Berna Eli "Barney" Oldfield (January 29, 1878 – October 4, 1946) was a pioneer American racing driver. His name was "synonymous with speed in the first two decades of the 20th century". He was the winner of the inaugural AAA National Championship in 1905.
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.
Oldfield was born in York Township, Fulton County, Ohio, near Wauseon and Toledo, on January 29, 1878, to Henry Clay Oldfield, a laborer, and his wife Sarah. He was named after his father's bunkmate in the 68th Ohio Volunteer Infantry during the American Civil War. He had a sister Bertha.
As of the 1880 United States census, the Oldfields lived in Wauseon. In 1889, they moved to Toledo, where Henry got a job at the state mental asylum. In the summer of 1891, Oldfield 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, Oldfield worked after school selling the Toledo Blade and Toledo 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 a bellhop 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 second 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 the Michigan 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 the Packard 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 the Ohio state championship. Although he came in second, the race was a turning point. Oldfield was hired as a parts sales representative for the Syracuse, New York, based Stearns bicycle factory. There he met Beatrice Lovetta Oatis, his future wife; they married in 1896.
By 1896, Oldfield was paid by Stearns to race on its amateur team.
Oldfield was loaned a gasoline-powered bicycle to race at Salt Lake City. Through fellow racer Tom Cooper, he met entrepreneur Henry Ford, who was at the beginning of his career as an auto manufacturer in Michigan. 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 the Henry 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. Oldfield won by a half mile in the five-mile (8 km) race. 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 for Franklin 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.
On June 20, 1903, at the Indiana State Fairgrounds, Oldfield became the first driver to run a mile track in one minute flat, or 60 miles per hour (97 km/h). Two months later, he drove one mile in 55.8 seconds at the Empire City Race Track in Yonkers, New York.
Alexander Winton hired Oldfield as a professional driver and agreed to supply him with free cars for racing. Oldfield, his manager Ernest 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. Oldfield was "the first American to become a celebrity solely for his ability to drive a car with great skill, speed, and daring." 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 bought a Benz,dubbed the "Blitzen Benz", and won first place at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on August 21, 1909. He raised his speed in 1910 to 70.159 mph (112.910 km/h) while driving his Benz. Later in 1910, Oldfield reached the speed of 131.25 mph (211.23 km/h). At Daytona Beach, Florida, on March 16, 1910, he set the world speed record in his Benz, driving 131.724 mph, for which he earned the nickname “speed king.”
Oldfield was suspended by the American 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, Oldfield's agent Will Pickens staged a "Championship of the Universe", pitting Oldfield against another of his clients, aviator Lincoln Beachey. Oldfield raced his Fiat car against Beachey's biplanes 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.