Billy Wile Killed at Greensboro Racetrack, March 19, 1922

Billy Wile Killed in Race. . . Car of Columbia Speedster Turns Over With Fatal Result

Greensboro, March 18—Crushed horribly by a big Essex racer which turned over in the first lap of the first race here this afternoon, Billy Wile of Columbia, S.C., the driver, was picked up and rushed to a local hospital to die two hours later.

When the speedster, bunched with two others, going nearly 60 miles an hour, catapulted in the air at wicked turn in the track, hurling Frank Brown, mechanician, 20 feet and mangling Wile beneath it, the 3,000 people in the grandstand gave one mighty composite scream. In a moment’s lull as the realization of the tragedy sank in, a woman clutched the fence screeched and fainted, dropping like a rag. As the crowd attempted to reach the track bedlam reigned. A waiting ambulance on the edge of the track sailed slowly the course, and the undertaker in it was first man to pick up the broken bundle of bruised humanity, rushing it to a hospital.

The three cars, the Essex, a Vaughn-Dusenbery, driven by Jack Cottrell of Newark, N.J., and a French Peguot with Lewis Marino of Columbia S.C., at the wheel were struggling for the lead at the end of the curve. Wile and Cottrell were hub and hub, with Marino just behind. At the turn Marino swept into line with the others, running wide and close to the outside fence. The Vaughn spurted in the lead. At the end of the curve Wile swerved his car in an effort to avoid a hole. The Peguot was blocking is path and he tried to turn. The machine went into the air, turning completely over.

After holding back for the turn the three drivers were speeding up. The Essex righted itself after the somersault, rolled over on Wile and then flung him like a bundle of straw against the wire fence. He never moved and though every effort was made to save his life at the hospital, he never regained consciousness.

He leaves a wife and three children in Columbia. He was 25 years old. The receipts from the races, about $1,400, will be sent to his widow.

After he was carried to the city, and the crowd quieted, the races proceeded. In the next race an axle broke on the Vaughn driven by Cottrell but another was put on the races continued.

The accident somewhat dampened the spirits of the carnival crowd at the automobile show tonight, closing after five days, but a big crowd attended the show. A riot of merriment had been planned and the crowd was comparatively gay, but the effects of the tragedy served a little to quiet the merrymakers.

From The Charlotte News, Sunday morning, March 19, 1922