1949 – Holland Realizes His Life’s Ambition in Winning 500-Miler

Indianapolis 500 winner Bill Holland receives the winner’s kiss from movie star Linda Darnell in victory lane.

Indianapolis, Ind. (May 30, 1949) – Bill Holland said today that he reached his life’s ambition by winning the 500-mile race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

“It took me a long time to get here, “Holland said, “but I made it.”

The former roller-skating champion who came in second to teammate Mauri Rose both in 1947 and 1948 also gave a lot of credit to Lou Moore, designer, and owner of the car, mentioning, “it was a marvelous piece of machinery,” and that he just kept pouring it on until he saw the checkered flag.

Holland, kissed repeatedly by motion picture star Linda Darnell, who also presented the winner’s trophy, said he wasn’t at all sure he had won until he saw the checkered flag being waved by starter Seth Klein.

“You just don’t take chances at the 500,” he said. “I had some trouble with the engine and couldn’t go nearly as fast on the straightaways, but I made up for it in the turns.”

This was Holland’s third attempt to grab the pot o’ gold at the end of the grueling 200-lap contest. He was leading Rose in the ’47 race when the pint-sized engineer from South Bend roared past him in the last few laps to beat him out.

Holland said now he’ll head back to Reading, Penn., and look after his roller-skating rinks.

“But I’ll be back next year,” he concluded.


Results –

1. Bill Holland
2. Johnnie Parsons
3. George Conner
4. Myron Fohr
5. Joie Chitwood
6. Jimmy Jackson
7. Johnny Mantz
8. Paul Russo
9. Walt Brown/Emil Andres
10.Norm Houser
11.Jim Rathmann
12.Troy Ruttman
13.Mauri Rose
14.Duane Carter
15.Duke Dinsmore
16.Mack Hellings
17.Bill Sheffler
18.Johnny McDowell
19.Hal Cole
20.Mel Hansen/George Fonder
21.Bill Cantrell
22.Jackie Holmes
23.Lee Wallard
24.Bayliss Levrett
25.Rex Mays
26.Jack McGrath
27.Fred Agabashian
28.Manuel Ayulo
29.Duke Nalon
30.Sam Hanks
31.Charles Van Acker
32.George Lynch
33.Spider Webb