The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-12-15
AUTO RACING
IS HARD GAME
0ldtieId Tells of Some of His
Wild Experiences on
Track.
MENACE TO SPECTATORS
FUN ON STRAIGHTAWAY, BUT
DANGEROUS ON CURVES.
MENACE TO SPECTATORS

That the racing game is DO 'cinch' is
a certainty, for Barney Oldheld. long
regarded as Americas premier mile-a-
minute mOtorist. has gone on record
as declaring the sport a menace 10 the
safety OF ali contestants on oval
tracks. Barney was found at the au-
tomObile show last week in a Retro
spective mood and was asked for an
opinion on the racing subject. which
was given a thorough airing by the A.
A. 4. officials Friday at their session
in The First Regiment armOry.
I tell you, the racing game is no
''cinch,' said Oldfield. sixty miles an
hour is fun when you're on a straight
away with a clear road ahead-bat
when you get on a half-mile or mile
oval, it's hard game to play. DID
you ever think that the turn Of a halE-
mile oval is no sharper that making as
wide d turn as you can on an ordinary
street? And a driver thinks he's going
some when he takes a corner at fifteen
or twenty miles an hour. Now, think
Of going four times as fast around the
same corner and you'll begin TO real
lze what you are up against when you
hit the racing game
Sensation Hard to Describe.
IT'S pretty hard to describe the
sensation, but as near as I can come
to It it is this: When I was a boy we
had a swing hung from a big elm
with ropes about fifty feet long. or
TO one side was another tree which
came just right for our purpose, and
we built a platform right I'D IN the
top. We'd get up there and haul up
the swing board with a kite line Then
wee Unfasten the line and one OF us
would get in while the others would
hold the board. Then, one-two-
three, and what seemed an endless
drop off into space. Then Up-up--up,
with the earth dropping away. An in
stant halt and then down again.
IT'S the same sensation in racing.
only different-if that means any
thing. And in a race the sensation
isn't all, either-yOu've got TO think
quick almost every second. To make
time you've got TO give her a hitch
and pull her up quick to start her
skidding fifty or a hundred feet be
fore you get to the turn. Then the
car slides around easy.
Must Guess Right.
IF you don't guess right or any
thing goes wrong, it's ninety to one
that it's going TO be case of wooden
Overcoat and Don't ne look natural
4 mere , the GNEf-pFeSeuI OLner IellON-
tOo-and the dust-and a thousand and
one complications. I've had two or
three accidents and got out more by
luck than good sense, and each one
was caused by tire getting ripped OFF
the rim or blowing Up on me
About three years ago I got wise
TO a new equipment that looked good
to me. My detachable tire has a
piano wire tape vulcanized in the base
TO keep it from stretching, and that
bunch Of wire has got to break before
the tire can be forced off That looked
right. And the universal rim looked
right, too, and I put the equipment on
my Green Dragon.
That was three years ago, and it's
a fact, boys, that I haven't had a tire
come of or a single blowout since
and the old Dragon has cut through
the air at a pretty lively clip on sew
eral hundred occasions during that
time