Mays, Rex
Auto Racing
b. 1913, Glendale, CA
d. Nov. 6, 1949
The tall, handsome, mustached Mays could have been a stand-in for Errol Flynn, and he drove race cars the way Flynn might have. He never won the Indianapolis 500, largely because his hard-charging style generally wore cars out before they could finish the race. He failed to finish at Indy in nine of his twelve starts, but he did place second in 1940 and 1941 and he was the fastest qualifier four times.
Mays began racing midget cars in California at eighteen. He was the Midwestern sprint car champion in 1936 and 1937 and won the national driving championship in 1940 and 1941. Paradoxically, Mays refused to wear a safety belt but was an outspoken advocate of driver safety and welfare. In 1946, he deliberately crashed his car into the wall at the Milwaukee Speedway to avoid hitting Duke Densmore, who had been thrown out of his car onto the track
Mays was killed in a crash at Del Mar, CA.