Synopsis:

Our story opens outside The Monkees' pad, where three of them are seen giving The Monkeemobile a tune-up; David is behind the wheel, Peter is frustrated trying to fix what's under the hood, and Michael works under the car, lying on a creeper. Michael asks Peter to give him a shove, expecting a knife; instead, Peter literally gives him a shove with his foot, creeper and all, sending Michael rolling under The Monkeemobile, bouncing off a wall onscreen, and back again. Just then, David gets a call from T.N. Crumpets, his grandfather’s friend and England’s major racing driver, who wants the guys' help. The guys decide to head over to Crumpets' place and as David starts the car, the telephone is triggered instead and, with wheels, drives itself into The Monkees’ pad!

At T.N. Crumpets’ garage at the racing track, The Monkees admire his race car (#54) and they meet the elderly racer and his butler, Carruthers. Crumpets believes that someone is sabotaging his car and soon Peter and Michael look under the hood when the engine blows up leaving them convinced it’s the work of saboteurs. Meanwhile at another garage, Baron Von Klutz and his henchman Wolfgang, German officers of The Third Reich, work on The Baron’s racecar, The Klutzmobile (#13) but are having difficulties with their engine. Then The Baron spies on The Monkees through a periscope as amateur greasemonkees, clumsily working on Crumpets’ car and notices their strange techniques (using a hammer and a nail, a saw and wood). Back at Crumpets’ garage, The Monkees have nonchalantly taken Crumpets’ engine apart - Micky removes a tiger tail in the process! - but still can’t get it working again. When The Baron and Wolfgang come over to find out about the sad condition of Crumpets' car, The Monkees throw the car’s engine parts about to allay their suspicions, saying it’s a way to get rid of excess. After reassembling the engine again, David attempts to turn it over, but it's still no go until Micky starts the engine running again with his hand. Meanwhile, The Baron plots with Wolfgang to kidnap the mechanic and the driver since a fixed car is useless without a driver.

The Monkees and Crumpets engage in their tea to celebrate; as Carruthers sprays London Mist Spray around, the gasmasked villains spray knockout gas and everyone passes out. They kidnap greasemonkee Micky and Crumpets and drag them to their garage, where The Baron has them tied up as he explains his plans to win the race and make The Klutzmobile the most famous race car in the country and the world, and demands that Micky work on it. Crumpets tries to tell Von Klutz that Micky is no mechanic, but The Baron won’t hear of it, and has him gagged. Micky at first defies The Baron's methods of brainwashing, solitary confinement and starvation, but he relents when Von Klutz threatens physical torture. Meanwhile, back at the Crumpetts' garage, Peter, Michael, David and Carruthers come to, realizing they've been doped, and discover Micky or Crumpets are missing! After fixing The Klutzmobile, Baron orders Micky to start to car so he can analyze her engine, but only music emanates from it instead (despite the car not having a radio or a stereo tape deck!). Then, Wolfgang spots Michael, David and Peter arriving at their garage; The Baron orders Wolfgang to get rid of them while he hides Micky and Crumpets. The three other Monkees enter the Klutz garage, where Peter find a tuning fork Micky used on The Baron earlier, and when Wolfgang greets them he insists that only Klutzmobile personnel can enter the garage, meaning you have to be a Klutz to get in. Peter points out Micky’s B flat tuning fork he found but Wolfgang claims it’s his and that it’s an A. Soon Peter, Michael, David and Wolfgang then spend time trying out Micky's tuning fork, claiming it’s a B flat arguing back with Wolfgang who tries to send them away. When they won't budge, Wolfgang pulls a gun on them, which the boys object to. The Baron then intervenes, asking the three what they want but they leave, failing to find or rescue Micky or Crumpets, The Baron having hidden both of them under a stack of tires; The Baron schemes to have them dispose of after the race when they are no longer needed.

