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Rex Mays

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Name
  
Rex Mays


Role
  
Race car driver

Rex Mays RexMaysjpg



Born
  
March 10, 1913 (age 36) Riverside, California, United States

Died
  
November 16, 1949 (aged 36) Del Mar, California, United States

Similar
  
Ted Horn, Mauri Rose, Wilbur Shaw

Rex mays fatal


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.

Contents

Rex Mays Bio International Motorsports Hall of Fame

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.

Rex Mays 40 Years Ago The 1974 Rex Mays 150 at the Milwaukee Mile

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.

Rex Mays uniquecarsandpartscomimageshistorydriversRex

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).

Rex Mays History The Grim Death of Rex Mays The HAMB

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.

Rex Mays Motor Sports

1964 Rex Mays Classic at Milwaukee


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.
  • References

    Rex Mays Wikipedia


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