Barney Oldfield - The Life and Times of America's Legendary Speed King

Author: William F. Nolan, ISBN: 9781888978124, Hardcover, Published by Brown Fox Books in 2002

Berna Eli Oldfield (Barney) was America’s most flamboyant race driver. He took part in over one-thousand race meets between 1902 and 1918. The machines he drove included Henry Ford’s ‘999’, Alexander Winton’s ‘Bullet’, the Peerless ‘Green Dragon’ and the 200 hp German racer they labeled the ‘Blitzen Benz’ and Harry Miller’s Golden Submarine.

Oldfield commanded thousands of dollars for race appearances. He wore a diamond pinky ring and a sealskin coat. He raced his cars against planes and played chicken with trains, barnstormed the county fairs, and brawled in saloons. He was the first man to go faster than a-mile-minute on a dirt oval. He set records at the dirt tracks and on the beach, raced the road courses and circled the banked board and brick tracks with the fastest of the era. In this full-bodied, colorful account, William F. Nolan superbly recreates the flavor and raw tempo of early-day America when Barney Oldfield was called the Speed King of the World.