This category for the 1908 Briarcliff Road Race currently includes four files sourced from Barney Oldfield’s scrapbook and a few from local Indianapolis newspapers. The race was won by Lewis Strang in an Italian Isotta. The field was large for the day – 22 competitors in all, including: Ralph De Palma, George Robertson, Herb Lytle, Barney Oldfield and Emanuel Cedrino. Briarcliff proved to be the final road race for the Italian ace Cedrino, who was killed in his Fiat at Pimlico the following month.

Briarcliff Road Race 1908

Unfortunately this artifact is in very poor condition. It comes from Barney Oldfield's scrapbook which I understand was maintained by his father who frankly made a mess of it. The article is incomplete and virtually unreadable. It has a couple of interesting images but the useful feature is a scoring chart with cars, drivers, finishing order and laps completed all listed. There is some value here but it could have been so much more.
 
Briarcliff Road Race

This is a good article published just prior to the Briarcliff road race, probably in a paper local to the area. The byline (rare in 1908) was credited to a gentleman by the name of Charles Meegan. The information provided includes an entry list - very useful - as well as some notes about the tough terrain of the course and the tremendous level of interest in the community reflected by a strong turn out of spectators just for practice. A good drawing of a map of the course is also supplied.
Briarcliff - Strang's 1908 Victory

This set of articles were extracted from Barney Oldfield's personal scrapbook which was a bit of a disorganized mess. The articles in some cases are chopped off and therefore incomplete. I believe most were originally published in the New York American newspaper - a publication I believe Duncan Curry wrote for during this time period.

From LA to Phoenix - 1914
Twenty-two files document the Los Angeles to Phoenix off-road race of 1914. The winner was Barney Oldfield in the Stutz racer he also drove to fifth place in the 1914 Indianapolis 500. Other top drivers in the race included Louis Chevrolet, Cliff Durant, Louis Nikrent.

Cactus Derby Entry List

This content was recovered from Barney Oldfield's personal scrapbook, which is a very disorganized collection. While there is no record of the newspapers that originally published the articles, they are most likely from Los Angeles where the topic, the 1914 Los Angeles-to-Phoenix (Cactus Derby) off-road race.
 
Oldfield Cactus Derby at Barstow

This article was originally published on November 19, 1914, but the newspaper's name has been snipped from the clipping. The article was a part of Barney Oldfield's personal scrapbook and is in better shape than most of the material from that source.
 
Second Day of Cactus Derby

This article was originally published November 10, 1914, but the name of the newspaper was snipped from the clipping. The article describes the second day of the Los Angeles - to - Phoenix off road race, commonly referred to as the "Cactus Derby." The racers had ended the first leg of their endurance test at Needles, California where they spent the night refreshing themselves and their machines.
Riding on the Howdy Special

This peculiar article is dated November 14, 1910 but the newspaper name is snipped off the clipping, which occurred all too frequently with these excerpts from Barney Oldfield's personal scrapbook.
Firestone Celebrates Cactus Derby Victory

These are two brief articles summarizing the 1914 "Cactus Derby" (Los Angeless-to-Phoenix) off road race. Both articles ran in October 1914 and, I believe (but not certain) they appeared in the Los Angles Tribune.
Oldfield Writes of Cactus Derby Win

This content was extracted from Barney Oldfield's personal scrapbook. As with most of the material in the scrapbook, the organization is very poor but I am always grateful just to see it at all. There are four articles, not all of which were printed on the same day.
Broken, Muddy Cars Stumble to Finish

This content was extracted from Barney Oldfield's personal scrapbook. Included are two articles from daily newspapers, although the source was snipped from the clipping. Both were published on November 12, 1914. Unfortunately, neither article is complete. However, both contain interesting information about the finish of the 696 mile race. Bill Bramlette, driver of the number 19 Cadillac that finished fifth, drove the final few miles with a broken steering arm.