1910 Massapequa Sweepstakes

Bill Endicott Wins in a Cole

Location: Nassau County, New York
Date: October 1, 1910

The field for the Massapequa Sweepstakes was a mere five cars and started 30 minutes after the Wheatley Hills race.  The race was for cars with engines of 161 to 230 cubic inches and they were to compete for 10 laps or a distance 126.4 miles.


Billy Knipper, who drove valiantly in the previous year’s Vanderbilt Cup Race, put his bright red Lancia, the only foreign car in the race, to good use. He leapt out to a minute lead over second place Bill Endicott’s Cole “30”  in the first lap.


The first lap was costly for Abbott-Detroit driver Vincent Padula, who hit a telegraph pole and added to the growing clutter of the Massapequa turn just after the Motor Parkway portion of the course.  Padula was hospitalized for injuries and his car was severely damaged.


Knipper steadily widened his lead through the seventh lap when he accumulated nearly a 10 minute margin. But the Massapequa turn collected another victim when Knipper overshot the corner and slammed into another telegraph pole.  For the second time in a week, Knipper and mechanician, August Guishard, who were involved in a practice scrap with Bob Burman, were abruptly launched from the seats of their Lancia. This time the landing wasn’t so easy on Knipper, who broke a leg in the fall.  Adding to the event’s growing list of casualties, another spectator, Morris Levinson, was struck by the Lancia and suffered a broken leg as well

.
With Knipper gone, Bill Endicott in the Cole “30” won by nearly 5 minutes over an Abbott-Detroit handled by Mortimer Roberts. A second Cole “30” driven by Louis Edmunds finished third. Endicott’s winning time was 2 hours, 18 minutes, 4 seconds for a speed average of 54.9 miles per hour.