| Barney Oldfield | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Oldfield,c. 1920 | |||||||
| Born | Berna Eli Oldfield (1878-01-29)January 29, 1878 nearWauseon, Ohio, U.S. | ||||||
| Died | October 4, 1946(1946-10-04) (aged 68) | ||||||
| Championship titles | |||||||
| AAAChampionship Car (1905) | |||||||
| Champ Car career | |||||||
| 49 races run over 10 years | |||||||
| Best finish | 1st (1905) | ||||||
| First race | 1905 Hartford Race (Charter Oak Park) | ||||||
| Last race | 1918 Liberty Sweepstakes (Uniontown) | ||||||
| First win | 1905 Hartford Race (Charter Oak Park) | ||||||
| Last win | 1915 Tucson Race (Tucson) | ||||||
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Berna Eli "Barney"Oldfield (January 29, 1878 – October 4, 1946) was a pioneer Americanracing driver. His name was "synonymous with speed in the first two decades of the 20th century".[1] He was the winner of the inauguralAAA National Championship in1905.
After success in bicycle racing, Oldfield began auto racing in 1902 and continued until his retirement in 1918. He was the first man to drive a car at 60 miles per hour (96 km/h) on a circular track.[2][3]
Berna Eli Oldfield was born inYork Township, Fulton County, Ohio, nearWauseon andToledo, on January 29, 1878, to Henry Clay Oldfield, a laborer, and his wife Sarah. He was named after his father's bunkmate in the68th Ohio Volunteer Infantry during theAmerican Civil War. He had a sister Bertha.
As of the1880 United States census, the Oldfields lived in Wauseon. In 1889, they moved toToledo, where the father, Henry, got a job at the state mental asylum. In the summer of 1891, Berna worked as a waterboy in order to purchase his first bicycle. According to legend, he spent most of his Sunday afternoons at the local Toledo fire station, hoping for the next call. As the company's “mascot,” he was allowed to ride the big red hose wagon, pulled by a pair of horses that raced through the streets. The following year, Berna worked after school selling theToledo Blade andToledo Bee newspapers.
Oldfield dropped out of school after the eighth grade in 1892. He started working with his father as a kitchen helper at the mental asylum during the day and abellhop at the downtown hotel at night. He eventually worked at the hotel full-time, as he preferred it to working around mental patients. Purportedly the bell captain said that "Berna” was "a sissy name," so he changed it to “Barney." Oldfield was described as having a "magnetic personality", and received many tips at the hotel. He used them to buy his first bike, an "Advance Traveller" with pneumatic tires.
Clarence Brigham, who sold the “Cleveland” brand bike, and Edward G. Eager (of Eager & Green Mercantile) who sold the “Columbia” models in his store, organized the Wauseon Cycle Club in their town. They wanted both to increase bicycle sales and draw more people to the town via theMichigan Lake Shore Railroad. Other cycling groups in Swanton, Clyde, Monroe, Adrian, Blissfield, and Toledo were part of the same cycle racing circuit.
Bicyclists raced in half-mile and mile classes on public racetracks usually reserved for horse racing. Other members of the Club included Fred Ballmeyer, Ora Brailey, Curt and Buff Harrison, Doc Myers, Emil Winzeler, Doc Miley, Frank Harper, Dan Raymond (who fixed everyone's bikes), Sid Black (a trick cyclist from Cleveland who later became president of thePackard Motor Company), and Barney Oldfield. In October 1892, the second “Silver Tournament” was held in Wauseon.
In 1893, Oldfield began working as an elevator operator at a different hotel. Every night he stored one hotel tenant's lightweight "Cleveland" cycle in the basement; he sometimes "borrowed it", riding it at night.
At age 16, Oldfield began serious bicycle racing in 1894 after officials from the "Dauntless" bicycle factory asked him to ride for theOhio state championship.[4] Although he came in second, the race was a turning point. Oldfield was hired as a parts sales representative for theStearns bicycle factory. There he met Beatrice Lovetta Oatis, his future wife; they married in 1896.[5]
By 1896, Oldfield was paid by Stearns, based inSyracuse, New York, to race on its amateur team.[4]
Oldfield was loaned agasoline-powered bicycle to race atSalt Lake City. Through fellow racerTom Cooper, he met entrepreneurHenry Ford, who was at the beginning of his career as an auto manufacturer in Michigan.[2] Ford had prepared two automobiles for racing, and he asked Oldfield if he would like to test one in Michigan. Oldfield agreed and traveled to Michigan for the trial, but neither car started. Although Oldfield had never driven an automobile, he and Cooper bought both test vehicles when Ford offered to sell them for $800. One was"No. 999", which debuted in October 1902 at the Manufacturer's Challenge Cup. Today it is displayed at theHenry Ford Museum in Greenfield Village, Michigan.
Oldfield agreed to drive against the current champion,Alexander Winton. Oldfield was rumored to have learned how to operate the controls of the "999" only the morning of the event.[6] Oldfield won by a half mile in the five-mile (8 km) race.[6] He slid through the corners like a motorcycle racer rather than braking. It was a great victory for Ford and resulted in both Oldfield and Ford becoming nationally known.
