Raymond Mays

{{short description|British racing driver (1899–1980)}} thumb|Mays racing a plane at Skegness Sands, 1923 {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2025}} {{Use British English|date=May 2015}}

'''Thomas Raymond Mays''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|CBE}} (1 August 1899 – 6 January 1980) was an auto racing driver and entrepreneur from Bourne, Lincolnshire, England.

He attended Oundle School, where he met Amherst Villiers, leaving at the end of 1917. After army service in the Grenadier Guards in France, he attended Christ's College, Cambridge, taking his first win at Brooklands while an undergraduate.

==Racing career==

Mays was one of the principal people behind the development of the motor racing stables of English Racing Automobiles (ERA) and British Racing Motors (BRM). The workshops of each firm were established, in turn, behind the family home on Eastgate Road in Bourne.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://au.motorsport.com/f1/news/british-team-brm-full-story/4793015/ |title=The shambles, success and demise of Britain's first big F1 team |website=motorsport.com |date = 17 May 2020 |access-date=29 January 2023}}</ref> thumb|Mays losing a wheel during the Caerphilly Hill Climb, 1924 Mays raced for some thirty years, competing in various cars: a Speed-model 1½-litre Hillman,<ref>''Motor Sport'', December 1941, Page 488.</ref> two 1½-litre Bugattis, an unsuccessful supercharged AC,<ref>''The Brooklands Gazette'', June 1925, Page 467; ''The Brooklands Gazette'', July 1925, Page 22.</ref> the Vauxhall-Villiers, Mercedes, Invictas, Rileys and ERAs.<ref>''Motor Sport'', Sept 1951, Page 449.</ref> Mays was renowned for competing at Shelsley Walsh, racing there in the early 1920s with a pair of Brescia 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.{{cn|date=September 2021}}

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."<ref>''Motor Sport'', December 1941, Page 489.</ref> He broke the hill record and this innovation was widely copied in the years to come.{{cn|date=September 2021}}

Mays made his mark on the track in such events as the 1935 German Grand Prix (scene of a famous victory of Tazio Nuvolari), sharing his ERA with Ernst 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 in Bourne 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 of Dick Seaman to take the chequered flag.

Mays was one of ERA's most notable drivers, winning the British Hill Climb Championship in its first two years, 1947 and 1948 and also the Brighton Speed Trials in 1946, 1947, 1948 and 1950 in his black ERA R4D. Mays was initially entered in the first ever Formula One World Championship race, the 1950 British Grand Prix, but his registration was cancelled before the start of the event.<ref>{{cite web |title=Britain 1950 – Result • STATS F1 |url=https://www.statsf1.com/en/1950/grande-bretagne/classement.aspx |access-date=15 December 2023 |website=www.statsf1.com}}</ref> 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,<ref>''BRM: A Mechanic's Tale'' by Dick Salmon, Veloce, 2007, Page 51.</ref> including an alloy cylinder head designed by Mays's ERA and BRM associate Peter Berthon.<ref>''The Times'', 20 January 1971: Peter Berthon report of death.</ref> These parts were fitted to Ford, A.C., and Reliant cars. Mays described these events and others to Roy Plomley in ''Desert Island Discs'' on 25 October 1969. Mays wrote three books, ''Split Seconds'', ''BRM'' and ''At Speed''.

== In popular culture == The 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 album ''Instant Trouble''.<ref>{{cite web |last=Rédaction |first=La |date=22 October 2023 |title=Roadrunners – Instant Trouble |url=https://www.rollingstone.fr/roadrunners-instant-trouble/ |access-date=25 November 2023 |website=Rolling Stone |language=fr-FR}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Roadrunners – Instant Trouble (1993) |url=http://www.desoreillesdansbabylone.com/2023/10/roadrunners-instant-trouble-1993.html |access-date=25 November 2023}}</ref> The Wetherspoons pub in Bourne is named after him.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.jdwetherspoon.com/pubs/all-pubs/england/lincolnshire/the-raymond-mays |title=The Raymond Mays |website=jdwetherspoon.com |access-date=20 July 2024}}</ref>

==Racing record== thumb|Motor Racing Memorial in Bourne<ref>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.</ref> ===Complete European Championship results=== (key) (Races in '''bold''' indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap) {| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; font-size:85%" ! Year ! Entrant ! Chassis ! Engine ! 1 ! 2 ! 3 ! 4 ! 5 ! 6 ! 7 ! {{Tooltip|EDC|European Drivers' Championship}} ! Pts |- | 1935 ! nowrap| H. W. Cook ! nowrap| ERA B ! nowrap| ERA 2.0 L6 | MON | FRA | BEL |style="background:#CFCFFF;"| GER Ret | SUI | ITA | ESP ! 29th ! 53 |- | 1939 ! nowrap| Automobiles Talbot-Darracq ! nowrap| Talbot MC ! nowrap| Talbot 4.5 L6 | BEL |style="background:#FFCFCF;"| FRA Ret | GER | SUI | | | ! 30th ! 31 |- !colspan=13|{{center|{{small|Source:<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.goldenera.fi/main.htm|title=THE GOLDEN ERA – OF GRAND PRIX RACING|work=goldenera.i|access-date=24 September 2025|archive-date=6 June 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110606091347/http://www.kolumbus.fi/leif.snellman/main.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref>}}}} |}

==References== {{reflist}}

==Bibliography==

* ''Split Seconds: My Racing Years'' by 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. *{{cite book | author=Kenny, Paul |title=The Man Who Supercharged Bond: The Extraordinary Story of Charles Amherst Villiers | location=Sparkford | publisher=Haynes Publishing | year=2009 | type = Hardback | isbn= 978-1-84425-468-2}} *[https://porterpress.co.uk/collections/great-cars-series/products/era-r4d-the-autobiography-of-r4d ERA R4D - The Autobiography of R4D by Mac Hulbert]

==External links== * [http://www.bourne-lincs.org.uk The Bourne web site] * [http://www.thehodgkinsons.org.uk/ERA-RM-timeline.htm Raymond Mays history site] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20090624013152/http://www.bournecivicsociety.org.uk/exhibitions.htm The Raymond Mays Room] * Photograph from 1956 on flickr: [https://www.flickr.com/photos/martin97uk/86419458/in/pool-973937@N20] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20120417133046/http://boar.org.uk/abiwxo3TWMays1.htm T W Mays & Son Limited, Bourne]

{{s-start}} {{s-sports}} {{succession box|title=British Hill Climb Champion |before=None |after=Sydney Allard |years=1947–1948}} {{s-end}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mays, Raymond}} Category:1899 births Category:1980 deaths Category:People from Bourne, Lincolnshire Category:People educated at Oundle School Category:Alumni of Christ's College, Cambridge Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Category:English racing drivers Category:Brooklands people Category:British hillclimb drivers Category:Brighton Speed Trials people Category:European Championship drivers Category:Formula One team owners Category:Grand Prix drivers Category:Military personnel from Lincolnshire Category:British Army personnel of World War I Category:Grenadier Guards soldiers Category:20th-century English sportsmen