Des Moines Evening Tribune
July 26, 1915

ONE NEW RECORD AT FIRST MEETING ON THE SPEEDWAY

Barney Oldfield Spins Around Track for Five Miles at Hundred Miles an Hour.

BIG CROWD SEES SPEED DEMONS RUN

De Loyd Thompson in Tangoing Aeroplane Contributes Some Multiple Thrills.

Barney Oldfield hung up one new world's record yesterday in the opening event of the new Des Moines Speedway. Driving his big 100 horsepower Fiat he made five miles in 3:01 4-5 or at an average of about 100 miles an hour, a record that surpasses all other exhibition runs, and whizzed around for two miles with De Loyd Thompson's byplane a bare twenty-five feet over his head and the propeller fanning his back. No time was kept on the novelty race.

Seven Thousand See It.

About 7,000 race fans witnessed the opening of the new Speedway. Threatening weather probably kept away as many more. The programme which had been arranged for the afternoon was entirely too long to be completed and several numbers had to be omitted. The first one was a run by Oldfield, who in his first time on the track after one lap to test it, made two miles in 1:10 1-5, or at the rate of 103 miles an hour.

Thompson in his aeroplane was the hit of the day and startled the spectators with performances that Art Smith will have a hard time outdoing when he comes here for the state fair. He looped the loop, flew upside down, did his "tango in the skies" and dropped bombs on a scenic fort.

O'Donnell Does It Fast.

O'Donnell, who was scheduled to make a try at the 100 mile record yesterday, had to content himself with a ten mile ride because of the lateness of the hour when his turn of the programme came around. He did his riding in a hurry when he did get started and covered the first five miles in 3:20. He clipped four seconds off of this for the last five, making the ten miles in 6:36 or at nearly ninety-two miles per hour.

The motorcycles went off at about eighty-three and one-half miles an hour for both the two and three mile events. This time was not especially fast. Larry Fleckenstein of Denver, holder of the world's motorcycle speed record, won the two mile race. Hay Ward of Los Angeles won the three mile. The other cyclists were Dave Kinney of Los Angeles, Roy Shaw of Brooklyn, George Myers of Los Angeles and Burt Burgerman of Denver.

Those of the entrants in the big race who now are here are: A.F. Scott, who will drive an Anderson Special; Chandler and O'Donnell, each of whom will tool Duesenbergs; Bob Burman, who will drive a Peugot; Strunk, the White pilot, and Joe Cooper, who has entered a Sebring. Ralph DePalma, who won the Indianapolis race, will arrive today, and it is expected that Ralph Mulford, who will drive a Duesenberg, also will get to Des Moines before this evening.

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