Ted May Boat Racer, Mentor to Many!

[Ron Hill]

<!-- / icon and title --><!-- message -->The old Hell Cat, Ted May. Ted joined the Navy, December 1st, 1941... Spent 5 years and seven months on a Navy ship in the War Zone of the Pacific....at least that's what he said...I do know he was in the Navy in the Pacific... I do know he came back from the war and played football for the Navy's team.


I do know that he played quarterback for Manual Arts High for 7 years... they won the state Championships 7 years in a row, but in 1941, California passed a law you couldn't be over 21 and play high school football, so in '41, after his 21st birthday he joined the Navy..

He started boat racing the same year I did, 1955, I was 11, Ted was 34, we got along like brothers always. Ted was a teacher!!!

This picture hangs on Bill Curtis's wall. it is signed The Hellcat 54 Ted May.

This is Ted's old Molinari...many people in Southern California believed that Ted's trailer was welded to his truck, because you never saw the truck and boat separated...He was seen all the time going down the FREEWAYS...

Ted's belief, if you did 90 per cent of your boating NOT racing, you only had a 10% chance of breaking in the race...
Ted would co-drive with me at Parker, maybe run two hours, when the race was over and I got some prize money, I'd pay Ted by the hour...He loved it!!!!
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[Ron Hill]

Ted played High School football until he was 21. He played quarterback for Manual Arts High. Seven years in a row they were State Champions. Ted would quit school after the championships, then return in the fall. In 1941, California passed a law that you couldn't be over 21 and go to high school, so, in November 1941, Ted turned 21. He left high school and joined the Navy.

He was in the Pacific 5 years and two months....At least that is what he told me. He said, he once won 200 insurance policies from guys on a ship, only to have the ship sank by the Japanese... Ted was one of the oldest on his different ships so, he was assigned shore patrol. Ted said he use to make so much money on shore patrol, he'd send cigar boxes full of money home...He told us he buried Japanese soldiers on many islands after major invasions....He had pictures to prove it...

Most of us, Ernie Dawe, Jimbo, Steve Cox, Val Snead, Mike Wetmore, Bill Boyes....Never knew if any of Ted's stories were true, but we did know he didn't work and seemed to have plenty of money....He never really left HIGH SCHOOL.

Ted came to more of my High School football games than my dad...Ted taught us guys, that the world was tough and it could kill you in a minute. He said, "Trust me, drugs will kill you...don't ever even take one hit" His brother had been murdered by some guys he met in a bar. As a result, Ted drank very little and watched out for US KIDS, like he was the mother hen, if we were drinking. We didn't need mom around, Ted kept us inline. When we were kids, we thought he was a handsome SOB....and he was.

More later.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Ron, If Ted turned 21 in November 1941, that means he was born the same month and same year as my Dad. My Dad also served in the Navy in the Pacific. He went from island to island following the invasion force. He was a carpenter and his job was to repair landing craft after an invasion to prepare them for the next island. What if they had unknowingly crossed paths. Before shipping out my Dad did some training in San Diego.

In the archives I guess is a picture of Ted and some others that raced in Mexico in the 50's or 60's. If you didn't know any better you might think that photo of Ted putting the pitch on that Mexican was Spencer Tracy.

[RichardKCMo]

Used to watch Ted race in mission bay a lot, heres a pic out of PPBC program
Always enjoyed watching Ted , he seemed to be there at every race in 70s/80s, didn't win very often with #54 but always ran well and seemed to have fun. Almost always alone.
RichardKCMo

[Ron Hill]

Actually, I agree that Ted came to the races, in later years, by himself...When he was younger, The Hell Cat would bring the neighborhood kids, plus his son, Butch. He'd drive his wife's car. Even after they divorced, but she charged Ted a $250 deposit to use her car.

Nobody had more fun racing boats than Ted May....He always carried two sets of keys...In his T-bird, one set was always in the trunk, when he drove off and the other set was in the ignition...Never seemed to bother him that his keys were bouncing around the trunk....

The last time I saw Ted, he showed me some pictures of some of the islands he went on after major invasions....They were real pictures, taken by him....Ted and Mr. "Baldy" Baldwin could have been friends...

Wayne, your dad ever talk about a guy who sold watches when he did shore patrol???? If he did, that would have been Ted... I started this thread to tell a Ted May story about him buying ham in Belgium...I thought about that time we went to Europe to race, 1968, I think...I was thinking about it while in Italy...

