Greg O.‘s Garage: From the Helck Family Collection: Barney Oldfield on Ormond Beach in his own words
Peter Helck befriended Barney Oldfield while researching for a book in early 1945, shortly before Barney passed away the following year.
As correspondence grew during that time, Peter had also agreed to help Barney to recover some lost scrapbooks and albums from an unscrupulous writer who never wrote the Oldfield bio, nor returned Barney's belongings. Peter was successful at retrieving some of the items, and thus, their friendship grew closer.
Within some of the early correspondence was an interesting account of Barney's experience at the Ormond Beach races in 1904.
Greg O.
A gift to Peter for his help in retrieving some of his scrapbooks. A signed 8x10 with the note; "To my very good friend Peter Helck. You know me, Barney Oldfield"
This is one of the last known photos of Oldfield in May of 1946, just months before his passing of heart failure in October of that year.
Peter Helck's typed caption on the back of the photo.
On February 21st, 1945, Peter Helck wrote a letter introducing himself and requested information about his career. Barney's response letter immediately displays what a 'down-to-earth' gentleman Barney was at that point in his life. The first thing Barney mentioned was that "...it is rather awkward even to me to have anyone address me in letter or in person as 'Mr.', so in the future you can just cut out the formality."
He goes on to speak of the possible whereabouts of the Peerless Green Dragon, where Peter may obtain a booklet of the Green Dragon, George Robertson, and some of Barney's racing exploits early in his career.
Of course being a master promotor he was, he also got his plug in for the Oldfield tires used by Jimmy Murphy's winning Duesenberg in the 1921 Grand Prix at LeMans.
The second page he states he is pleased to hear that George Robertson is "among the living" after being under the impression he died some time ago.
In his usual closing of every correspondence or autographed photo, Barney always signed; "You know me, Barney Oldfield"
At the bottom, the heart-felt, hand-written postscript saying, "Please give my dear old friend Joe Tracy my very kindest regards and I hope he is enjoying the same good health I am."
Barney Oldfield's recollection of the 1904 Ormond Beach races
In 1904, Oldfield met the "Gentleman Drivers -Willie K. Vanderbilt- Foxhall Keene- W. Gould Brokaw- J. Breese- Sam B. Stevens etc. etc." to race in the sands of Ormond Beach for the first time. Barney was unable to compete with Vanderbilt during the time trials as his Winton Bullets arrived a day late. It was during the time trials that first day that Willie K. broke the world mile record with a time of 39 seconds flat. In Barney's words he confidently stated; "...I believe that the 8 cylinder Bullet would have gone better than :39 if I had a chance at the record trials."
After his Wintons arrived, his first race against the 'millionaires' was the one mile run in two heats. Willie K. won the first with a slow time, and Barney the second heat with a time of "...:43 and a fraction of seconds." thus giving Oldfield the pole for the final heat.
During the final heat, "...I got in between Stevens and Vanderbilt where I could watch Vanderbilt's gear shift, he was in 3rd gear and when he reached for his 4th gear I "gunned" my car and when we went across the starting line I was going some faster than he was, I won in 46 seconds, Vanderbilt did not finish the mile, so he got back to the official stand ahead of me and complained about professional jockyism."
Barney made mention of the trophies saying; "...they had some very beautiful and expensive trophies, however, the one mile International Championship was a sterling silver stein which I understand cost $100 HaHa."
For his second day, despite taking it easy in the first heat of a five mile contest, he broke his "rear crank shaft" at the 4 mile mark. He coasted over the finish line still winning his heat. Willie K. won his heat, but instead of appearing at the start against Willie K. in the final heat, he towed his broken car to the Daytona garage. Not believing he broke his car, the officials formed a committee headed by A.L. Riker to examine his Winton Bullet. They posted their findings on the bulletin board of the Ormond Hotel that Barney said "...a friend of mine stole their report from the board and I still have it somewhere in scrap books."
Aside from his Ormond narrative, the start of the letter stated Oldfield's desire to assist Peter in writing a biography of himself that had never come to be.
The Winton Bullet 2 with Oldfield at the helm and Charles Graham in Bullet #3 at Ormond in 1904.
Finally, his biography
Unfortunately he never saw it, but Barney Oldfield's biography was finally written in 1961. Not by Peter Helck, but by William F. Nolan.
W.F. Nolan was the son of Michael C. Nolan, one of Barney's contemporaries whom Barney saw off as an official pathfinder for the 2,111 mile Star Cup Tour and "...often clashed with Oldfield on the dirt tracks of Missouri."
Comments
It’s notable to add to this post that the committee that was convened to look into Oldfield’s broken Winton was not done so for arbitrary reasons. Oldfield, in his typical showmanship fashion, used this exact strategy in his many early races and exhibitions to stir up more excitement in the event with his ‘rigged’ exploits.
Was the Winton truly broken at Ormond that day? Being one of Barney’s buddies stole the report, we may never know!
Thanks Howard Kroplick and the VanderbiltCupRaces.com for sharing this information. I have the drafts of the biography Story by Varley P. Young @ Mars Inc. 919 N. Michigan Ave.,Chicago, IL. along with notes from Barney on this bio called The Barney Oldfield Story which was never finished. Never knew that Barneys scrap books were never returned. My Aunt Bessie had donated some scrap books to the Helms Hall of Fame which is now the LA84 Foundation https://la84.org/. Barney Oldfield, Master Driver of the World & America’s Legendary Speed King. Keeping American Automotive Racing History Alive!