Dr. Ron's 442 W30

Dale Smith was the Senior Project Engineer for "Special Events" (see letter from Dale Smith to Farmer Dismuke/NHRA two pages below) at Oldsmobile, who authored the above book detailing this history. Dale was responsible for giving life to, and nurturing Oldsmobile's success in all forms of motor racing beginning in the 1960's. His successes was especially noteworthy in winning the NHRA Manufacturer's Cup (awarded by NHRA to the top brand-specific points earner for the current model year vehicles). Oldsmobile 14 times including 12 in a row from 1984-1995. This "Win on Sunday, Swll on Monday" philosophy had spread through the car companies through the dealerships and eventually the racers learned to take full advantage. At GM, the same philosophy prevailed at Chevy, Pontiac and Olds but this was a clear violation of GM Orders: See below on GM Edicts Page.

 

Dale Smith of Oldsmobile began the string of wins in the 1971-1972 model years-many would assert (in large part) by recruiting John Troxell away from his Chrysler Corporation Sponsorship at the 1970 GatorNationals for the beginning of the 1971 model year. The proliferation of Troxell-built Oldsmobiles began with the 1971 "Vista Bruiser" (as it was known) and expanded rapidly. The Vista Cruiser was chosen off the assembly line by John-largely due to his earlier Chevrolet successes building and driving Chevy "Sedan Deliveries"). After the early success with the Vista Bruiser a number of 'No VIN' cars were sent to John to build for customers (see Troxell ad on next page).

 

Many of the cars were sold to Dick Griffin and Al Seger of the "Go Shop" in Lansing Michigan-some before Troxell even had a chance to do a warm-up run. This set of cars was bolstered by Ron Garey's continuing involvement and Jim Waibel in Florida along with Jerry Dover/ Sammy Pizzolato in Louisiana, and Pete Kost on the West Coast.The wins in the later years came due to John Force and other Olds-bodied Funny Cars, Warren Johnson in Pro Stock and a proliferation of 81-88 Cutlass G Body cars that found their way to racers out the 'back door' at Oldsmobile to run Stock and Super Stock. Most of these were 'test track' cars that were run around the test track once or twice and could not be legally sold as 'new' cars. They were transferred to Jody Pemberton (Air Lift Corp. and who ran a local auto salvage business) and then shipped to 'certain' Olds Dealerships who then transferred the vehicles to the local pre-selected racers (already stripped of their Vehicle Identification Numbers (VIN). The same procedure followed with the Front wheel drive Acheiva and Cierra body cars with the stipulation that they be converted to RWD cars for SuperStock GT by F.J. Smith.

 

This below the surface racing promotion was despite the already long standing "no racing" order from the top levels of GM. Following the unveiling of the Chevrolet Z-11 at Daytona for NASCAR and drag strip activity around late January of 1963, despite the "edict" from GM Brass that GM would no longer be actively involved in promoting or sponsoring motor sports activities. Nonetheless, racing programs were quietly conducted by Chevrolet, Pontiac, and Oldsmobile, despite the "edict". What was going on behind the scenes was really quite different than going along with the supposed ban. At levels which were less than transparent to GM Management, budgets were created and programs started in those three Divisions that were only thinly disguised as "research and development" and 'marketing' activities. The "Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday" philosophy had taken hold of certain Division level executives (like Dale Smith) within GM as well as being long-standing at Ford and Chrysler. 

 

By the early 60's, Pontiac had long focused on their high performance activities with great success with both NASCAR, and then the increasingly popular drag racing. Their attempts to compete with the Ford and Chrysler drag strip programs were highlighted with the introduction of the Lightweight 1962 Super Duty 421's and then the "Swiss Cheese" 421 Catalinas of 1963.

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The other Divisions were startled by John DeLorean's introduction of the 1964 Pontiac GTO, which immediately became a popular big seller for Pontiac. The other Divisions attempted to follow Pontiac' lead with performance oriented 'A' body cars as well as the Chevy II line. Oldsmobile followed Pontiac's lead with the 442, which in the early days was no match for the 1964 Tri-Power GTO or the Chevy 409's, but by 1966 with the 442's L-69 option of 400 Cubic Inches, radical camshaft and battery re-located to the trunk, the picture began to change. Success followed with the Smother's Brothers 442 out of Berejik Olds and the aforementioned Jim Waibel's shop in Florida, along with the Jerry Dover/ Sammy Pizzolato group in Louisiana. 

 

The Manufacturer's Cup remained out of reach until 1971, however with the sheer number of Chevrolets led by Bill Jenkins working with Vince Piggins at Chevrolet to supply cars to Jenkins, Dave Strickler and others as well as the string of Corvair and Chevy II bodied cars like Seaton's Shaker (owned by the Pete Seaton (son of a GM Executive), Tom Sturm's 'For Chevy Lovers Only', the Doug Thorley (Dougs Headers) and the inimitable "Jungle Jim" Lieberman Chevy II.

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The competition between the Divisions was fierce, and product development at Oldsmobile was taking them rapidly towards having a 455 Hemi ready for full production in 1970. That effort was quietly killed by Chevrolet so as not to undercut/ reduce focus on its Rat Motor.

Much, though not all of the above is attributable to the Dale Smith book however, the text (while my responsibility totally) has benefitted tremendously from insights from people "who were THERE!) and can bear witness to the elements of history described above.

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   January 1970: A Brief History of a Momentous Month in A Momentous Year

 

So now that you know a little about what Oldsmobile was up to, what about the world surrounding drag racing and cars? Of course the backdrop for everything was the Viet Nam War. In January, Nixon started a series of meetings to lay the plans for the invasion (or “incursion”) into Cambodia, where Ron would find himself by April of that year. January 4, 1970 was the Beatles last recording session at EMI Studios. Paul McCartney would soon announce the break-up of the Beatles. On January 22nd (the week this white convertible was built) the first commercial flight of the Boeing 747 took place. On the 25thof January, 1970, the movie M.A.S.H. was released to theaters. On January 26th, Simon and Garfunkel’s Bridge Over Troubled Waters album was released. That same month saw Roone Arledge announce the launch of Monday Night Football on ABC.