The Smothers Brothers, a duo who found fame as folk singers and comedians, scored a national variety show in 1967 called “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.” It quickly developed an edgy reputation due to irreverent attitudes toward topical issues like the Vietnam war, politics, sex, and drugs, themes attractive to the burgeoning Baby Boomer demographic.
The success of this brotherly team allowed Dick Smothers to pursue his love for auto racing. He told Popular Hot Rodding in April 1969, “I’ve been intrigued with engines, their sounds and the feel of a piece of race machinery for as long as I can recall, and this is just another way that I can outlet my feelings … it’s my bag, and I’ll dig it for as long as I can.” This led to another team, this one co-sponsored by Oldsmobile.
This team’s genesis can be traced to Carl Schiefer, the Director of Marketing of Schiefer Manufacturing (which had been bought out by Hurst Performance), who had been introduced to Oldsmobile’s head of public relations, Jim Williams, and Motorsports Manager Dale Smith. Schiefer was known as a progressive advertising and marketing thinker, and Smith had a keen sense of the power of both marketing and racing. They put their heads together and came up with an idea to contact Smothers to discuss Oldsmobile’s performance models, coinciding with a push of the newly branded W-Machines for 1969. “The quickest way to establish an image for a high-performance model is to go stock car drag racing. It boils down to racing what you make without spending time and money for the modifications,” wrote Smith in his book, Racing to the Past.
Smith and Williams flew into Los Angeles and, together with Schiefer, met with Smothers to propose a Smothers Brothers racing team—financed by Oldsmobile—with cars representing different divisions in NHRA drag racing. Smothers was more of a road racer, but his interest was piqued. Oldsmobile would gain from Smothers’ name recognition, and Smothers would garner even more publicity for his TV show.
So, now, a racing team needed to be assembled. Five racers who had caught the eye of Smith (several who had no Oldsmobile experience) were flown to Los Angeles in September 1968 and met at the Century Plaza for a meeting with Smith and Smothers. According to Pete Kost, one of the racers who signed on, “They discussed what they wanted to do, everything that was going to transpire, and the models that were going to be raced.” The meeting was agreeable to everyone, but Smith needed a commitment within a few days because he wanted them to compete in February’s Winternationals at Pomona.
Smith had a meager $100,000 budget to promote Oldsmobile’s racing endeavors. Because of General Motors’ no-racing policy, the budget was in a fund earmarked for Mobil and Union Oil fuel economy events. Another subversion, this one more clever, was the TV show serving as a front for the team, as some of the funds Oldsmobile gave as sponsor of the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour was diverted to Smothers’ team. “In addition to the money, I intercepted usable parts, needed by the racers, from being scrapped. This consisted of engines, transmissions, and differentials, which are all high attrition items in racing,” related Smith.
The team’s five racers, dealers, cars, and racing classes were as follows:
- Loyed Woodland, Berejik Oldsmobile, Needham, MA: 1969 4-4-2 W30 four-speed coupe, E/S
- Pete Kost, Dewey-Griffin Oldsmobile, Bremerton, WA: 1969 4-4-2 W30 automatic convertible, F/SA
- Ron Garey, Chesrown Oldsmobile, Columbus, OH: 1969 F-85 W31 four-speed coupe, F/S
- Willard Wright, Century Oldsmobile, Van Nuys, CA: 1969 Cutlass S W31 automatic convertible, G/SA
- Jim Waibel, King Oldsmobile, Lakeland, FL: 1969 Cutlass S W31 four-speed convertible, G/S
Smothers’ first appearance promoting the team was making an exhibition run at the 1968 NHRA U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis with a 1968 Super Stock Cutlass S Ram-Rod 350 (Ram-Rod was the marketing name for W31 at the time). “Man, I was completely stoked on the car. It was really nothing like herding a Formula rig, even though it required a lot of attention to driver requirement. But it’s fun, and I figured it was time to see in what small way I could help a lot of people realize where drag racing’s really at.”
All five teams each received three crate motors and tricked-out transmissions while they waited for their respective car builds. All racers had Smith’s direct phone number if they ever needed replacement parts.
Sam Murray, who ran the Berejik Oldsmobile speed shop and later worked as a mechanic for the team, relates an amusing story about Jimmy Waibel: He was a Chevy guy new to the Olds fold, so when he was preparing his W31 convertible, he did not machine the crankshaft for the pilot bushing to connect with the four-speed’s input shaft—something not needed with four-speed-specific Chevrolet cranks. Waibel called Smith in a panic, as the Winternationals was rapidly approaching, and his build was not going as planned. After learning about the Oldsmobile crankshaft, Waibel was forced to remove the engine and transmission from the W31 so he could properly machine the crank.
Jimmy Waibel’s car is the only one known to survive out of all the cars in the Smothers Brothers team. How Delaware resident Jeff Kane came to own it is a story unto itself: Both his grandfather and father owned service stations, which gave Jeff an opportunity to cut his teeth in the mechanical world. Pumping gas evolved into installing snow chains, then tune-ups, and more.
As an impressionable teen, Jeff befriended John Burkholder, a young employee of his dad who also happened to have a race car. John gave Jeff his first taste of drag racing at the Cecil County Drag-O-Way. This experience, plus hanging out at Alex Jarrell’s garage in Hockessin, doing work for other racers, helped Jeff acquire even more knowledge. The group of racers and friends even drove to Florida to attend the very first Gatornationals in Gainesville in 1970, which left an imprint that we will revisit later.
