History The Grim Death of Rex Mays

I was compelled to scan this article from Life Magazine, the November 21, 1949 issue, photo-documenting the tragic racing death of skilled and beloved driver Rex Mays. We often forget how very common fatalities were in auto racing all the way up till... <BR><BR>To read the rest of this blog entry from The Jalopy Journal, click here.

 

Dang!

 

...and then there were seat belts (Brown belts)...

 

Stills from a movie or did someone actually manage to snap that many frames? Horrific accident but amazing photos. Someone had some skills.

 

The most horrific crash that still sticks with me today is the crash at Indy during the '82 time trials. Gordon Smiley hit the wall head on, pretty gruesome aftermath it's very well documented by ABC sports, a little OT but still a shocker...

 

Those racers then had big ones, Very tragic ,i'm sure that happened more than we think.

 

I followed Smiley because he was from Omaha.We've got a lot of tradition in racing,just not at the Indy level.But any crash is tragic when someone loses their life.And some crashes are spectacular when everybody walks away.Mays was in the prime of his career and probably would have been a household name.

 

Here's a shot of the start of crash. After he hooked the rut he jumped the inside berm and started taking out fence posts, never got it back.

 

Jeez . . . grim is the word.

 

Years ago I was riding with Frank Oddo at El MIrage and we were just 'talking' when he said "see that person over there", I looked and there stood a racer with a missing fore arm,, "he is why we now have wrist restraints".

 

Back before fuel bladders and such, many drivers preferred to take the chance of being flung out of the car in a crash than being trapped and burned. Seeing a driver dumped out wasn't uncommon.

 

My dad raced, and a lot of the visitors to our house did as well. The passing of Rex Mays was a common topic growing up in my household...and Frank Lockhart...Vukoviches always seemed especially horrible to me.

 

Incredible photography of a horribly sad subject. I would hate to diminish the thought and memory of this man and further something sort of gruesome, but if anybody has Mark Dees book on the Board Track Kings from the teens and twenties, look at that. Men impaled with splinters the length of 2x4s... It's not pretty.

 

The most reproduced photo in the history of Southern California jalopy racing was taken on March 6, 1960 when driver Art Atkinson began a series of side over side barrel roles in his 1932 5-window coupe on the front straight at Gardena Stadium. Atkinson's seat belts were not very tight and he was sitting on a loose seat padding. Atkinson was ejected up, towards the sky, through the open roof of the '32 Ford as the car rotated up during one of its flips. The rotating car had so much speed that by the time Atkinson came down and hit the ground the car was 20 feet away. Atkinson was knocked out by the impact with the ground but other than a few bruises he was OK and drove the following week. I have seen a color home movie of this and can tell you this was an incredible moment of drama.

 

The amazing thing about racing back then was how much time and money was spent on the cars with so little attention paid to the safety of the drivers.

 

Wilbur Shaw going over the wall at ascot. Didn't kill him, but sure tore him up pretty good.


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"he is why we now have wrist restraints"... Even drag racing has a blood-drenched history...Look at a really old NHRA rule book, move on a few years and read some more. Probably everything prohibited and everything required was based on something grim.
Like when the decided anything with a Small-block Chevy, even stockers, had to have a flywheel shield...the picture of the '55 that set up that rule looked like the car had found an anti-tank mine.

 

This photo gave me nightmares when I was a kid. Duke Nalons Novi hitting the wall while leading the race in 1949. Didn't kill him, but he was burned pretty bad. And yes, he's still in the car...


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I never learned a thing from my successes, only from my failures...

 

Frank Lockhart, 15 feet in the air, upside down and backwards, at 220 mph. Cripes...
Daytona Beach, the morning of April 25, 1928...


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Not only fuel but chassis. Small diameter tubing could break loose and impale. Masten Gregory, American F1 driver was known to have jumped out on the wrong side of 100MPH before impact.

 

That's why they called him "Iron" Duke.

 

The sacrifices these guys Made doing what they loved is unbelievable.

 

Then there was the times when all the roll bars, harnesses and such probably wouldn't have done much good.

 

Geez. Man, glad I didnt see THAT pic when I was a kid.

 

Having barrel rolled 6 times in my stock car and coming out without a scratch. I owe everything to these guys that lost their lives to improve safety throughout the years for doing what they loved to do.To me these guys are heroes and should be treated as such....Jim

 

Not just once,but a couple of times,according to the F1 times :
http://www.atlasf1.com/2000/aut/cox.html

 

Photo 6 of the Rex Mays crash looks like his neck is not broken. Physicians said he died from a broken neck when he flew out of the car. But the 3rd race car hit him and tore off his helmet. That unfortunately broke his neck.


Ago

 

The newspaper accounts the next day incorrectly stated that several cars had made contact with Rex. The telephoto shot exaggerates the proximity of the race cars to where he lay after being ejected so it was difficult to tell. The cars in the scenes that are passing are Johnnie Parsons, Troy Ruttman, Paul Russo (I think) and lastly Hal Cole who did hit rex. Reportedly Hal pulled into the pits the next lap and announced he had hit Rex. Hal got out of the car and Billy McGee finished the race in 11th. The car that Rex was driving that day is also the car that appears in the real race footage in "To Please A Lady" with Joie Chitwood at the wheel. The car was also involved in the Vukovich 1955 accident with Al Keller at the wheel.