Seems Ted didn't really like those European breakfasts of rolls and Mud Thick Coffee...So, as we were heading to Paris....we go through a little town, Ted jumps out and orders what he thinks is 5 pounds of ham....Well, pounds to the Belgium Dude meant English Pounds, as Ted spoke English...A Pound in those days was five dollars and twenty five cents....So, Ted bought, $125 worth of HAM.....He comes out of this store with two guys carrying bread, and two boxes of ham....

He says, "Their pounds much be different than ours." He had about 75 pounds of HAM.....Fed everybody we could find that day on the way to Paris and once we got there. He still had about 25 pounds the next day!!!!

I sometimes thought Ted didn't understand money...He had these ducks and he always bought DAY OLD Bread for them...One time, we went to the store and they didn't have DAY OLD bread....Ted says to me, "Damn ducks won't know it's new bread will they?"....He thought they liked stale bread....

His wife had this damn Mountain Lion living with them, Orphy was his name. He ate 150 baby chickens a day. Once I went into the kitchen and Orphy was on top of the refrigerator. I let out a friggy yell...Ted says, "He's OK unless his tail is wagging." I say, "His tail IS WAGGING"....I never went back in that house....Orphy's eyes were as large as small oranges....Ted's wife worked at Lion Country and Orphy had been sick when he was small....but he grew up!!!!

Ted might have been by himself, but he was never alone!!!! He was always "On Stage" and a "STAR"...

[Ron Hill]

This is a pretty good picture of Ted standing in front of Bill Cooper's 22 foot Jones with a Mercruiser IO...Bill managed to blow this thing over before the race...reported to have been going 122 at the time..Rudy Raymos ended up with this boat.

I later saw Bob Nordskog go like 136 MPH in the same boat at Parker.... See Bob Nordskog for more info.

Bottom picture is the Jones boat being pulled ashore after Cooper blew her over....Cooper was lucky here...Took the forks right off...Bill died of cancer, 9 months later.

[Ron Hill]

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
Breedlove...

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

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

Red jacket is Ted, red cicle on his 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 were Ray Nydahl motors...

[Ron Hill]

Ted and I Co-Drove in Paris, 1968.. Here is Ted coming off the hoist to test in Brugge, Belgium...

[Ron Hill]

Ted and I had been playing the local slot machines....Actually, Denny and Dewey Berghauer were with us...It was late and we'd had a few beers...I got this picture of Ted....I edited where his hand was on this statue!!!!

[Ron Hill]

I don't know why I was taking pictures, but Ted saw me, and blocked out "SPARK PLUGS"...made the shirt say, "Champion." Ted was never camera shy!!! The old 55 T-Bird had 192,000 miles on her...

Kemper-Campbell Lake in Victorville...we raced around an island and never used any bouys...

[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!!!

[Miss BK]

Wow... I really miss both of these guys. :(

This are two photos I took of Joey's dad Roger and Ted. I think this was the year after they had won their division at the Parker 7 Hour. Unfortunately, this time they weren't going to be Champions. Mechanical trouble took them out of the race fairly early.

Now, you have to realize, when you scratch early in the 7-hour Enduro, you have a lonnnnnng wait before the end of the race.

These pictures are of Ted and Roger just after they had thrashed on the motor, only to realize they were done for the day. They both sat down to gather their thoughts.


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(I'm SO lucky I didn't get really chewed out for snapping these shots while they both were in really BAD moods! LOL. But now I am now super glad I captured that moment. )

[Joe J]

If I remember correctly, ( this is 20+ years ago), Val's picture was taken after Ted and my dad went through either 2 or 3 powerheads. This was in the day when changing powerheads was not allowed. They figured, "What The Hell", since they were done anyway.

As anyone who knew Ted could tell you, driving a boat, anywhere, anytime, what what he loved to do more than anything.

Joe Johnson

QUOTE=Michael J Gwaltney]

Rare to see Ted sitting down during a race. If he was on the "beach" he would usually be talking to the crews about something that needed to be done during a "pit stop". He was always near the action with a helping hand but never got in the way. Ted was a real asset for feedback when testing and racing experimental engines.

Michael J[/QUOTE]

[Ron Hill]

It's Saturday night and I can't believe I haven't told a "TED MAY" story... Well, we were acing down in Blythe. Ted ahd this homemade copy of a Mishey hydro with a Champion Hot Rod for power. He'd won most of the races he'd run since he'd bought the ROD..But Blythe was a rough course and we had long straightaways and Ted had blown over and that cowling of the Mishey deck had hit him pretty hard in the chest, he was in a lot of pain and we all helped him lot up his equipement after the race.

