Barney Oldfield
American racing driver (1878-1946)
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.
Early life
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.
“Barney Oldfield” enters the record as american racing driver (1878-1946). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Barney, Oldfield and American can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q808483. VIAF identifies the subject as 13359423. The Library of Congress control number is n2002107608. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1878, 1946, 1905 and 1902.
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This entry incorporates text from “Barney Oldfield” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.