Brimmer would not have been convicted of murder. Probably Voluntary Manslaughter. Still a killer though. His office is 'years ahead' of what they have at police headquarters yet somehow Columbo allegedly puts a potato in his tail pipe to disable the car. How? There must be cameras all over that parking garage. Overall a good episode. Probably 6-7 on the scale of 1-10.
Speaking of the golf scene, it might have been cool to see them work into the scene Colombo hitting a shot or two himself. There's a clip on youtube on the making of the Great Race and they show a brief shot of Peter hitting a golf shot in the snow -- pretty athletic swing.
This is strange. There’s a scene when Colombo is interrogating the golf Pro at the country club, and he ends by taking a club and hitting the ball with a perfect swing.