Well, Kenny Pyle had this new Art Carlson "D" hydro and he'd managed to nose dive itas had Herb Mayfield...and Lynn Buckles...Herb had managed to hydralic both his eyes... Ugly, The doctor had o put his eyes BACK IN THE SOCKETS...

ANYWAY, KENNY AND TED HAD TEAMED UP FOR THIS RACE...So, Ted starts driving home...Well he's a hurtin' so bad he can't drive, after about two hours, and home is about 5 hours away. So, Kenny says he can drive, well about an hour into Kenny's "TURN", his eyes start to swell shut...Kenny's a yelling at Ted that he can't see and Ted's a yelling back he can't move...(Muscles too sore from his blow over)...

So Ted starts telling Kenny how to drive because Kenny can't see...Ted's a yelling more to the right GOD DAMN IT Kenny ..NO, NO the left.......Who knows the real truth, but they did get home in Ted's '55 "T" Bird...Kenny did have two of the damnest black eyes you'd ever seen and Ted limped around for about two weeks... The way Ted told the story you'll have to have believed it...

[Ron Hill]

The way laws are written, now days...I'm sure a balloon filled with welding gas would be considered a "BOMB" and under homeland security, you could spend about five years somewhere away from your home, they'd give you free rent and free food....if you get my drift....

BUT, I was thinking of maybe trying this AGAIN, in MEXICO.....

[Ron Hill]

It was the summer of 1962, and Ted May, Ernie Dawe and I decide we should go to Valley Joe to race....(Vallejo)...Of course, none of us knew where Valley Joe was...

My dad didn't like the idea of racing my DU, as I'd won every race that year, but he said I could run CU, as I usually ran close to the front with that one and going to Valley Joe would screw up my chances for DU High Points....

In those days, well actually today, San Francisco is a long *** haul from SOCAL...Well, I teamed up with Erine Dawe and his dad, Ruben, and we headed for Valley Joe...on Friday morning.... Jimbo and Ted decided to leave Friday night...because Jimbo was coming from Needles...

Well, Ernie, Ruben and I got to Vallejo Friday evening and got a motel near the race course. We went down and looked at the race course, and it looked somewhat like the ocean, with submarines cruising up and down the bay....

Well, California, as then and now, had a speed limit of 55 with a trailer... Jimbo is driving at about 2 A.M. pulling a trailer up the old 99....Ted was sleeping....Jimbo says, "Ted, the guy behind me has a red light on, should I pull off?" Ted says, "Yes, and how fast are you going?" Jimbo says, "55". The cop comes up to the car, Ted get out and starts yelling at the cop saying, "God Damn it, he was going 55 miles an hour, I was watching him..." (Ted had been asleep and didn't have a clue as to how fast Jimbo was going....)..

The cop says, "Sir you are right......he WAS going 55 miles per hour, right through that STOP SIGN...".....

Ted got back in the car and went back to sleep...

Saturday, we kind of fooled around in Valley Joe and went bowling.....Ruben drank too much an did a lot of singing about..."when it comes to lovin..he's a human oven.." When Ruben drank he could sing and recite poetry like you couldn't believe....As he said, "He had them all cheated because he was steam heated..."

Anyway, on Sunday, Ruben was still drinking a few...so he went to watch the races from the pier....Well, he made friends with a few fans on that pier, and as the first race came up, he bet on TED MAY..Well, TED MAY WON..Next heat, ERNIE DAWE came out and Ruben bet on him...Ernie Dawe won...Well, the next heat, Ronnie Hill came out and HELL, he won...These guys that Ruben was betting with wanted to take him to the horse track...they thought he had a way of picking winners...As it turned out Ted, Ernie and I won every first place trophy....Jimbo had A FEW SECONDS...I never raced in Valley Joe again... that was 44 years ago, and I never forgot that race....Maybe, because, in he middle of a C Runabout heat, a submarine decided to surface right in the middle of the course....Holly Crap, I'm coming around the first turn and here comes a submarine out of the water....scared the crap out of me...

[Ron Hill]

Ted May played football for Manual Arts High School for seven years. He palyed quarter back to seven straight City Championships. In 1941, California passed a law that you couldn't be over 21 a play High School football. Ted turned 21 in November 1941.

He joined the Navy, December 1, 1941. He ended up being shipped out to the South Pacific. He spent 5 years and 2 months over seas.

