Ted May Boat Racer, Mentor to Many!

[Doug Martin]

That is one of the funnest stories, This is how I know it. My Dad was running AU in the Needles Marathon. My Dad somehow crossed the finish line without nobody seeing him or my dad seeing the finish. He finely ran out of gas. Everyone looked for him down stream after all no one saw him cross the finish line. Some how he ended up past the finish line, pits, and everybody watching. But when this story is real side splitting funny is in the pits after a long day of racing. Around a fire after a few beers (not my dad he did not drink) but you add Russ Jr.& Ronnie Hill, Erine Dawe, Ted May and a few more there is comedy. My Dad always said he won.

My crash in 77 was in 25SSH that boat was fast but got a bad name because of that crash. That crash was just racing.

[Ron Hill]

Ted always raced with a watch on, as he wanted to know what time it was, becasue he usually had a TV in the trailer and might want to watch Judge Wampler or some such show or a football game.......Ted was a TV junkie from the day they invented TV...Ted loved the camera, when he wasTHE MERCURY MANIACS on Speedboat Rodeo, he loved ever time his saw the camera on him....He'd jump out of his boat, just to get on TV!!!!

He even had a TV in his '55 T-Bird....with rabbit ears....actually a coat hanger for an antena...

In this picture, you can see Ted's watch, and his "BAT WING" he added to his 55-H...

Ted always said he had lots of watches from when he was on Shore Patrol in the Navy....He's say, "I'd have 50 watches up my sleeve and sell them to 'PIGEONS', when I was on shore patrol..Then, I'd send cigar boxes full of hundred dollar bills home to my brother to buy apartments..."

Don't know if any Ted May story was ever true, but we didn't care.....The stories were all so good!!!!!

[Miss BK]

Hey MISS BEE KAY....Do I know you????.

You sort of do. I was a very shy 16 year old girl back when I first knew of you coming to our races. I knew *who* you were, but never had the courage to introduce myself- so I sat in my brothers trailer and watched you, Mike Nordskog, Erik Nordskog and Don Johnston run (Bakersfield - 78 or so). In fact, the day I found out who you were, Mike Nordskog was running your boat.

Even though I was my brother's "Crew chief", I was also doing what a lot of 16 year old girls do - figuring out the names of all the cute boys (and snapping pictures when they weren't looking). And yes, I have pictures of you, Alan. lol. Along with John Heggenberger, the Davidson's, Brett May...I'll just say SCOA/COBRA was loaded with a *LOT* of cute boys 30 years ago....LOL

Ted May AKA Tadeuz (Tah-doosh, the Polish pronounciation) loves kids, had a penchant for "all you can eat" restaurants and always had fireworks.

And remember - he was always "65" - to qualify for the "senior" meal. Ten years later, he was still "65". I remember everyone cramming into the booths to sit close to Ted - so you could hear his stories. If you couldn't get a booth close by, you'd hear that section of the restaurant explode with laughter ever 15 minutes or so - and knew you were really missing out. Fun days!

What made Ted the greatest was that nobody had more fun boat racing. Got to reminisce with Joe about Ted in Depue. .

That must have been a really fun conversation. It's been a long time since I've sat with a group of racers from that era and got to chat about Ted and Roger...

The definition of a true gentleman racer...Roger Johnson. A guy everyone truly liked and respected. We sure miss your Dad.

Roger was my older brother's good friend first, then after my brother died, Roger kind of filled his role as "advisor" to me - the best 'advisor' I ever had. Only once did I not heed his advice, and I paid dearly for it later...Ditto on missing him a lot.

And I miss Uncle Ted a lot too.

Ted helped my brother out so many times when we were struggling to get our rigs together. So when my brother quit racing around 1979 (health issues), I decided that I'd go to however many OPC races I could and help Ted out. I was his scorekeeper at all the enduros for many, many years. He never called ahead - I just showed up and asked if he needed help. And he always put us to work.

One year, I got to Parker late and pulled into the Kofa parking lot and saw Ted. I was just about to say "hi", when Ted snapped, "Where ya been? Been waitin all day - you got a meeting to get to". That just cracked me up, because I hadn't seen or talked to him for nearly a year, and we had never discussed me doing the scoring! lol But I immediately went straight to that meeting, and decided that I guess I was now Ted's PERMANENT scorer, despite no official discussion about it..lol. I didn't mind at all - in fact I thoroughly loved being able to help the irrascible Ted May.

Val

[Ron Hill]

Found this picture today...October 1968....Ted and I got our pass port pictures... Looks like one of those pictures you see in the post office....

