Thomas Raymond MaysCBE(1 August 1899 – 6 January 1980) was an auto racing driver and entrepreneur fromBourne, Lincolnshire,England.
He attendedOundle School,where he metAmherst Villiers,leaving at the end of 1917. After army service in theGrenadier Guardsin France, he attendedChrist's College, Cambridge,taking his first win at Brooklands while an undergraduate.
Racing career
editMays was one of the principal people behind the development of the motor racing stables ofEnglish Racing Automobiles(ERA) andBritish Racing Motors(BRM). The workshops of each firm were established, in turn, behind the family home on Eastgate Road in Bourne.[1]
Mays raced for some thirty years, competing in various cars: a Speed-model 1½-litre Hillman,[2]two 1½-litreBugattis,an unsuccessful superchargedAC,[3]the Vauxhall-Villiers, Mercedes,Invictas,Rileys and ERAs.[4]Mays was renowned for competing atShelsley Walsh,racing there in the early 1920s with a pair ofBrescia Bugattis,known as 'Cordon Bleu' and 'Cordon Rouge'. He developed his cars with superchargers through Amherst Villiers and this association continued from AC to the Vauxhall-Villiers and then the famous'White Riley',that eventually became the starting point for ERA.[citation needed]
In 1929, Raymond Mays entered the Vauxhall-Villiers at Shelsley Walsh fitted with twin rear wheels; according to Mays "the first time that any car had competed at any hill climb so equipped."[5]He broke the hill record and this innovation was widely copied in the years to come.[citation needed]
Mays made his mark on the track in such events as the1935 German Grand Prix(scene of a famous victory ofTazio Nuvolari), sharing his ERA withErnst von Delius.The ribbon which came with the wreath which was part of the prize for this event is to be seen at the Raymond Mays room inBourne Heritage Centre.Reflecting on his career in his 1969 Desert Island Discs appearance, he considered his favourite race to be his victory earlier in the same year in the voiturette class of the Eifelrennen, beating such entries as the private ERA ofDick Seamanto take the chequered flag.
Mays was one of ERA's most notable drivers, winning theBritish Hill Climb Championshipin its first two years, 1947 and 1948 and also theBrighton Speed Trialsin 1946, 1947, 1948 and 1950 in his blackERA R4D.Mays was initially entered in the first everFormula One World Championshiprace, the1950 British Grand Prix,but his registration was cancelled before the start of the event.[6]He stopped driving racing cars at the end of the 1950 season.
In the 1950s and 1960s Mays produced and marketed tuning equipment for British Ford four- and six-cylinder engines,[7]including an alloy cylinder head designed by Mays's ERA and BRM associate Peter Berthon.[8]These parts were fitted to Ford,A.C.,andReliantcars. Mays described these events and others toRoy PlomleyinDesert Island Discson 25 October 1969. Mays wrote three books,Split Seconds,BRMandAt Speed.
In popular culture
editThe famous picture of Mays losing a wheel at Caerphilly in 1924 was used by French alternative rock band Roadrunners for the cover of their 1993 albumInstant Trouble.[9][10] The Wetherspoons pub in Bourne is named after him.[11]
Racing record
editComplete European Championship results
edit(key) (Races inboldindicate pole position) (Races initalicsindicate fastest lap)
| Year | Entrant | Chassis | Engine | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | EDC | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1935 | H. W. Cook | ERAB | ERA2.0L6 | MON | FRA | BEL | GER Ret |
SUI | ITA | ESP | 29th | 53 |
| 1939 | Automobiles Talbot-Darracq | TalbotMC | Talbot4.5L6 | BEL | FRA Ret |
GER | SUI | 30th | 31 | |||
Source:[12]
| ||||||||||||
References
edit- ^"The shambles, success and demise of Britain's first big F1 team".motorsport.com.17 May 2020.Retrieved29 January2023.
- ^Motor Sport,December 1941, Page 488.
- ^The Brooklands Gazette,June 1925, Page 467;The Brooklands Gazette,July 1925, Page 22.
- ^Motor Sport,Sept 1951, Page 449.
- ^Motor Sport,December 1941, Page 489.
- ^"Britain 1950 - Result • STATS F1".www.statsf1.com.Retrieved15 December2023.
- ^BRM: A Mechanic's Taleby Dick Salmon, Veloce, 2007, Page 51.
- ^The Times,20 January 1971: Peter Berthon report of death.
- ^Rédaction, La (22 October 2023)."Roadrunners – Instant Trouble".Rolling Stone(in French).Retrieved25 November2023.
- ^"Roadrunners - Instant Trouble (1993)".Retrieved25 November2023.
- ^"The Raymond Mays".jdwetherspoon.com.Retrieved20 July2024.
- ^"THE GOLDEN ERA – OF GRAND PRIX RACING".kolumbus.fi.Archived fromthe originalon 6 June 2011.Retrieved11 October2017.
Bibliography
edit- Split Seconds: My Racing Yearsby Raymond Mays "ghosted" by Dennis May, G.T. Foulis & Co. Ltd. 1951. 306 pages.
- B.R.M.by Raymond Mays and Peter Roberts. (Cassell & Co. Ltd., 35, Red Lion Square, London W.C.1. 30s.) 1962. 240 pages.
- Kenny, Paul (2009).The Man Who Supercharged Bond: The Extraordinary Story of Charles Amherst Villiers(Hardback). Sparkford: Haynes Publishing.ISBN978-1-84425-468-2.
- ERA R4D - The Autobiography of R4D by Mac Hulbert
External links
edit- The Bourne web site
- Raymond Mays history site
- The Raymond Mays Room
- Photograph from 1956 on flickr:[1]
- T W Mays & Son Limited, Bourne
- ^The memorial stands alongside South Street and commemorates the 1999 motorcade of his cars through Bourne, which in turn, commemorated fifty years of the BRM, 65 years of the ERA and the centenary of Mays' birth.