October 12, 1949. four passengers in a Beechcraft single engine plane crashed on take off from a private airstrip off Hauppauge Road. The pilot was Willard (Bill) Holland. Holland was a racecar drier from PA, who won the Indianapolis 500 the same year as this crash and came in second in 1947, 1949 and 1950. Holland’s father was major league baseball player Willard Holland. Holland retired in 1965 with over 40 sprint car wins and 150 podiums. Holland was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 1983 and died from the disease on May 19. 1984.He was inducted into the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame in 2005.
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