When he returned he played quarterback for the LA Dons, a pro team that was equal to the Rams at the time.

In 1955, he got the boat bug and started racing with "US"... Ted didn't work in those days, as he had income from various sources...many related to the war.

In 1962, his wife was the original model for Playboy magazine...(The model on the joke page with the gloves and hose....Ted's wife was the original model)...

Ted raced every class and pulled his trailer with a 1955 T Bird...six engines in the box and three hydros on the trailer...He drove for anyone...Doc Collins in ARR, Harry Bartolomei in BRR and CRR, too...

In 1966, Jack Leek asked him to drive at Havasu and also asked him if he knew anyone who could drive a runabout...Ted said, RON HILL." At Havasu 1966, OMC had four boats, a Switzer that Ted drove, a Style Craft that Burt Ross drove, a 17' Glastron that Paul Kalb and Fred Miller drove, and a 16' Glastron that Ron Hill and Ernie Dawe drove...(Ernie never got in the race because I broke it)..

128 boats, 4 OMC rigs, and Ted May was the leader after the first day of racing. Ted, in 1966, is already 46 years old.

Ted runs every remaining Havasu races......into his late 60's....

But before that, he co drives with me, Fred Hauenstein, Bob Nordskog...He drives Nordskog ET Tunnel at Parker until it breaks, like three years in a row. Then, jumps in my boat, with two pillows so he can reach the gas pedal, and lapped with in 5 seconds of my best time...or Fred Hauenstein's best time.....(We do 8:32, Ted does 8:37 with no time in the boat...and never crashes it or breaks it).. I pay him by the hour for driving and he loves it!!! (Ron Hill giving Ted May a check)...
He never had great equipment of his own....when he ran OMC's stuff he never broke it, he never turned it over....in the old days finsihing was important....

Ted May, had he lived at a different time....would, without doubt, be in the top 5. The Pollock...Tedious Mayovich was his given name... Came to more of my High School football games and practices than my dad. He taught Jimbo McConnell and I the value of staying alive. Ted had seen some stuff in war that was real and he didn't mind telling us to look out for ourselves...especially on the race course....He always said you have to be alive to race again next week....He was a very talented athelet, quick reflexes, great eyesight....

[Ron Hill]

Maybe because Ernie Dawe and I were together for five straight days, maybe, it was becasue of the holidays...(I spent many a holiday or two with Jimbo and Ted....in Needles)... But I got to thinking about Ted, the other day...

When you think of how safe our modern cars are, it is really hard to believe that TED MAY DROVE HIS 1955 T-BIRD OVER 192,000 MILES. And many of those miles were pulling race boats. Who in thie right mind would pull a triple deck trailer, with six motors in the back, with a T-Bird???

I drove that "BIRD" with the trailer on it several times, and everytime I ever got over about 55 MPH, the damn trailer would start going where it wanted to...That trailer kept me from speeding for sure....

In the SPRING of 1961, Jimbo and I "PROMOTED" a Boat Race at Rainbow Beach. We made a program and got trophies donated.... First heat out was B Hydro. Ernie Dawe was a LOCAL HERO, driving B Stock Hydro, on a DeSilva with the new Kit on is Mark 20-H. Ernie probably jumped the gun, but he was leading down the front straightaway, when he and his boat parted company. Ernie went *** OVER TEA KETTLE, his boat went left and Ted May went right, then his boat went right and Ted May went left. Finally, Ted's boat "T-Boned" Ernie's motor and the Ted's boat stopped in about a foot but Ted kept going. He did a perfect 1 1/2 front flip and put his hands together and dove in the river without a splash.....Looked like an Olympic Dive....

Ted had always told us guys, he and his brother and few others would sneak into the Olympic Pool by USC and swim at night. Ted always told me not to look down while jumping off the high dive platform at night, as he said you can't judge the water and it will blacken both your eyes....when you hit the water. Well, I told Ted several things, one, I wasn't going up on NO HIGH DIVE PLATFORM in the first place, and in the second place, I wouldn't do it at night and third, if I did jump off, I sure as hell wouldn't look down.....I always assumed Ted learned the hard way about the BLACK EYES, but never really asked. As Ted told great stories, who really needed to know if they were true..???

Anyway, after Ted did the perfect dive into the river, everyone was saying he should get a 10, Tehn, we all realized Ernie Dawe was floating in the river without his helmet.....Ernie ended up with a few stitches...but didn't get to race the rest of the weekend...We taped the nose of Ted's Gilmore hydro, and he won A and B hydro with a duct tape nose...orange boat, silver tape, looked good, out front.