Soon Jeff and his pals, Rod Derickson and Joe Gregg, purchased a 1957 Chevrolet 210 from racer Erick Claudy. The trio tore it apart, repainted it, and installed a new Tony Pizzi engine (they had approached Alex, but he was busy). This fuel-injected 250-horse 283 with Powerglide ran M/SA. “We ran the record ET but couldn’t beat it,” Jeff said. So the guys switched to a four-barrel and ran O/SA. Alas, going to college nine hours away was not compatible with being on a team, so Jeff gave his interest to Rod and moved on.
The subsequent years found Jeff raising a family. Cars continued to be in his life and he played around with and flipped good deals when he found them. One day, after the kids were out of the house, Jeff was perusing a Facebook group and happened to comment that he wished he had a fuel injection unit. Who but the son of Division 2 Champion Jimmy Waibel mentioned that he had just the item? Remember the Gatornationals? Jeff witnessed Jimmy racing and was aware of his long career, so Jeremy and Jeff took to talking. Jeff was motivated to fly to Florida with wife Brenda to visit Jimmy and Jeremy and see what they had, if not to see if Jimmy still owned that old ’57 that garnered him fame.
As it turned out, Jeremy responded in the negative, but he happened to mention that he had “just” the King Oldsmobile, which was sitting in the corner of his dad’s building. Though filthy, it was recognizable due to the Saffron paint. Jeff checked the door jambs, which featured remnants of the Crimson hue that had been used to decorate the sides. Jimmy still had the paperwork for the King Olds as well as the Smothers Brothers contract. Though Jeff was checking out fuelie parts, as well as rare 1956 dual-quad pieces, he was distracted by this magnificent piece of drag racing history tucked in the corner.
What was so special about this car goes deeper than race pedigree: This car was a Cutlass S convertible, which was a nice cruiser in its day, though no 4-4-2. But this one was equipped with the W31 package, part of a trio of W-Machines available in 1969 that included the 4-4-2 W30 and W32. The W31 was the odd duck of the bunch, a 350ci screamer rated at 325 horsepower, but it pulled stronger than that thanks to a camshaft with 308-degree duration (both intake and exhaust), 82 degrees of overlap, and 0.474 of lift (again, both intake and exhaust). The compression ratio was a reasonable 10.50. This is arguably the most impressive factory mill Oldsmobile developed during the muscle car era from a hp/ci POV but, as John DeLorean once said, it was a 400+ci world, so few were sold. In the case of this convertible, only 26 were built with the W31 package.
Jeff asked if the Olds was for sale. “Only to the right person,” responded Jeremy. Jeff so admired Jimmy, and his interest was piqued by this Brand X ragtop, but he didn’t think he’d be able to afford such a car and restoration. “I knew I wasn’t that guy.”
When asked what he would do with the car, Jeff responded by saying, “I would have it restored as you raced it.” That seemed to have made an impact on Jimmy and his family because when Jeff made an offer for a package deal on the Chevy parts and the Olds, the Waibel family got in a huddle to discuss.
“You just bought my car!” Jimmy proclaimed. They shook hands. Jeff wondered, Why me? because several well-heeled Oldsmobile guys had been chasing the car for years. Clearly, it was his enthusiasm for the driver and racing history that sealed the deal.
That was in 2018. The Olds began to gather dust in Delaware, while Jimmy experienced an unfortunate medical issue while on vacation. Things were tough, but not tough enough to bring to Jeff’s attention that a promise had been made and had yet to be fulfilled. That’s not to say Jeff had any intention of avoiding the restoration, but hurdles have a way of distracting and leading to procrastination. Jeff spoke with an Olds guy named Bruce Ponti, who suggested Garner Customs & Restorations in Florida as a place to restore the race car. As luck would have it, Garner co-owner Allan Steinbock was in Pittsburgh when he received the call from partner Ken Garner. Allan changed his flight plans to Florida and instead drove to Delaware to check out the Smothers Brothers restoration project. Allan also gave noted Olds expert Steven Minore a ring, who left his Connecticut home to inspect this very special car. Garner was excited for the opportunity and both parties arrived at an agreeable proposition.
The goal for Garner was to finish the Olds in time for the 2022 Gatornationals so Jimmy and his family could attend. But the folks at Garner were thrilled to discover the Cutlass was in better shape than they had thought, so they gave Bob Ashton a call and scored a spot at the 2021 Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals for a grand unveiling. The restoration only took six months, just in time for the show.
As it turned out, it rained in Gainesville, but the Waibel family was able to catch a glimpse (and a rumpety-rump from the exhaust pipes) of the W31. Then they were invited to the Boca Raton Concourse d’Elegance and, subsequently, a number of other similar shows around the country. Every time the W31 has been at a show, it has come home with an award.
Jeff is back to playing around with Tri-Five Chevys, but this Oldsmobile tangent in his life has brought never-ending enlightenment from his new-found community. “I never expected the outpouring of friendliness like from the Oldsmobile folks.”
And the race team? Problems soon crept up – not on the drag strip, but in the TV studio. The Smothers Brothers were constantly battling CBS censors over content, language, and sensibilities and sensitivities of the status quo. CBS bosses began to demand show previews for an “affiliate review” so folks in certain markets wouldn’t get offended. After catching an offending bit similar to one that had angered viewers earlier, the bosses immediately fired the Brothers in April 1969 – despite the fact that the show had already been renewed for another season.
In the spring of 1969, the The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour was cancelled, the victim of both cultural and network censors—this despite having been renewed for the 1969-70 season. The racing team returned for 1970, though not in the team colors. The diminished presentation of the Smothers Brothers Racing Team eventually led to the removal of any Smothers Brothers reference before the end of the 1970 racing season, with Oldsmobile’s support continuing through 1971.
Special thanks go to Pete Kost, Carl Schiefer and, of course, Jeff Kane.
Source: www.classiccars.com