Pulling at his black cigar, bending beside his steering wheel and with his engine going like a Japanese battery of rapid-fire guns, Barney Oldfield dashed around the track at Agricultural Park [the present Exposition Park] in 54 seconds flat yesterday afternoon, establishing a new record for that course.

When Barney came onto the track in the famous Green Dragon, the hearty reception he received proved that the people of the West were with him and appreciated his nerve in driving this death-dealing machine, which tears off the miles at such terrific speed, belching fire and smoke the while and making the air tremble with the explosions from its eight cylinders.

King Barney took one turn around the track to get warmed up, and as he shot under the wire, gave the timers a nod, showing that the race against time was on.

The Dragon hit the turn into the back stretch like a cyclone. Dashing forward at eighty feet a second [actually, about ninety-eight feet per second] and skidding many feet to one side, the intrepid

[The total time for the three laps was 2 minutes, 42 and one-fifth seconds. It was the final lap that was clocked at 54 seconds.]

[In another race, Oldfield was matched with] Frank Garbutt in his Stewart-Garbutt car, which was built in Los Angeles. The two machines, with their batteries exploding like Gatling guns, dashed around the oval so close together that many times there was no light between them.

Garbutt led for two miles and swept into the stretch of the last miles several yards to the good, but Barney called on his terrifying pet for an extra effort and the Green Dragon shot under the wire a winner.

The contestants continued the race for another two miles and broke about even. Owing to the fact that Garbutt understood the race was to be for five miles instead of three and drove accordingly, the heat will be run again today, and some records are likely to be smashed. . . .