Ted used to tell us when he was a kid, they "HITCHED RIDES" behind buses, when they were on roller skates. I kind of forgot about this until one time we all went roller skating and Ted told us he couldn't skate... Ernie Dawe, Val Sneed, Glen Chambers, me and a few others decided to go skating at San Diego, so Ted said he wanted to go along....but he said he couldn't skate.... Well, I wasn't a great skater, but had spent time in the Cub Scouts and we used to go skating all the time, so I'm "HELPING" Ted. His feet are going about 200 miles per hour, his skates are, sometimes over is head....He looks like a TOTAL ACCIDENT ready to happen...but he'd catch himself before he fell...he'd skate about ten feet, and christ, feet would go everywhere. his arms would be swinging...everyone in the skating rink would be expecting to see a BIG "SPLAT" on th floor....After about six laps, and everyone in the place laughing like crazy people and trying to help this "MAD MAN".....They, and I, realized that Ted May could ROLLER SKATE LIKE THE WIND. Hell, he could skate sideways faster than I could go forward. He could turn, he could jump, he could fall and slide and get back up. He said he hadn't skated in 20 years, but there was no one in that skating rink that could do what he could do....All us boat racers just watched in AWE....Like how could someone be that good, and not have skated in 20 years????

I probably could do a GOOGLE search and find out, but what if this wasn't true...? Ted said when they'd catch rides on the bus (Being pulled on skates), that Poncho Gonzales (Who later was a World Champion Tennis Player) would catch rides with Ted and his friends, and Poncho's brother played football during the seven years Ted went to high school. But Poncho was the little brother and in tring to keep up with the BIG BOYS, he fell off his skates and tore most of the skin off the side of his face, which left some bad scars. Ted said, that when Poncho was healing the bigger boys told him that from now on, he couldn't go with them as he was too small. They told him to go to the park and play tennis. So, Poncho started playing TENNIS. I do know that Poncho Gonzales was a great tennis player and I do know he had scars on his face. Many thought the scars were from growing up in the tough area of LA.....

Ted said when they were kids, they'd sleep on top of the rest rooms, before SC games...When the crowds started showing up, they'd drop down and watch the games.....

I miss TED.......no matter what we did together, we seemed to always have so damn much fun, it never seemed real....

Here is a picture of Ted, BU Winner, Needles Marathon 1963...Mrs. Hill life Jacket...always full of life, always the life of the party.....

ADD TED MAY: I was thinking, one reason Ted was so well liked, he was as good of loser, as he was a winner. Life wasn't always good for Ted, maybe it was playing sports and all, but he took losing in stride, and alwasy came back. Ted had a very bad temper, but generally, it was only verbal....He usually cooled off as fast as he got mad....Unless, he was fishing with JIMBO!!!!

[Ron Hill]

http://www.boatracingfacts.com/forums/images/icons/icon1.gif Miss Carrot Top

<HR style="COLOR: #000000" SIZE=1><!-- / icon and title --><!-- message -->I actually remember Ted May's boats that were called Miss Carrot Top...He usualy had a painting, of his wife, topless.....with red hair...

But seem to remember, a blue dlophin on the bottom of his B Stock Hydro....Ted REALLY races a lot, but very seldom would he be upside down, and because he pulled his triple deck trailer with a '55 T-bird, he put the B hydro on the bottom (So it didn't hit the car), and his D Hydro in the middle, then either a Collins runabout up top or his A hydro (Gilmore)...

This picture is of Ted and myself, September 1967, well, maybe '68...We had gotten our passport pictures....

I remember Ted worrying that we wouldn't get back from Paris and Berlin in time for Halloween.

Ted never grew up, so Christmas, Halloween, Fourth of July.....All holidays, were Ted's GLORY days... Every year, at Halloween, he'd rent a GORILLA suit and his wife, Pat, would dress like Elvira....only maybe have a lower top...anyway, kids would come to their door to Trick or Treat, and they'd be beyond spell bound with Pat, and when they'd finally turn aournd, Ted would be there in a gorilla suit...I actually watched kids, turn around and run into their house....screaming like crazy.... Now days, there is probably some law against scarying the be jesus out of kids....Usually, Pat would invite the kids and thier parents in for treats and all...Ted and Pat usually had a big Halloween Party...Pat was a great "HOST"...She could always embarrass the fire out of us YOUNG men.....but we loved it and loved her...

