Vanderbilt Cup Races

Great photo Greg! Never seen this one before.

From Mystery Foto #27 Solved: Tommy Zinzi policing the Motor Parkway in front of the Meadow Brook Lodge

I don’t think that cars of that era could go very fast in the mud on Wheeler Road. That may have saved lives too. Driver behavior hasn’t changed in a century unfortunately.

From Kleiner's Korner: The Dangerous Intersection of Wheeler Road and the Motor Parkway

Yes Al! And Elsie Janis was his mechanician.

From Greg O.'s Garage: From the Helck Family Collection- Barney Oldfield and the "Green Dragon"

Guess what ?.... Barney Oldfield did race the the Golden Dragon in 1906 for the “Vanderbilt Cup”

From Greg O.'s Garage: From the Helck Family Collection- Barney Oldfield and the "Green Dragon"

Photo of Joe Tracy and Al Poole at the start of the NY - Philadelphia endurance test mentioned above using denatured alcohol.  This comment follows one of Sam Berliner’s last entries (if not his final one) on vanderbiltcupraces.com prior to his passing.

From Kleiner's Korner: A 1907 Vanderbilt Cup Race Entry

Mystery Foto #26… The race car is a 1908 Mitchell as driven by F. Zirbes in the 1908 Jericho Sweepstakes. This race for cars costing between $1001 and $2000. The date of the race is October 10, 1908. Official second from left could be Willy K.

From Mystery Foto #26 Solved : The J18 Mitchell racer driven by Frank Zirbes at the Start Line

Al,
Barney absolutely raced Vanderbilt at Ormond in 1904. Willie K. lost.

https://www.vanderbiltcupraces.com/blog/article/the_dawn_of_speed_when_willie_k_raced_barney_oldfield

From Greg O.'s Garage: From the Helck Family Collection- Barney Oldfield and the "Green Dragon"

Howard, I think I know why Oldfield did not initially race in any of the Vanderbilt Cup events. He was a “track racer”, not a “road” racer, different set of skills .  Re. Indy-Bridgehampton.

From Greg O.'s Garage: From the Helck Family Collection- Barney Oldfield and the "Green Dragon"

Howard, Did Barney “race ” against Vanderbilt at Daytona at one point ?

From Greg O.'s Garage: From the Helck Family Collection- Barney Oldfield and the "Green Dragon"

Great find, Howard. As you know, I have researched Barney’s career extensively and have to say there is a lot of content in here that I did not know of before.

From Greg O.'s Garage: From the Helck Family Collection- Barney Oldfield and the "Green Dragon"

Thank you for posting such a wonderful piece of history for us to enjoy

From Greg O.'s Garage: From the Helck Family Collection- Barney Oldfield and the "Green Dragon"

Best magazine on the subject I’ve ever read! I devoured every word. Each issue is a treasure. They will remain in my library. Thank you Richard

From Highlights from Crankshaft #2- This is not your father's car magazine

That’s the J18 Mitchell racer with F. Zirbes driving at the start of the Jericho Sweepstakes on October 10, 1908. I think one of the officials is Fred Wagner and another could be Jefferson DeMont Thompson.

From Mystery Foto #26 Solved : The J18 Mitchell racer driven by Frank Zirbes at the Start Line

I have seen these booklets on ebay over the years, very rarely, and very, very expensive to purchase.  Thank you for posting.

From Greg O.'s Garage: From the Helck Family Collection- Barney Oldfield and the "Green Dragon"

The first few years of the Vanderbilt Cup, no American car had a chance of beating the Europeans.  And I doubt the Europeans would have any reason to put Barney in one of their cars.  They had Grand Prix champions to chose from. So maybe Barney had no desire to harm his reputation by taking a chance on the race.  Also, American entries in the Cup were allowed to engage European drivers, and some did.

From Greg O.'s Garage: From the Helck Family Collection- Barney Oldfield and the "Green Dragon"

Salt Lake race may be mis-dated, unless real busy Dec.13, 1904.
Explains chronological question.

Fantastic document!  Thank you for sharing in its entirety.

From Greg O.'s Garage: From the Helck Family Collection- Barney Oldfield and the "Green Dragon"

Great article on a superb artifact - thanks Greg!

From Greg O.'s Garage: From the Helck Family Collection- Barney Oldfield and the "Green Dragon"

Two articles from 1938 pertaining to the opening of the Motor Parkway bike path in Queens.  Note that the flags in the photo match those shown in the original post and the cyclists appear to be the Girl Scouts of which the first article refers.  The uniforms also match two cyclists shown on the right side in the original photo. From the “NY Daily News” of June 15 and July 10, 1938.

From The Opening of the Motor Parkway Bike Path- July 9, 1938

The race was postponed until October 25 due to rain on the original date and was held on the Sheepshead Bay track.  Oldfield raced a 60 hp Knox with Johnson in a 90 hp Thomas Flier.

From Greg O.'s Garage: From the Helck Family Collection- Barney Oldfield and the "Green Dragon"

An example of Oldfield’s defiance of the established rules of the AAA was his race in 1910 against the world boxing champion, “negro” Jack Johnson (I’m using the term “negro” here as it appeared in the articles of the time). 

Here’s a video of the race in which Oldfield defeated Johnson (courtesy “firstsuperespeedway.com” and Mark Dill).

https://youtu.be/zrQWWgHZT7U

Note the incorrect date which shows 1911.  Also, as pointed out in this article from “firstsuperespeedway.com” Oldfield tried to make the moving pictures as entertaining as possible by making the race appear closer than it was by using the same clip over and over again. 

https://www.firstsuperspeedway.com/blog/oldfield-vs-jack-johnson

From Greg O.'s Garage: From the Helck Family Collection- Barney Oldfield and the "Green Dragon"