Ted May Boat Racer, Mentor to Many!

[Ron Hill]

Maybe, I do live in the past...but I was thinking about Ted May, as I watched the Rose Bowl...Ted said he saw every football game they ever had at the LA Collisium, when he was a kid. He said they'd go sleep on top of the ****ters the night before the game, then they'd wake up and jump off the roof and watch the games. Now days, if you tried to sleep on top the the ****ters, they'd probably arrest you and call you a terrorist...

But Ted grew up at a time that was a good time to be a kid.....Ted was a kid for fifty years, maybe more..

He had these damn ducks, he always fed them day old bread....(It was cheaper than fresh bread) but Ted went to buy day old bread and the Helms Truck didn't have day old bread...So Ted said, "Well, I guess the duck's won't know if it is fresh bread.".... See, Ted thought they liked stale bread...

We were down in Alabama and we went to this carnival...they had some kind of gambling with shells and peas..... I'm clueless to what Ted is doing as I'm looking for young women.... Next thing I know Ted had taken this "CARNY" for $400 and the guy is yelling to get his money back...

Ernie Dawe and me haul out of there thinking Ted might get killed for winning $400... Ted tells us don't worry, to go back to the hotel...We go to the Go Kart track instead and race karts with Dick O'Dea....George Stillwell and others...

Next moring we see Ted and he tells us he picked up this girl from the islands... but he can't remember the name of the island.. He says it starts with a "J"... I say "JAMAICA"???? Ted says, "No I never kissed her..."

God did we love TED!!!

[Ron Hill]

Here is the Ted May I knew and loved.... Two beautiful ladies...one under each arm...Both of these beauties were from Sweden....Ted was a charmer in his days... Boat 45 is the boat Ted and I drove in the Six Hours of Paris, 1968.

[Ron Hill]

Around 1969, they were having "PARIS PEACE TALKS", trying to end the Vietnam War. Or as the Vietnamese called it, "The American War"....

Anyway, we were staying in the Paris Hilton (We being Mercury Racing and OMC Racing)....(This might have been the year that Bob McCullough bought the London Bridge).

This Hilton had two elevators for about a 40-50 story building, the doors stayed open about 5 seconds, you had to move fast or you missed the elevator and,. try as you may, once the door was closed, it WAS CLOSED....


Well, Monday morning after the Six Hours, Ted started to load his luggage in the elevator, the damn door slammed and his luggage went down stairs....When Ted went down stairs half his luggage was missing.

He started one of his FAMOUS TED MAY RANTS, but no one seemed to care, as they hadn't lost their luggage... Ted raised HELL with the HOTEL and they acted as if they didn't understand ENGLISH, which was usual for the FRENCH...

Finally, all the OMC guys got on the bus for the airport back to Belgium, except Ted....Ted said, "God DAMN IT, I ain't leaving this HOTEL until I find my bags!" Well, Billy and Lynn Seebold, Margarite and Barry Woods,....my wife and I were heading to Portugal, not Belgium, so we were leaving later...

Someone finally found Ted's bags and he left for the airport...

Now, here is where the "TED MAY STORY" begins...

That night in Brugges, Belgium, an AMERCIAN Cadillac, with AMERICAN FLAGS FLYING, with diplomatic license plates...DELIVES TED to the HOTEL where all the OMC BRASS and CREW are staying. Everyone at the HOTEL is MORE THAN IMPRESSED with TED's arrival...Actually, the CADILLAC had a United States Air Force JEEP as an ESCORT.....(Big time entry)...

Everyone is asking Ted what happened... He acts reluctant to tell....Finally he spills the "BEANS".

He says, "After you guys all got on the bus to head for Belgium....Oh he says, did you hear the news today about a taxicab bombing in Paris????" Everyone had heard the news about a taxicab bombing.....Ted goes on,
Well, I see this guy coming out of the Paris Hilton with my bag...I chase him and tackle him and out of my suitcase rolls a handgrenade. The handgrenade goes off and blows the front wheel right off the taxi..."... This guy was headed for the "PEACE TALKS"...Ted goes on, "He would have blown up the talks with my suitcase, the Americans were so happy they flew me here in an Air Force jet and dropped me off."

So, all week Ted is retelling the "BLOWN UP TAXI CAB STORY." Everyone is shaking their heads going, "Can you believe this Ted May guy??"

Problem is, Gary Garbrecht and I helped Ted into the taxi outside the Paris Hilton and tell him he'll be lucky to catch a flight to Belgium....(He had all his bags with him...The hotel had found his bag).

So, I show up in Berlin, and everyone is telling me about Ted's May saving "The Peace Talks".....

I look at Ted and he shakes his head...Like saying RONNIE, don't tell them the TRUTH....

