Rex Mays

Rex Houston Mays, Jr. (March 10, 1913 – November 6, 1949) is a former AAA Championship Car race driver from Riverside, California. He was a two-time AAA champion and won 8 points-scoring races.

He made his Indianapolis 500 debut in 1934 and won the pole in 1935, 1936, and again in 1940 and finished second, he returned the next year and finished second again. Mays won the AAA National Championship in 1940 and 1941. However, World War II suspended racing until 1946, denying Mays of what likely would have been the peak of his career. After the war, Mays again won the Indy pole in 1948 but was knocked out by a mechanical problem.

He was killed at the age of 36 in a crash during the only Champ Car race held at Del Mar Fairgrounds race track in Del Mar, California in November 1949. In this accident, Mays swerved to miss a car that had crashed in front of him. His car went out of control and flipped, throwing Mays to the track surface, where he was hit by a trailing car.

In a race at Milwaukee, a fellow driver, Duke Dinsmore, was thrown from his car during an incident in the south turn. Rex Mays was leading the race and saw Dinsmore's body lying in the middle of the south turn. Rex spun his car into the wall, got out of the car, and pulled the unconscious Duke Dinsmore to safety. Because of his selfless heroic action, the June race at the Milwaukee Mile was named the "Rex Mays Classic" (from 1950 to 1987).^[1]

In addition, the road racing course just outside his hometown of Riverside held, from 1967 to 1969, a 300-mile Indianapolis-car event called the Rex Mays 300.

Career awards

• He was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 1995.
• Mays was inducted in the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame in the first class in 1990.

Indianapolis 500 results

Year Car Start Qual Rank Finish Laps Led Retired 1934 35 23 113.639 15 23 53 0 Front axle 1935 33 1 120.736 1 17 123 89 Spring shackle 1936 33 1 119.644 1 15 192 12 Out of gas 1937 14 23 119.968 10 33 24 0 Overheating 1938 8 3 122.845 5 28 45 16 Supercharger 1939 15 19 126.413 7 16 145 1 Rings 1940 33 1 127.850 1 2 200 59 Running 1941 1 2 128.301 2 2 200 38 Running 1946 1 14 128.861 2 30 26 3 Manifold 1947 9 20 124.412 7 6 200 0 Running 1948 5 1 130.577 2 19 129 36 Fuel leak 1949 5 2 129.552 4 25 48 12 Engine Totals 1385 266

Starts 12 Poles 4 Front Row 7 Wins 0 Top 5 2 Top 10 3 Retired 9

References

1. "Rex Mays, Historic, Class of 1995". Motorsports Hall of Fame.

External links

• Rex Mays at The Greatest 33
• Rex Mays at Champ Car Stats
• Indy's unluckiest legends: Part 1 - Racer, Robin Miller, 20 May 2013