought a fellow "factory racer" would have done that to me! Oh well "live and learn".

 

Absolutely loved this thread!!! I teased my wife about building the 68 I will be getting soon in the old school drag style, full paint and wheels! LOL! She was like not just no but HELL NO!!! LOL!

Thank you for the awesome trip through Oldsmobile racing history!

My favorite team aside from John Force is Warren Johnson during his Oldsmobile years

Thank you again for the great pictures and articles that were found.

 

Im loving all this history of olds race cars. Im a big fan of the stockers even though im wayyyy to young to have enjoyed it in person as im 23 . One question i have is i noticed on the jim waibel car and the paul mayo car the convertable when the car is launching the wheels toe in at the bottom instead of toeing out like most gm a body's what did they do or chnage. just curious.

 

He is still alive brother.

 

I appreciate all history good or bad. I remember you said you preferred Troxell engines to Waibel's. Your contributions to this thread along with a few other Olds racers have been invaluable. I sure would like to hear more about John Troxell, Dick Griffin, and Al Seger and their cars if you have anything to share. Its seems Dick Griffin kept buying cars of John Troxell as quick as he could build them: The Vista Bruiser wagon, SX convertible, and the Cutlass Cruiser wagon. Thank you and keep the insights coming.

 

Berejik article continued from above:

 

I found this editorial most exciting in a 1966 Hi Performance magazine, where the 442 unseated the GTO and the other makers were left in the dust. Here it is by Roger Huntington.

By Roger Huntington…. Some of the most interesting stock class run-offs at the recent NHRA Nationals in Indianapolis were in C/Stock, where most of the late factory “supercars” fall. Everybody was expecting some pretty wild bashes, with at least a couple of examples of each model within a tenth or two of each other in elapsed times. But as it turned out, when it came down to the wire it was pretty much a race between GTO’s and 4-4-2’s, using their new cold-air scoop packages with triple two-throat carburetion (rated 360-hp). The Fairlane and Comet GT’s, Buick Special Gran Sports and standard Chevelle SS 396’s weren’t in the picture. It is pretty obvious that these latter models have been neglected by factory performance engineers. Ford tried to get a carburetion and valve gear package through NHRA approval for the Fairlane GT 390 last summer, but they weren’t willing to build the required 50 models on the assembly line to make the equipment legal “stock”. (After the 50 units are produced, the stuff can be supplied through dealers as a service package). On the other hand, Pontiac and Olds did build their 50 units with the cold-air packages this summer, and this made all the difference at Indy. These GTO’s and 4-4-2’s were at least three-tenths quicker in elapsed time than the hotter Fairlane and Comet Gt’s and the Grand Sports. The better ones were running in the 12:60’s at 108 to 109 mph. (The et record in the C/S class is 12:48).
Actually the GTO that won the class was found to be illegal on teardown, and the trophy was awarded to the runner-up 4-4-2. It’s all the same. Right now the GTO’s and 4-4-2’s are definitely the top supercars…. From Hi Performance Cars Dec. 1966

__________________

 

Wow Dave I was born and raised in Warner Robins. I might have been at the track that day, but I don't recall anyone getting run over. My Dad was racing a Sassy Grass green 340 Duster at the time locally and rarely would run my Cutlass Supreme that I inherited. Very interesting history to say the least. You have my full attention......

Great articles Vista and Oldsmaniac

 

vistacruiser67:

Nice info, pretty accurate, especially the supply of parts and money to the Smothers Bros. team members. Dale Smith, who was an engineer, just dabbled in the Olds factory drag racing support beginning with the 66' W30 cars. At the end of 66' and 67' he became more involved, due to the success of the program. Starting with 68' he became fully involved, then of course in 69' was the icing on the cake with the Smothers Bros. and the news ink that Olds got. So now Dale had the "Brass" and sales dept. in his pocket and then in 70' it took off like a "Rocket"! LOL lol lol Of course 71/72' was the crown jewels in winning the NHRA Manufacturer's Cup two yrs. in a row, which NO ONE had ever done before, not Ch**y, F**d, Mo**r, or A*C had ever done what Olds did! I believe besides the racers like Pete Kost (NW), Paul Mayo and Lattimore (S Central), Jim Wabiel, and Willard Wright (S), Ron Garey, Dick Griffin, and Al Segar (N Central), Berejik, and John Troxel (NE) and the "Master of Ceremony", Dale Smith, it would not have happened. As you can see Dale had a major racer/winner in all sections of the US to maximize points! The guy knew what he was doing. And not to reveal to much, there was some not so really "legal" cars involved! LOL lol

Lets just say the "rule book" was stretchedddddddddddddddd pretty good.

I never received any $$$, just lots and lots of parts through a local Olds dealership after I left Olds in 1973 and started running the 68' F-85 ram rod, one of the ex-Smothers Bros. cars. The reason was that I knew Dale, was a former employee, in the inner race circle, and who still had connections with people in Olds engineering. Olds "sponsored" me till 78', when Dale called me and said "got to pull the plug. They (the brass holding the $$$) said I could not sponsor a ten yr. old car any longer. If I bought a 78' or got sponsored by the local dealer, he was authorized to continue the sponsorship.". So that was that, as the local dealer was not interested and I could not afford to race without a sponsor, as I was a single parent raising two girls by myself.

Sure miss that F-85 ram rod car. At the time I sold the car it still was the IHRA MPH record holder in the 1/8 mile.