John Wilkinson, who designed an air-cooled engine forFranklin Automobile Company and was its chief engineer, raced against Oldfield in 1902. He won the state 5 miles (8.0 km) championship in a record time of 6:54:06.[7]
On June 20, 1903, at theIndiana State Fairgrounds, Oldfield became the first driver to run a mile track in one minute flat, or 60 miles per hour (97 km/h).[8] Two months later, he drove one mile in 55.8 seconds at theEmpire City Race Track inYonkers, New York.[9]
Alexander Winton hired Oldfield as a professional driver and agreed to supply him with free cars for racing. Oldfield, his managerErnest Moross, and his agent Will Pickens traveled throughout the United States in a series of timed runs and match races, and he earned a reputation as a showman, racing while holding a cigar in his mouth to cushion the spot where he had broken some molar teeth in a crash.[10] Oldfield was "the first American to become a celebrity solely for his ability to drive a car with great skill, speed, and daring."[6] He liked to increase the drama in the best of three matches: he would win the first part by a nose, lose the second, and win the third. Oldfield won first place at theIndianapolis Motor Speedway on August 21, 1909 in aMercedes-Benz.[11]
He bought aBenz, and raised his speed in 1910 to 70.159 mph (112.910 km/h) while driving his "Blitzen Benz". Later in 1910, Oldfield reached the speed of 131.25 mph (211.23 km/h). AtDaytona Beach,Florida, on March 16, 1910, in his Blitzen Benz, he set the world speed record, driving 131.724 mph, for which he earned the nickname “speed king.”
Oldfield was suspended by theAmerican Automobile Association (AAA)contest board for his "outlaw" racing, and was unable to race at sanctioned events for much of his career. He made his career by being paid to set speed records and conduct match races and exhibitions.
In 1914, his agent Will Pickens staged a "Championship of the Universe", pitting Oldfield against another of his clients, aviatorLincoln Beachey. Oldfield raced hisFiat car against Beachey'sbiplanes in at least 35 matches,barnstorming the country. In the more remote areas, they raced at county fair horse tracks. The Championship was "extremely successful", and both Oldfield and Beachey earned more than $250,000 in their barnstorming.[12]
After being reinstated by the AAA, Oldfield competed in the 1914 and 1916Indianapolis 500, finishing fifth in each attempt. He was the first person to run a 100-mile-per-hour lap. His 1914 Indy finish was in an Indianapolis-builtStutz, and he was the highest-finishing driver in an American car in a race that was dominated by European brands.
Oldfield used the same car in his victory at theLos Angeles toPhoenix off-road race in November 1914. Oldfield also finished second in two major road races that year, theVanderbilt Cup and theCorona 300. In 1915 he won theVenice, California 300 road race.
In November 1914, Oldfield won the Los Angeles-to-Phoenix Cactus Derby Race; the victor's medal proclaimed him “Master Driver of the World”. On May 28, 1916, he became the first person to lap the Indianapolis Speedway at more than 100 mph in the front-wheel-drive "Christie Racer", designed byJohn Walter Christie. He used the Blitzen Benz to break the existing mile, two-mile, and kilometer records at theDaytona Beach Road Course atOrmond, Florida. Afterward, he charged $4,000 for each of his appearances at driving races.[4]
In June 1917, Oldfield used hisGolden Submarine, designed with a roll bar to protect the driver, to beat fellow racing legendRalph DePalma in a series of 10- to 25-mile (40 km) match races atMilwaukee.
He retired from racing in 1918 but continued to tour and make movies. In what was his last attempt at racing, in 1932 he tried to re-enter speed racing with a new car design, but was unable to find any financial sponsors.[13]
Oldfield died on October 4, 1946, of aheart attack. He had married a total of four times. He was survived by Bessie Gooby Oldfield, whom he had divorced in 1924 and remarried in 1945, making her both his second and fourth wife. When they were first married, they adopted a daughter, Betty (who by his death was married to a Kelly).[2] He was buried in theHoly Cross Cemetery inCulver City, California.[2]
Oldfield starred as himself for ten weeks in the Broadway musicalThe Vanderbilt Cup (1906).
He also appeared in movies, including the silent filmBarney Oldfield's Race for a Life (1913), where he raced against a train to rescue a heroine tied to the train tracks. He was also featured inThe First Auto (1927) as an early pioneer of theautomotive history. He was a technical advisor for the Vanderbilt Cup sequence in the feature filmBack Street (1941). He starred as himself in a racing film titledBlonde Comet, the story of a young woman trying to achieve success as a racecar driver. He also appeared as himself in the 1924 Charley Chase shortYoung Oldfield.
Bob Burman, one of Oldfield's rivals and closest friends, was killed in a wreck during a race inCorona, California. Oldfield andHarry Arminius Miller, who developed and builtcarburetors and was one of the most famous engine builders, worked after that to design a racecar that was not only fast and durable but would protect the driver in the event of an accident. They built a racecar with aroll cage inside a streamlined driver's compartment, which completely enclosed the driver, calling it the "Golden Submarine."
Oldfield helped fellow racerCarl G. Fisher found theFisher Automobile Company in Indianapolis. This is widely considered the firstautomobile dealership in theUnited States.[14]
Oldfield also developed what was called the Oldfield tire forFirestone. In its slogan, Firestone touted that Oldfield had said, "Firestone Tires are my only life insurance".[15] In 1924, the Kimball Truck Co. ofLos Angeles built the only 1924 Oldfield.[16]
Oldfield has been inducted into the following halls of fame:
In addition, Oakshade Raceway inWauseon, Ohio - located close to Oldfield's birthplace - has held a race named in his honor since 1990.[23]
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