Bill
Holland

Bill Holland, whose full name was Willard Saulsbury Holland, was born in Philadelphia on 18 December 1907. From 1937 he began making his mark in big cars, now known as sprint cars. He took his first win in 1938, won the AAA Eastern Big Car championship in 1941 and finished fourth in the AAA national championship in 1946.

At the Indianapolis 500 he finished second in 1947, as a rookie, and again in 1948, then won the race in 1949. The Indianapolis 500 counted towards the Drivers' World Championship from 1950 to 1960, which gave Holland two World Championship starts. In 1950 he drove for Deidt and came second behind Johnnie Parsons when rain brought the race to an early end. It was his only podium, and he ended the season seventh in the championship. In 1953 he started for the second and last time in the championship, in a Kurtis Kraft.

In between, the AAA suspended him for a year in 1951 for taking part in a NASCAR race in Florida. Holland returned to Indy car racing in 1953 and kept racing until 1965. He was inducted into the Auto Racing Hall of Fame in 1992 and the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame in 2005. He died on 20 May 1984.

Source: Wikipedia, “Bill Holland”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.