NOTE: I was looking for a pictre of Ted and me "Racing"...with the hydro with the dolphin on the bottom...when I found this one...

[Ron Hill]

Ted May never really grew up....Everyday was "PLAY DAY"....He did 90% of his Racing testing....We'd go out and RACE before the race...

I was at DeSilva's boat shop, one day, and I see this 12 DeSilva covered up in the yard. I said, "Where's that boat come from?" The Boys (Ralph and Billy) said, "That's Bob Smith's boat...He wants us to sell it, while he'd in Vietnam. When he gets home he wants us to build him a new D Runabout"

I say, "Hell, you guys will never sell that thing...Why not let me take it and race it and I'll show people how fast it is...?" They say take it... I throw it on the top of my Chevy wagon and haul out, thinking I just did pretty good...a free boat...rigged...

On the way home, I have to go by Schwarzenbach's Boat Shop at Century and Western, not that far out of the way, really.....and Dan always had FREE COLD BEER... So, I thought, damn, going to show Danny my new 36!!!! (Not really a 36, but I'd always get under Danny's skin telling him I was going to be racing 36, again....AS I did beat him when I drove Carl Meyers "Turtle Express"....).

Anyway, at Danny's, I a see a 30-H a part, in a box under the bench. When I say apart, I mean it was a part, foot was apart, carbs apart...I say, "Where'd you get that junk?" He says Joe Schulte...... I say how much? Danny says, "$150." I ask, "CASH?" He says, "No." I say, "OK, I'll take it.."

So, now I'm on my was home, FREE DeSilva, a $150 Mark 30-H that I owe $150 for....and a few free beers...

This is mid January, 1968. I take the motor to my dad's and tell him to put it together, so I can run at Needles, in mid February.

I should add, I only had my D Stock (Sid Craft) hydro at the time (I had just got the deck painted....from Dave Mayer's bumper....and my blow over at Lodi).....and my May Craft C-D Alky Hydro..... that was about all my boats...Well, we had the 18 foot DeSilva V-Hull that DeSilva's had built for Jack Leek...And Mayer's A-B Sid Craft...


Anyway, I had several 30 blocks that weren't too bad, my dad put the motor together and said, "It ain't going to be very good." Anyway, I go to Needles.......Cold, rainy..... Dave Mayer puts his daughter in a J Runabout, first time out.... Dave doesn't check to see if the throttle returns and Robin goes out an runs a few laps, then runs on the beach and takes the nose off my Sid Craft.....(Friday)...

So, Saturday morning, I....(Ron Hill, set the course up...car crankshafts to hold the bouys in the river's current)...First thing, someone BITCHES about the bouys...

So, I get in my NEW DeSilva and decide to "TEST" the course...Of course, I'm SUPPOSED to go out by myself, but Ted May never listened or never heard....so, as I go out in my C Runabout, I hear a 20-H behind me...

Well, it is fairly rough as the storm had kind of moved on... Well, this 30-H seemed to run Ok and the 22" bottom DeSilva took the water pretty well. A good 20-H, with gears should beat the fire out of a C Runabout....But, Ted wasn't really gaining on me, and I could hear him behind me....If he went wide, I'd slider her wide, if he started to dive in on me, I'd slam the door...I actually figured, I'd rather tip over testing with Ted May behind me, than to tip over in the race with the rest of the LOONS behind me....

We ran about 15 laps, before he got around me...That's when someone got a picture...I think Edgar Peters took the picture...

When I came in, I asked Ted....Hey, when did you go on the course??? He said, "You LOON, I was out there the whole time that you were driving like a Maniac" I said, I never saw you...I was SUPPOSED to be testing the course....

We had a good laugh. He knew damn well I'd seen him from the beginning...

Anyway, that 30-H ran good, I feel in love with the boat...I made it 13 feet long by taping some 1/8 inch plywood on the nose...I ended up winning C and D Runabout that weekend, and D hydro (With a duct taped nose)........The next race was at Hansen Damn.... Jim Ferninberg from Michigan had sent me a C wheel to reword for C Runabout... I threw that prop on my $150 Mark 30-H on my D Sid Craft....and won C Hydro...Sold the motor at Puddingstone for $350.00.

I went a paid Danny his $150.....(Gave my dad $50 for putting it together)...and borrowed his Mark 30-H, that I kept until 1974......and ran it at also every race for six years....Sold it to Lloyd Mize.....Should have just kept borrowing it...

ADD: Ted May and I raced hundreds of laps...most were not in an actualy race. He always had big balloons...and we'd make bouys out of them...

