Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 February 1915 — BARNEY OLDFIELD TO RETIRE [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

BARNEY OLDFIELD TO RETIRE

Veteran of Automobile Speed Kings / Declares He fa Through With Sport—Loses His Nerve. Barney Oldfield, a veteran among the automobile speed kings both in road and track racing, has announced that he is through with the sport. The death of Spencer Wishart, one of his closest friends, in the Elgin national race has convinced him, he says, that the time is ripe for his retirement from the dangerous pastime he has followed so successfully for many years. This is not the first time Barney has

announced his retirement. He has always been unable to resist the fascination of high speed work, in spite of numberless narrow escapes from death. } "I’ve always thought I had a lot of nerve,” said Oldfield recently. “My friends have told me so, and the newspapers have written about Oldfield’s nerve. But I certainly was forced to a back seat one day. "It happened on a southern track, where I was carded as one of the fear tare drivers. The promoter, a big fellow with leather lungs, also acted as announcer during the races. "He would call out, through a megaphone, ‘Barney Oldfield Is now cranking his car,’ ‘Barney Oldfield la now efcntjgHifig a toe,’ and so on. , "After the face I rode back to the

city on a crowded street car and everybody was talking about the event. A couple of young fellows sat next to me and one exclaimed: “ ‘Gee, Oldfield has a lot of nerve, hasn’t he?' “ ‘Perhaps he has,’ said the other. ‘But he hasn’t half the nerve the promoter has in staging that kind of a race.’ ‘‘Needless to say, I didn’t divulge my identity.’’ *

Barney Oldfield.