Rex Houston Mays Jr. (March 10, 1913 – November 6, 1949) was a AAA

Championship Car American open-wheel car racing, also known as Indy car racing, is a category of professional automobile racing in the United States. As of 2022, the top-level American open-wheel racing championship is sanctioned by IndyCar. Competitive event ...

race driver. He was a two-time AAA champion and won 8 points-scoring races. He made his

Indianapolis 500 The Indianapolis 500, formally known as the Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, and commonly called the Indy 500, is an annual automobile race held at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) in Speedway, Indiana, United States, an enclave suburb of Indi ...

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 World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

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 The Del Mar Fairgrounds is a event venue in Del Mar, California. The annual San Diego County Fair is held here, which was called the Del Mar Fair from 1984 to 2001. In 1936, the Del Mar Racetrack was built by the Thoroughbred Club with foundin ...

race track in

Del Mar, California Del Mar (; Spanish for "Of the Sea") is a beach town in San Diego County, California, located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean. Established in 1885 as a seaside resort, the city incorporated in 1959. The Del Mar Horse Races are hosted on the De ...

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 J. Carlyle "Duke" Dinsmore (April 10, 1913 – October 13, 1985) was an American racecar driver. Complete AAA/USAC Championship Car results Indianapolis 500 results * Shared drive with Rodger Ward and Andy Linden. Dinsmore drove ten ...

, 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 The Milwaukee Mile is a oval race track in the central United States, located on the grounds of the Wisconsin State Fair Park in West Allis, Wisconsin, a suburb west of Milwaukee. Its grandstand and bleachers seats approximately 37,000 spectato ...

was named the "Rex Mays Classic" (from 1950 to 1987). 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 The Motorsports Hall of Fame of America (MSHFA) is hall of fame that honors motorsports competitors and contributors from the United States from all disciplines, with categories for Open Wheel, Stock Cars, Powerboats, Drag Racing, Motorcycles, Sp ...

Rex Mays
at the

in 1995. *Mays was inducted in the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame in the first class in 1990.

Complete AAA Championship Car results

Indianapolis 500 results

References

External links

Rex Mays at The Greatest 33

Indy's unluckiest legends: Part 1
- Racer, Robin Miller, 20 May 2013 1913 births 1949 deaths AAA Championship Car drivers Champ Car champions Indianapolis 500 drivers Indianapolis 500 polesitters National Sprint Car Hall of Fame inductees Sportspeople from Riverside, California Racing drivers from California Racing drivers who died while racing Sports deaths in California {{US-autoracing-bio-stub