Back at Crumpets, The Monkees realize they don’t have a driver for Crumpet’s race car until David volunteers to stand in for Crumpets in the race since he’s a British subject. The racing official agrees but doesn’t think he’ll be able to see over the wheel since he’s so short. Michael and Peter remedy this problem with a telephone book, which they give David to sit on. Meanwhile, Micky is still working on The Baron’s Klutzmobile, but, an inexperienced mechanic, he completely ruins her engine. Then after spotting Crumpet’s car that is up and running, they decide to steal the engine. For a diversion, the Baron calls Michael and Peter from the loudspeaker, then they sneak in and steal the car in their absence. The racing official tells Michael, Peter and David they can’t be in the race without a car; David wants to run the race afoot, but the official is insistent that he must have a car, so he opts to use The Monkeemobile. After switching the engine from Crumpets’ car to The Klutzmobile, The Baron instructs Wolfgang to shoot one of the hostages at the starting gun and the other one at the end of the race, when everyone is cheering. Later at the track, as the race is about to begin, Michael and Peter tells David they’ll look for Micky and Crumpets while David races the Baron. David wonders where the other contestants are; The Baron drives up and declares that they have all been sabotaged.

Just before Wolfgang gets ready to shoot Micky, Michael and Peter burst in and starts chasing him all over the garage, just as the official fires the gun, starting the race. Despite The Baron’s efforts to sabotage David with an arsenal of underhanded trickery - a newspaper, and a spare tire, which winds up felling him instead - David wins the race and is surrounded by a crowd including pretty women kissing him. In a musical romp set to “What Am I Doing Hangin’ ’Round”, The Monkees chase The Baron and Wolfgang around the garage and wind up turning them into flower children and ends with all of them throwing flowers in the air. Producer Robert Rafelson also sees fit to cameo as “The World’s Oldest Flower Child,” scarfing a chrysanthemum.

Production Notes:

“The Monkees Race Again” (a.k.a. “And Leave The Driving To Us”) was the last full Monkees episode to be produced. 

Unlike its other appearances on this show (in Episode No. 33, "It's A Nice Place To Visit... [a.k.a. "The Monkees In Mexico"]," and No. 40, "The Monkees Marooned"), “What Am I Doing Hangin’ ’Round” appears here in its mix heard on the mono version of Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones, Ltd.. (Note that its third verse has been cut out in order to run in the episode time allotted.) Travis Lewis and Boomer Clarke are the pseudonyms of Michael Martin Murphey and Owens Castleman, “What Am I Doing Hangin’ ’Round”'s composers, who were Screen Gems' second attempt at a prepackaged group, The Lewis And Clarke Expedition.

A deleted story idea from “The Monkees Race Again” has David and Baron Von Klutz making all sorts of stops during the race: for tea, girls, relay races, mechanics on skateboards, trading stamps, glassware, and contests! Also, the words "Klutz" and "Klutzmobile" were spelled with the letter C, and an alternate episode ending has Micky and Crumpetts dropping tires around The Baron and Wolfgang.

This episode saw the final appearance of The Monkeemobile in an original Monkees segment. It was one of only four episodes this season featuring the George Barris-built Dean Jeffries-styled Pontiac GTO (following No. 33, "It's A Nice Place To Visit...[a.k.a. "The Monkees In Mexico"]", No. 39, "Hillbilly Honeymoon" [a.k.a. "Double Barrell Shotgun Wedding"], and No. 42, "The Wild Monkees”) whereas in the first season, it popped up on the show a whopping 13 times (in No. 2, “Monkee See, Monkee Die”, No. 3, “Monkee Versus Machine”, No. 5, “The Spy Who Came In From The Cool”, No. 7, “The Monkees In A Ghost Town”, No. 12, “I've Got A Little Song Here”, No. 13, “One Man Shy” [a.k.a. “Peter And The Debutante”], No. 15, “Too Many Girls” [a.k.a. "Davy And Fern"], No. 17, “The Case Of The Missing Monkee”, No. 19, “Find The Monkees!” [a.k.a. "The Audition"], No. 22, “The Monkees At The Circus”, No. 25, “Alias Micky Dolenz”, No. 27, “Monkee Mother”, No. 32, “The Monkees On Tour”). (A future episode, No. 57, "The Monkees Blow Their Minds", uses footage of The Monkeemobile as seen in the “Gonna Buy Me A Dog” musical sequence of “I've Got A Little Song Here”.) The Monkeemobile's licence plate # in this episode: PAR 54.