I later sold the DeSilva to Ed Peters.... I had DeSilvas build me a new C-D Runabout...The new C-D runabout, I won the D Marathon Nationals with in Trenton, Michigan and sold it to Ray Link...

In those days, I called my TEAM...The FOR SALE RACING TEAM, as I financed my racing by selling stuff....and props...That is how I got the idea of going into the prop business...but didn't start the business "OFFICIALLY" until November 1969..

Major Bob raced his new DeSilva at the 1968 Marathon Nationals...But he was now Captain Bob, but I still call him Major Bob...

[Arias9]

Oh I am loving reading all these stories about Ted...what a character. There is a house in Vancouver, Washington that probably still has the outline of a boat on the garage floor on it. Ted drew the pattern on the floor and then built a boat - sometimes at all hours of the night - something our neighbors didn't love too much. He hung out with a guy named Paul, I think - they were the odd couple. Ted said Paul had the whitest whites in Long Beach, while Ted could have cared less.
When Ted first came to live with us we were in a rental house in Vancouver and he slept on the couch in the kitchen and didn't care. One night I, not a good cook at the time, served him dinner and he said "I've had dog food better than this". Well....we didn't have a dog but the next day I went to the store and bought a bowl and some dog food. That night I served dinner to everyone except Ted. I put the dog bowl on the floor with the dog food in it and said "here Ted, here Ted". He looked at me with a twinkle in his eye and never complained about my cooking again. LOL
I remember that I rode with him in his boat...riding with Barry made me too nervous but I didn't mind getting in the boat with Ted and it was so smooth and lots of fun.
I remember the kids loved him probably because he was basically just one of them.
Good times!

Margarite

[russhill]

My memory is imperfect, but hopefully anyone who knows the difference is dead. Ron had mentioned above about the "Mercury Maniacs" and how they sort of acted like rodeo clowns between events, when we raced in the "Speedboat Rodeo" on live (not taped) television for 39 consecutive Sundays between 1 and 3 in late 1955 and early 56.

By June the TV was over so Ted decided to race. He had legitimate A and/or B engines but only his own little fiberglass Mercury Maniac "Pumpkinseed" boats--without fins.

At the Drivers' Meeting at a Long Beach, Tommy Ingalls (My then boat racing hero) said those boats without fins were unsafe. Tommy wasn't racing in the classes Ted wanted to race, but he said they were unsafe, so I jumped on his bandwagon and told Ted, you can't race those boats with fins.

Ted said, "You shut up or I'll climb your Frame." Well, Ted's was not very tall, and I was about 6’5’’ then and I crossed my arms and got into his face and said, "Be my guest, then we'll put fins on those boats."

Let me say right here that of all the stupid thing I've ever said, and I've said a lot. Ted could have killed me right then and there and I'd never know what hit me.

After that Ted and I became super friends and to the best of my memory never had and argument. I always loved the guy.

[Ron Hill]

Margarite Woods.....That's, Mrs. Barry Woods, mentioned Ted May and Paul (Drake) being the original Odd Couple....She is so right...I once drove to Miami with these two and came within an inch of my life of going crazy....I did NOT ride back with them even though they were in my car. I rode to Waukegan with Rich McKinley....

Maragrite, what's funny, you've never met my brother, but my brother owns telescopes on the Seal Beach pier...Paul Drake rides his bike everyday in Seal Beach and has since the 1960's...my brother still sees Paul now and then, in fact, the last time I ate dinner with my brother and his wife, in Seal Beach, Russ parked the car, and when he came into Walt's Wharf...He said, "Was that Paul Drake on his bike when you guys got out of the car?" I guess Paul is still around....

You got me thinking about Ted May stories....

Seems I recall the last race Ted took his '55 T-Bird to... I think it was March of 1969. The 9 Hour was always the first week of March, but they usually scheduled a KNEELDOWN race, at Parker about two weeks later...

I knew there wouldn't be C, D or F Runabout and probably no D or F hydro, and I didn't have a girl friend that liked boat races, and I'd worn out all my other friends at the NINE HOUR two weeks earlier...

So, it seems, I had Dave Mayer's OLD SID CRAFT A-B hydro that I'd borrowed about a year earlier, so I threw the Sid on top of the car, put my C an D Merc in '68 wagon, and headed for Parker, Friday afternoon...by myself.

