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Articles on Barney Oldfield





 

Barney Oldfield is a kind of Davy Crockett of the 20th Century. Born in a log cabin in 1878, Oldfield was part of a generation growing up in the new industrial age. A risk taker fascinated with bicycles and automobiles, Barney understood the working class because he was one of them. This was essential to his marketplace success combining motor sport and entertainment. Simplistic analysis derides him as a huckster barnstormer with limited talent. While his performance record falls short of his chief rival and the giant talent of the day, Ralph DePalma, Oldfield was a top challenger of the times. Some career highlights: Barney was the only major figure in the sport to continue to race from 1902 through World War I. He not only survived, but prospered. Much of this material came from Barney's scrapbook, which was not well organized. I will continue to sort through the content for better presentation. As a point of interest, the only biography on Barney Oldfield is William Nolan's "Barney Oldfield, The Life and Times of America's Speed King," available at Brown Fox Books.
Barney Oldfield Scrapbook Overview
Oldfield 1906
Oldfield Suicide Attempt
Barney Oldfield and Lincoln Beachey
Barney Oldfield Autobiography - Saturday Evening Post
Barney Oldfield's 1910 Land Speed Record
Oldfield's Late Career
Barney Oldfield and the Indy 500
Oldfield - Petersen Collection
Various Oldfield Races & Items
Tom Cooper