Ted would have enjoyed The Blue Resort and Casino 300 Enduro last weekend...(October 20, 2007)... He was there in spirit....As when Fred Bowden took Al Stoker's MOD VP for a ride, Al said, "Fred can you touch the gas peddle?" Fred said, "No...." He had to borrow Pat Bowman's life jacket to put behind him...When Ted Co Drove with me, he always brought a pillow and sometimes a sandwich....Watching Ted get in my boat, I always knew he'd bring it back.....In all the years Ted and drove together, we finished every race we teamed!!!!

[Miss BK]

Hi Allan,

My brother didn't tell anyone, but he was born with Cystic fibrosis. He passed away in 1986, just a month before I actually got a chance to start racing. His doctors told him that he would not be able to race a boat - but he proved them all wrong. He first started racing when he was 22, weighed only 98 lbs, and lifted weights incessantly to try and put on some bulk.

Once in a while someone would ask Mike about why he coughed, why he was so thin..etc and he usually said he was in an accident, or that he had asthma. He never wanted anyone to feel sorry for him or treat him differently. He made me promise not to tell anyone the real scoop.

But Ted and Roger both knew there was something more going on. Before we had even met Ted, he was always looking over Mike's boat and giving us tips. One time he even took foam out of the Nordskogs trailer and started laying it in our boat --- without ever mentioning anything to us! When we went over to see what he was doing, all he said was, "Those wires are going to cut you up." He was referring to the coat hanger wires that my brother used to strap down half a dozen lead weights he'd put all inside the cockpit.

One year my brother actually won his heat ! (due to EVERYONE else jumping the gun) and when he came to weigh-in, he weighed perfect. But then I told the ref that my hand was still on the boat when he had called the weight out (I can be too honest to a fault sometimes). My brothers boat always soaked up water like a sponge, so by this time the water was all gone. So we weighed again and my brother was ONE POUND too light! I was so heartsick, but my brother just smiled....and said "that's racing".

But Ted was not a happy camper and really let the Ref know it, telling him to notice how much water had run out of the hull since it had been sitting there so long, losing water...but the Ref never budged. Ted continued to complain about that scene for quite some time after too, especialy since my brother had never "won" a race before, and didn't win any thereafter either.....but my brother wanted to be treated like any ordinary racer, and wanted no rules specially bent for him. So looking at it that way, everything turned out just fine.

(Except for ME and the guilt I carried, because I knew that, had I not left my hand on the boat when we went to the scales, he would have taken First Place easily....the time it took us to return to weigh, was enough time to lose enough water to make a difference... I still feel really bad about it).

Val

[Ron Hill]

My dad weighed boats for years. He would never tell you what you weighed. He sit the scales at say 365 pounds, and he weighed you. You either made weigh or not....If you wanted to know "HOW LIGHT" or "How heavy" my dad would say, "When I'm done, you can use the scales..."

My dad is the guy that started weighing between heats....We got to noticing some guys we really fast in the first heat, and not very fast in the second....


My dad was a "BUG" about draning water...as one guy used to have size 16 boots, on the scale full or water he was 16 pounds over, no water he didn't make weight...

The "ALKY" Division, now called "PRO" really never liked guys running STOCK stuff in their DIVISION...for several reasons. One was that guys like Ted May won the Townsend Medal and didn't even own an alky burning engine...

At the APBA convention the "ALKY" guys passed a rule that Stock "Step Ups' had to meet the classes weight... In those days a D Stock's weight was about 100 pounds lighter than a D ALKY. Ted and I ran our D Stocks, and to make weight we put a five gallon gas can in the cockpit...


Ted weighed first and they tossed him for being light (HE didn't have any gas in the can the first heat...So, was way light the first heat)... I watched with "WIDE EYES" and thought, hmmm. So, I pulled my sponson corks while I was waiting to be weighed. I slipped the corks back in....It took six people to get the boat on the scale...I made weight....Ted was saying, "How come Ronnie made weight and I didn't???"

Later I told Ted about the water. He was madder than hell....Neither one of us ran D Alky again with our stock stuff....Rules are frequently written with someone's best interest in mind....but usually there are unexpected consquences...Like LOST INCOME to a club as we no longer could field enough D Hydros to race D Alky hydro....

[carl sladek]

he had so many of them, that he'd donated then at needles in 1966??? to be the trophies for that race.

He used those little metal runabout figurines that came with the trophies as cleats on his trailer.

I was surprised when I just found out Ted had started racing in 1955.

My little brother got to run in the m-hydro race there. He ran a stock J hydro. The alkyl m's would scream by going +50 mph only to die in the turns, and he'd cruise by them a whooping 24 mph.

It was a battle of attrition. Snicker!!

[Ron Hill]

Ted played High School football for 7 years. Won the state championships seven times. He was quarterback... Joined the Navy in December of 1941....