Elias Davis and fellow screenwriter David Pollock, who teamed up with Dave Evans in writing “The Monkees Race Again,” began writing comedy bits together for KNX Los Angeles radio personalities by the early 1960s while both attending UCLA, which led to their first television gig for The Joey Bishop Show (CBS/NBC, 1961-65), as they went on to write for the syndicated, daytime Pat Boone Show, which became The Steve Allen Show. The two, now in high demand in Hollywood, began a long career collaborating together on numerous TV series projects by 1974, including scribing 12 episodes of M*A*S*H (CBS, 1972-83), including its 2-hour, 30-minute February 28, 1983 series finale, "Goodbye, Farewell And Amen" (#9B04); the duo became executive script consultants for the series in its final season. The duo also wrote for such other popular TV shows as The Mary Tyler Moore Show (CBS, 1970-77), All in the Family (CBS, 1971-79), Chico and the Man (NBC, 1974-78), What's Happening!! (ABC, 1976-79), the short-lived 1974-5 ABC-TV sitcom series That's My Mama, the 1979 ABC-TV National Lampoon's Animal House spin-off Delta House, Full House (ABC, 1987-95), Thea (ABC, 1993-4), and Fraiser (NBC, 1993-2004), which won a 1995 Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series.

M*A*S*H Trivia Footnote: Mike "B.J. Hunnicutt" Farrell, who played Agent Modell in Episode No. 26 “Monkee Chow Mein,” scripted a December 20, 1982 episode of M*A*S*H with Davis and Pollock: "Run For The Money" (#9B03).

This is the second of only 2 episodes of The Monkees to bear an actual appearance of show creator/writer/producer/executive producer/director Robert Rafelson; look for him riding in The Monkeemobile (among The Monkees themselves and probably Bert Schneider, David Pearl and Ward Sylvester) and backstage at The Coliseum with David and Peter in Episode No. 32, “The Monkees On Tour”. He also makes a cameo in the commissary sequence in the movie HEAD.

Having compleeted this, his 32nd and final Monkees episode, director Jim Frawley went on to helm several other projects, including The Muppet Movie (Associated Film Distribution, 1979) and numerous episodes of NBC's Law & Order (NBC, 1990-2010). He later served as co-executive producer of Judging Amy (CBS, 1999-2005). James Joseph Frawley passed away on January 22, 2019 in Indian Wells, CA at age 82.

Look closely at The Monkeemobile's dragchute pack and you will find David and Micky's signatures, along with Dean Jefferies' manufacturing symbol.

Brief segments of David, Micky and Michael and special guests of their choosing to be used in the last 3 new Monkees installments of the 1967-68 season (and the series altogether!) were filmed on the side at the time (a.k.a. “And Leave The Driving To Us”) was produced. (Peter's segment would not be filmed.)

David Jones married Linda Haines 72 hours prior to the start of “The Monkees Race Again” (a.k.a. “And Leave The Driving To Us”)'s production (Dec. 15, 1967). “The Monkees Race Again” (a.k.a. “And Leave The Driving To Us”) is the only complete episode of The Monkees to be produced after David Jones' marriage. 

All of the racing scenes featuring The Monkeemobile and The Klutzmobile were filmed in 16mm. 

Stu Phillip's race music used in “The Monkees Race Again” (a.k.a. “And Leave The Driving To Us”) reappeared in the 1970 Four Star Excelsior biker B-movie The Rebel Rousers starring HEAD co-writer/co-producer Jack Nicholson and Bruce Dern (during a fight scene); the film also featured Monkees writer/story editor Neil Burstyn in a bit part as a Rebel.

Inconsistencies:

Broadcast Notes:

This week ABC preempted Cowboy In Africa for marathon coverage of The 1968 Winter Olympics, which finished in 3rd place in the Nielsens with a 12.6 rating and an 18.6 share (7,060,000 viewers).

Trivia Notes:

Guest Cast Notes: