Abstract
Once auto racing was pushed to the track and manufacturers began becoming more involved in the sport, the door was open to the participation of working-class drivers. One of these in particular, Barney Oldfield, revolutionized the sport by introducing a new technique that allowed him to dominate track racing for the next decade. Oldfield exemplified the working-class values of his fans that conflicted with the elite ideals of the amateur gentlemen who governed racing. The racing authorities tried repeatedly to exclude Oldfield pushing him to be a racing “outlaw” but ultimately they could not keep him off the track due to his immense popularity.
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Notes
Motor World (New York), 5:5 (Oct. 30, 1902), p. 131; see also William F. Nolan, Barney Oldfield: The Life and Times of America’s Legendary Speed King (New York: G.F. Putnam’s Sons, 1961), esp. chapter 4.
See also Leo Levine, Ford: The Dust and the Glory, A Racing History, Vol. 1, 1901–1967 (Warrendale, PA: Society of Automotive Engineers, Inc., 2000), pp. 3–11.
The Automobile Review (Chicago), 5:3 (Sept. 19012), p. 52; Walter Wellman, “Faster than an Express Train,” McClure’s Magazine, Nov 1902, pp. 21–32; Automobile Topics (New York), 4:23 (Sept. 20, 1902), p. 1020.
Randal L. Hall, “Before NASCAR: The Corporate and Civic Promotion of Automobile Racing in the American South, 1903–1927,” The Journal of Southern History, 68:3 (Aug. 2002), pp. 629–668. Quotes, 638, 639.
Charles Jarrott, Ten Years of Motors and Motor Racing (New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1906), p. 96.
“Barney Oldfield, Who Draws No Line in His Game” and “Eliminate Negro Cause for Race,” Barney Oldfield Scrapbooks, LA84 Foundation Sports Library, Los Angeles, CA, vol. 1, p. 224 and p. 219, respectively. See Andrew Ritchie, Major Taylor: The Extraordinary Career of a Champion Bicycle Racer (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 1988), esp. pp. 54–59, 71–80.
“Olive Branch May be Waved,” Barney Oldfield Scrapbooks, LA84 Foundation Sports Library, Los Angeles, CA, vol. 2, p. 57. The Encyclopedia of Auto Racing Greats, Robert Cutter and Bob Fendell, eds (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1973), p. 578.
New York Times, June 26, 1915, p. 10; Michael Gianturco, “The Infinite Straightaway,” American Heritage of Invention and Technology (New York, NY, 1992), 8:2, pp. 34–41.
Mark S. Foster, Castles in the Sand: The Life and Times of Carl Graham Fisher (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2000).
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© 2014 Timothy Messer-Kruse
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Messer-Kruse, T. (2014). Outlaws. In: Tycoons, Scorchers, and Outlaws: The Class War That Shaped American Auto Racing. Palgrave Pivot, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137322517_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137322517_6
Publisher Name: Palgrave Pivot, New York
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