In all the years I raced against Ted, and we started in 1955...till about 1985, Ted never was agnry when I beat him... He might say, "You could get hurt driving like that..." I'd say, "I knew you were behind me and I KNOW you'd never hit me...".

Had lunch with Scott Schatz Friday, he told me something about Ted that I'd forgotten...Jimbo McConnell had pictures of little Mercury Outboards painted down the side of his cowling, each Mercury designated a Mercury JIMBO had beaten....Ted made more motors painted on his boat than JIMBO, but Ted's were for every motor he hadever blow up...Ted, never to be out done!!!

Ted had a BAD TEMPER....But usually he only got mad as HELL when he knew VERY WELL that he was wrong....If Ted figured he was right, he'd usally quit and shut up....But if he knew he was wrong, he'd agrue until the cows came home....

Talked to Cathy McConnell today, Jimbo has been having some trouble with a kidney stone.....I can't help but think of Ted and Jimbo in the same thought wave...

Seems Jimbo was driving about 55, pulling a trailer at about 3 o'clock in the moring when a Highway Patrolman pulled him over...Ted started yelling at the cop that he was watching JIMBO and he was going exactly 55....The COP said, "You are right, sir, 55, right through that stop sign back there..." Ted went back to sleep, Jimbo got the ticket...

I miss Ted May stories...I tell some good ones sometimes...but Ted's were better...

He said, as a kid he lived near the L.A. Colliseum...He's sleep on the roof of the restrooms the night before games, then slip in with the crowd in the morning and watch the games...

[Ron Hill]

Seems Ted and Pat May were always doing things for people. They were both very loving, giving people. During the summer of 1958, I think it was '58, Pat got a summer exchange student from Japan. The student's name was Yoshi....

Where Pat got Yoshi I have no clue, but he was about 19, I'd say and he carried his camera everywhere. I'm sure he had little experience outside of Japan, and to end up in Long Beach living with the May Family was pure cultural shock I'm sure...

Ted took Yoshi everywhere, just like he did us kids...Horse races, motorcycle races, car races and when 4th of July came he took Yoshi to the Inboard races at Long Beach.

When the tide is high at Long Beach, there is water everywhere, but when the tide is out sometimes there ain't much "LAKE" left.... Anyway, Ernie Dawe, Bobby May, Herbie, Ted, Yoshi and I are getting ready to watch the start of the SK's...Seems there might have been more than 8, as I think they let 12 at a time run in those days...

We are all standing there with our hearts in our mouth as they lined up heading for the first turn, Ted looks around and there is Yoshi about knee deep in the water, camera in hand getting ready to take pictures....Ted was sure Yoshi was going get himself killed.

Ted starts yelling like a crazy man, he runs into the water and grabs Yoshi and drags him to the shore and they literally dive for the sand as about 8-9 SK's come by...several of the boats went exactly where Yoshi had been standing....

AS the summer ended, Yoshi went back to Japan, probably never telling anyone of his adventures in the USA, fearing no one would believe him...

This all happened the summer before Pat May started modeling gloves and hose. See Pat, Ted's wife, modeled hose and gloves for Playboy Magazine and was the original model for Playboy's joke page. They still use a likeness of her today...

This was about the time that Herbie got the idea to put panty hose in plastic eggs and called them Leggs. Herbie made several million dollars for the idea...

[Ron Hill]

Ted May A Saga

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I will start this tread saying, I loved Ted May like a brother, or maybe a dad. I will say this post may not be true. It will have views of Ted May that I know or have heard. I thought that BRF had a Ted May thread but I can't find it.

So, here goes my Ted May Story

I was born in '44 so in order to race APBA Stock had to be 12 years old. So, in theory, I could not have started racing until April 25th, 1956, but I started in May, 1955.

In the OLD DAYS we'd test on Saturday behind Seaboard Equipment and Sam's Sea Food in Sunset Beach. On Sunday, we'd go to Bixby Slough, in San Pedro where we could run in fresh water.

This Saturday and Sunday "TESTING" was a winter project.

While testing, we met Ted May. Ted had some little boats called "Pumpkin Seeds". They were little runabouts, about 8 feet long that looked like little Rinker boats.

Ted had three or four for these "Pumpkin Seeds" with no fins on the bottom and KG-7's with open stacks. Ted and his crew would "BROADY" those "Pumpkin Seeds" through the back swamps of Sunset Beach.

On Sunday, Bixby Slough had more room than Sunset Beach. So Ted would bring 5 cent balloons and make a race course using balloons as turn buoys.

At Bixby Slough, we would have "Cheater Sweepstakes".....as TED LOVED horse Racing. We'd have handicapped races, of course, Ted always won. But we had fun in those days.

In those days, Ted wore a football helmet and and football jersey while driving his "PUMPKIN SEED". boats.