The TRUTH was, Ted had missed his flight, of course, and he argued that he should catch the next one...So, the airlines put him on the next flight, he sat near some US AIR FORCE people...They enjoyed Ted and his LUGGAGE story, so they gave him a ride to the HOTEL.....Simple story....but true.

When I told everyone that Garbrecht and I had helped Ted get a TAXI (With all his bags) the WHOLE OMC CREW thought I WASN'T telling the truth...They all said what about the Cadillac??? What about the MILITARY ESCORT?? I told them I didn't know about that...but I did know that Ted got into the taxi with all his bags and there was no EXPLOSION in his TAXI!!!! It was a great story, and I should have let it be FACT....There was no harm in the story...Everyone got great laughs out of it...

The funny part to me is, that many years later, my classroom aide with Mr. Nguyen, and he HAD been in the Paris Peace talks, even has his picture in the Nixon Museum. When we went to the museum, Mr. Nugyen showed me his picture, I said, "Yea I was there in 1969 when the Viet Gong tried to blow up the Taxi with the Americans in it...." He said, "Yes, very dangerous, hangrenades in suitcase."

Old Ted, take a few facts and make a great story....

[Miss BK]

Boy, that's a Classic story, Ron!

I, of course, wasn't around back in the hey-day of Ted's storytelling prime, but he still had some good ones in the late 70's and 80's. When we'd all go out to eat after a day of racing, racers would ask the restaurant hostesses seat them as close to Ted as possible - to catch Ted's great stories.

He never disappointed.

One of those nights, eating dinner with Ted, he explained to us that he was an heir to the May Company fortune. He told us that both his parents died when he was young, and that he was set up with a trust fund. He said the corporate big wigs wanted to make sure he would never be involved with the corporation, so they just deposited a set amount every month into his bank account.

We beleived it. Until we'd mention it around people who knew him a long time, and they'd usually chuckle. So we started wondering if it was all a "Ted" story.

Several years later I was at the Nautical Inn for the Havasu Classic with some friends when a group from Seattle came up to us. One guy introduced himself as Craig Selvidge. I said, "Oh! You are the Craig-Craft guy!"
We started talking some more, and I told him I was there as part of Ted May's crew.

Craig said, "Oh, I know who Ted May is. I heard his family owned the May Company, right?"



All I said was, "Yeah, I heard that too."

[Ron Hill]

If I'm not mistaken, Ted's real name was Thadius Mayovich. His parent were Polish immigrants. Once, we landed in Berlin, EAST BERLIN, becasue we were "FOGGEDOUT" at West Berlin...The guards took our passports....and as they handed them back, the guard said, "Thadius Mayovich???" We all just stood there....Finally, I elbowed Ted and said, "Ain't your name THADIUS??"

Ted stepped forward and the guard said, "Happy Birthday, Thadius." Then, the guard went back to having a SNARLE on his face...Ted, damn near had a stroke, as he had fled Poland as a child, and this was his first time back in a COMMUNIST country....

It was one of the few times we ever saw TED SPEECHLESS!!!!

[Michael J Gwaltney]

Actually, I've confused about this picture. That is Ted's '55 T-Bird, with 350,000 miles...The problem I'm having, as I ran T 169 at PArker in the Spring of 1968 and Ted didn't drive with Craig Breedlove until November of 1968...

I'm not sure you can see the sign in Ted's window, but is says. "Co-Drivers, Ted May and Craig Breed Love...

But, now that I study the picture, I think OMC was pcking up this boat in the fall of 1968, with their Hertz Racing Truck..Becaue, when I raced it, you could see "Snapper" on the side, but at the pit stops, the gas washed it off...

SAo, this picture is in Parker, but it is Havasu weekend, November..

Red jacket is Ted, red cricvle on hois T Shirt is Chuck Rear...

I don't think Ted ever drove this DeSilva wing...Ray Nydahl did almost all the testing, before Fred hauenstein and I raced it!!! Both motors we Ray nydahl motors...

Hey Ron! I just reread this post and need to make a correction. The Havasu boat (and sign in rear window) read Co-Crivers Craig Breedlove Ted May.

I remember the OMC race crew started refering to Ted as "and Ted May". This went on for about a year and always got a response from Ted. We all learned a lot from Ted including when not to push him. Michael J

[Ron Hill]

I must tell everyone that Ted and Pat were the kindest people in the world. They frequently "ADOPTED" kids that needed a home...

Herbie Abrahams was one of these kids. Because Ted had played PRO FOOTBALL for the L.A. DOWNS and had played for the U.S. Navy team, he had many football jerseys. For years Ted's teams always wore football jerseys. Actually, they looked cool with strips on the sleeves and big numbers... I often feel we need those kinds of "SHOWMANSHIP" things today... Ted was ALWAYS THE SHOWMAN...

