Raced with only one leg after a crash in 1936, but died in an AAA sprint car race at Allentown. Bill's father ran a garage and Bill learnt to tinker with the cars but his mother and father both died before Bill was sixteen. A few years later, Schindler started racing in dirt-track events and especially in midgets, where he had immense success. Bill suffered more tragedy shortly after losing his leg, when his sister died of tuberculosis, which his wife then contracted, spending many years in hospital. Despite all this, and looking after his two children, he carried on racing, as well as working as a machinist during the war. Schindler then became an inspirational figure, because of World War Two, because he both counselled and inspired new amputees from the War, continuing to race at a high level despite disability. Sadly, the family would suffer more tuberculosis based tragedy after Bill's death - son Robert died, only in his 50's, in 1989, from tuberculosis in the spine.

Biography last updated 7 Aug 2015