Berna Eli "Barney" Oldfield (January 29, 1878 – October 4, 1946) was a pioneer American racing driver.

As the company's “mascot,” he was allowed to ride the big red hose wagon, pulled by a pair of horses that raced through the streets.

He started working with his father as a kitchen helper at the mental asylum during the day and a bellhop at the downtown hotel at night.

They wanted both to increase bicycle sales and draw more people to the town via the Michigan Lake Shore Railroad.

Other members of the Club included Fred Ballmeyer, Ora Brailey, Curt and Buff Harrison, Doc Myers, Emil Winzeler, Doc Miley, Frank Harper, Dan Raymond (who fixed everyone's bikes), Sid Black (a trick cyclist from Cleveland who later became president of the Packard Motor Company), and Barney Oldfield.

Through fellow racer Tom Cooper, he met entrepreneur Henry Ford, who was at the beginning of his career as an auto manufacturer in Michigan.

[9] Alexander Winton hired Oldfield as a professional driver and agreed to supply him with free cars for racing.

Oldfield, his manager Ernest Moross, and his agent Will Pickens traveled throughout the United States in a series of timed runs and match races, and he earned a reputation as a showman, racing while holding a cigar in his mouth to cushion the spot where he had broken some molar teeth in a crash.

[10] Oldfield was "the first American to become a celebrity solely for his ability to drive a car with great skill, speed, and daring.

At Daytona Beach, Florida, on March 16, 1910, in his Blitzen Benz, he set the world speed record, driving 131.724 mph, for which he earned the nickname “speed king.” Oldfield was suspended by the American Automobile Association (AAA) contest board for his "outlaw" racing, and was unable to race at sanctioned events for much of his career.

He made his career by being paid to set speed records and conduct match races and exhibitions.

In 1914, his agent Will Pickens staged a "Championship of the Universe", pitting Oldfield against another of his clients, aviator Lincoln Beachey.

His 1914 Indy finish was in an Indianapolis-built Stutz, and he was the highest-finishing driver in an American car in a race that was dominated by European brands.

Oldfield also finished second in two major road races that year, the Vanderbilt Cup and the Corona 300.

In November 1914, Oldfield won the Los Angeles-to-Phoenix Cactus Derby Race; the victor's medal proclaimed him “Master Driver of the World”.

He used the Blitzen Benz to break the existing mile, two-mile, and kilometer records at the Daytona Beach Road Course at Ormond, Florida.

He starred as himself in a racing film titled Blonde Comet, the story of a young woman trying to achieve success as a racecar driver.

Bob Burman, one of Oldfield's rivals and closest friends, was killed in a wreck during a race in Corona, California.

Oldfield and Harry Arminius Miller, who developed and built carburetors and was one of the most famous engine builders, worked after that to design a racecar that was not only fast and durable but would protect the driver in the event of an accident.