Bewteeen heats he and his Mercury Maniacs would run their PUMPKIN SEED boats, no fins, open pipes, KG-7 and put on a show for the crowd(s)........Herbie use to wear a red wig and pretend to be PAT, sometimes, as Pat didn't really like to drive that much...(You know it was hard on her fingernails.....and the way she was built, bouncing in a boat was often hard on her back....).

Anyway, Herbie got the idea to put pantyhose in little packages...He called them LEGGS... Made $2,000,000 before he was 22...Herbie admitted to me, about five years ago, that he spent it just about as fast as he made it....But to think Herbie is gone, is hard to believe... Herbie, Bobby May, Danny Anderson, Val Sneed and me use to go to the horse races with Ted...

See, in the OLD DAYS, Ted knew a young lady named "BOOTS" who was a SACRETARY to the WIRE SERVICE... (A BOOKIE HOTLINE)... Well, sometimes when the "FIX" was in, BOOTS would call TED with a TIP...In those days the IRS didn't take their cut unless it was a big pay off, so Ted would take several of us "KIDS" to the track...

Once Ted bet $1,500 on a horse that went off (Quarter Horses) at 35 to 1...That sucker won the race and DROPPED DEAD.... Paid $52,500...In 1960's dollars that was a TON of MONEY ...We had Pat's Lincoln Continental filled with money, as we kept cashing in tickets for about two hours...

Ted lost a lot gambling, but after that "WIN" Boots and Ted weren't seen together, as I recall, ever again... Ted stayed with Santa Anita and Del Mar.....

Rest in PEACE HERBIE....you were always like TED!!!!! (Even though you were no blood relative)...

[Ron Hill]

Steve Cox's dad was a baker for Pricilla's Cakebox in Garden Grove...Now, that may not seem like an important fact, but the fact that SK KING, ED OLSEN, owned Pricilla's Cake Box is important. Ed's boats were always called "CREAM PUFF"...

Steve's dad and my dad got to be freinds when we lived in Garden Grove...We got Steve in a boat...(Like we did with all kids that wanted a boat)...Ted started helping Steve, and Ted talked Steve into going in the Navy...Steve retired from the Navy and lives in North Carolina...He calls me monthly or more often, and is a collector of old boats...

Steve wasn't really one of Ted and Pat's adopted KIDS. but Steve spent a ton of time with Ted going to races and working on boats.

I found this picture of an inflatable boat race, I helped promote... the little kid is CHAD, so you know how long ago this was...Roger Storey and his daughter are in front of Ted and Steve...

[Bunker Hill]

Ron,
Of the many stories of Ted, none are better than the story of how OMC "gave" you and Jimbo factory El Caminos......
You have toi tell this one!!

[Ron Hill]

We have a saying still, in our family, and it goes like this, "If you don't believe me, just ask Ted May, he'll tell you it is true..."....

Now, my fishing story...We go down to San Pedro, wharf and rent this ugly green boat, all it has is a bait tank...Oh, I forgot to mention that Ted was always telling me and Jimbo about going fishing and we begged to go along....SO, IN MY MIND, I FIGURED TED HAD THIS cool fishing boat...I mean Ted raced a great style, why would he not fish the same way....????

Anyways, Jimbo, me and Ted ...Well, Ted has the 25 Merc CRUISER motor...He goes to start it and the starter rope pulls out...Ted pulls the cowling off, and rope starts this 25 Merc like it was a QUINCY... We roar off to the damn bait dock...Of course, Ted can't get it out of gear and we crash into the bait boat. Ted buy two scoops of bait...

Ted tells us the only way to fish is with "HOT" bait and no sinker... (Live bait)... we are catching these BONITA one after another... I'm having a hard time landing some of them...Ted say, "Goddamnit, give me the pole..." We catch about a hundred and fifty Bonita...

It is getting close to quitting time as our boat is damn near sinking from all the fish and we're about out of bait... Jimbo says, "Oh crap, I've caught a tire." Ted says, "Give me the goddamnpole". Ted starts reeling in this "TIRE" when all of a sudden he realizes it is the tail section of a huge mother shark....(Jimbo had hooked the tail part and as he pulled it up it looked like a tire..but it was the tail section of a 25 foot shark... Ted throws the pole and reel up in the air and starts roping the engine... We hauls *** back to the dock...Ted gives all our fish away to the guys fishing on the docks....He never mentions throwing his pole in the ocean...

I didn't go fishing with Ted for about two more years...Jimbo still thinks we caught a tire...NOT!!!