The Spooky Case of the Grand Prix Race

The Spooky Case of the Grand Prix Race
Details
Air date	October 8, 1977
Written by	Story: Larz Bourne, Dick Conway, Willie Gilbert, Duane Poole, Haskell Barkin, Tom Dagenais, Tony DiMarco, Dave Ketchum, Norman Maurer, Dick Robbins, and Dalton Sandifer
Directed by	Charles A. Nichols
Chronology
Previous episode	The Chiller Diller Movie Thriller
Next episode	The Ozark Witch Switch

The Spooky Case Of The Grand Prix Race originally aired as the first of four segments of Scooby-Doo's All-Star Laff-A-lympics, later repackaged as the fifth episode of the second season of The Scooby-Doo Show, and the twenty-first episode overall of the series.

Premise

The gang goes to watch a Grand Prix race, only to run afoul of a phantom race car driver that makes the other drivers and their cars disappear! Shaggy and Scooby go in disguise as race drivers to foil this mystery. Shaggy is kidnapped by the phantom, and the rest of the gang set about rescuing him, whilst still trying to solve the mystery.

Synopsis

At the Grand Prix Time Trials, as one of the racers, Carl Conover, speeds by, the Phantom Racer, a ghostly apparition driving a racecar, appears and makes Carl and his racecar disappear in the fog.

Meanwhile, Mystery Inc. read about the Phantom Racer in the newspaper and decide to investigate. They head to the race tracks and talk to the sponsor of the race, Mr. Osbourne. Mr. Osbourne explains that the Phantom Racer is the ghost of a racer who drove off a cliff in the fog a few years ago, and is seeking vengence on all race car drivers. He also tells the gang that he can't cancel the race, or else he will be ruined. The gang assures Mr. Osborn that they will solve the mystery so the race can go on.

All of a sudden, a bedraggled man moaning with terror stumbles in and Mr. Osbourne recognizes him as Carl, the missing driver, apparently haven gotten away from the Phantom somehow, but Carl doesn't remember a thing. The gang drive around and look for clues. They find race car tire tracks, and deduce they must be from the Phantom race car. They follow the tracks until they disappear near an old junkyard. Inside the junkyard, they discover a jet plane with the engine machine, which is odd considering the junkyard is specifically for automobiles.

They enter an old house where they meet the inhabitant, a eccentric old caretaker, who tells the gang that the Phantom has recently been haunting the antique car museum and the gang decides to head there.

Upon arrival, they find the door locked so Shaggy and Scooby climb through a window and unlock the door. Inside, they split up to find the Phantom. Scooby and Shaggy encounter the Phantom and are chased. They end up trapped in an old automobile and pushed down a steep hill by the Phantom. They manage to escape safely and reunite with the gang. Then the Phantom appears and warns the gang that whoever enters the Grand Prix race will not escape his vengence, and then makes a hasty exit in the racecar.

They rush back to the tracks to stop the next racer, but it is too late. Ken Rogers, another racer, becomes the Phantom's next victim. The gang then decide the only way they will catch the phantom, is to get the Phantom to chase them. They decide to put Scooby and Shaggy in a race car and have them go undercover as drivers, and then drive down the track to see if the Phantom shows up.

The decoy works and the Phantom chases Shaggy and Scooby. The Phantom manages to kidnap Shaggy, leaving the gang with nothing to go on. Scooby tells the rest of the gang that the Phantom took Shaggy to the junkyard. They go to the junkyard and split up to look for Shaggy. Daphne and Fred enter the old house, and find the old man nowhere to be found. Daphne inadvertently discovers a hidden cavern underneath the watchman's house, as well as the rest of the junkyard, and Scooby, Velma, Fred, and Daphne all check it out. They split up to search for Shaggy. Daphne and Velma find the missing racecars, and they look as if someone has tried to repaint the racecars. They also find a book about magic and a instruction book on how to hypnotize.

Velma and Scooby find the Phantom Racecar as well as the Phantom Racer who is trapping Shaggy behind a brick wall. Velma and Scooby concoct a plan to free Shaggy, but it backfires and the Phantom chases them. Velma and Scooby escape and run back and free Shaggy. The entire gang reunites and the Phantom shows up, and chases the gang in the Phantom racecar, with the gang riding two of the missing racecars. A chase ensues, ending with the capture of the Phantom.

The Phantom is revealed to be Ken Rogers, who faked his disappearance as part of his scheme to steal all the racecars, re-paint them, and sell them overseas. They covered up the plan by using the Phantom legend. The first clue was the airplane in the junkyard. Rogers put the jet engine in the Phantom racecar, which is why the car sounded strange and was able to be faster than all the other racecars. He also rigged the Phantom racecar to pick up the other stolen racecars like magnets, and he would transport them to the underground cavern in the junkyard. Then he hypnotized the drivers to make them blank out and forget what happened. And Ken Rogers faked his kidnapping by using a projected image of the Phantom from a projector in the car. The creepy old watchman in the junkyard was really Ken in disguise, trying to throw the gang off track.

Cast and characters

Actor	Character
Don Messick	Scooby-Doo Racer
Casey Kasem	Shaggy Rogers Mr. Osbourne Racer
Frank Welker	Fred Jones Carl Conover
Heather North	Daphne Blake
Patricia Stevens	Velma Dinkley
John Stephenson	Race announcer
Vic Perrin	Phantom Racer/ Ken Rogers/ Junkyard watchman

Villains

• Phantom Racer/Ken Rogers

Suspects

Suspect	Motive/reason
Junkyard watchman	Abrasive attitude and unkept appearance.

Culprits

Culprit	Motive/reason
Ken Rogers as the Junkyard watchman and the Phantom Racer	To steal other driver's cars and sell them overseas.

Locations

• Grand Prix Time Trials
  • Pit area
• Ice cream shop
• Junkyard
• Antique Car Museum

Notes/trivia

• TBA

Animation mistakes and/or technical glitches

• None known.

Inconsistencies/continuity errors and/or goofs/oddities

• It would be nearly impossible for the Phantom to put a plane engine inside a car or to install a device to pick up other cars. The Phantom's car would be way too heavy to travel at high speeds.
• Even if the Phantom was using quick drying cement, Shaggy could've still escape as the cement would have taken some time to fully harden.
• It's never explained how Ken was able to make his car stop making tire tracks after he made it seem like the phantom made him disappear.

Home media

• TBA

Quotes

Previous episode:	Series:	Next episode:
The Chiller Diller Movie Thriller	{{{series}}}	The Ozark Witch Switch