Seems, at the Enduro, OMC paid for a nice motel, but on my budget, I slept in my wagon, Friday and Saturday night. Seems I ran B, C and D Stock hydro...(Dave Mayer had a load of boats in those days, and two good RUSS HIIL 20-H's. So, I borrowed one of Dave's 20-H's. I bet him a case of beer I'd beat him...and race B Hydro...I wrote this before, but I never bought Dave a beer from our bets...)...

I ran C ALKY hydro with my C Stock and recall beating Ted May running his 20-H with a kit, because I could hear him over the noise of my 30-H...And I drove like a wildman but never looked back, and Ted was afraid to pass me becasue I kept blocking him...

Anyway, I was driving home, having raced two days, and four classes each day, ,48 laps a of kneeldown racing...Sleeping in my car.....Going home without a trailer, sleeping in my own bed and going to work on Monday seemed like a great idea...I was crusing at about 80, when the traffic slowed to about 30...

I'm going up Chiroaco Summit just before Indio....There is some much white smoke, everyone is going about 30 miles an hour, it looks like FOG or a WILD FIRE........Just about the summit, I pass this "SMOKE BOMB"....I break through this cloud of white smoke and realize my windshield has an oil film on it....I look again and see this T-Bird with three boats on the trailer blowing smoke out of both exhaust pipes....

I figure, FLOOR IT, if I make EYE CONTACT with Ted, he'll want me to pull those damn boats home...When I saw Ted later in the week...He said, "He'd broke a rocker or something, and decided that putting about ten gallons of outboard fuel would be good...So, two quarts of oil to five gallons of gas, push pumping oil from the crank case...Ted said he added 10 quarts getting home...but you never know if that was Ted May numbers...

It just was a funny sight seeing all that smoke, Ted sitting there with both hands on the wheel, as if he was going 80.......I don't think Ted ever ran KNEELDOWNERS again...He bought a Ford Ranchero, but only ran OPC after that....Later, when he worked for Nordskog, he helped Don Johnson and the Nordskog grand kids build some boats....for kneeldown racing...But this was Ted's last kneeldown race......The trip that finished off the T-Bird...

[Ron Hill]

Ted would cheat if he knew he'd get away with it. He's found this Francisco fuel called "Spunk"...He didn't know what it was, but did know that if he put it in his Go-Kart, his kart would go like hell until it threw a rod...

During this ear of Ted's life, he was very close to Champion Spark Plug Company employees, Dick Jones and Bobby Strallman... Ted call Bobby, Bobby Stallman. They gave Ted thousands of spark plugs...

About this time, I noticed that Ted would get out front, real fast, and by the fourth or fifth lap, he'd sometimes "FADE" to third or fourth....I also noticed that his plugs that he FREQUENTLY CHANGED BETWEEN heats would be WHITE...and melted...Now, I'd raced stocks for years and never melted a plug...

At about this time, Ted started always voting for THREE LAP heats...Saying he ran A, B and D Hydro and got "tired" running five laps....After one weekend, where Ted won three firsts, with three lap heats..."WE" decided that the rest of the season would be five lap heats...

I think Ted took the "HINT" as he didn't BITCH.....and he quit burning up plugs....No real proof that he ran "SPUNK" in his race boat...but I do know that when JIMBO and I were driving his Go-Kart, we "FOUND" some "Spunk" in the garage, and we didn't make a lap before we broke a rod...Ted asked us if we'd put "SKUNK" in his kart...We said, "No"... He said, "Hmm, damn thing never throw a rod unless you put "Spunk" in it...

As Maragrite said, "The boys loved Ted becasue he was just a boy himself..."

[Arias9]

I remember stories about Orphy...in fact I even met Orphy once in Ted's Fountain Valley house - it was a walled house (wall around the perimeter of the property which hid house - grass inside wall) which made keeping a mountain lion a little more possible in a subdivision. Orphy seemed to have the run of the house when the gate to the living room was open. We were trying to eat in the dining room and Orphy was running around - including under the table. i was wondering if Orphy knew the difference from meat to eat and my leg. Sort of nerve wracking! Ted told a story about one time when Orphy got outside - I guess Ted wasn't much of a gardner and the grass was really high. Ted was wandering through the high grass like someone in a jungle and whispering "Orphy? Orphy?" trying to find him and coax him back inside. LOL....

I suppose you know all about this but I remember hearing stories about cherry bombs and motel toilets...and the toilets in the next room blowing up. LOL...or was that Charlie Strang??

People wondered how I could handle him living with us for so long but I actually didn't mind because he was fun...it was always something offbeat and surprising when he was around.

[Ron Hill]

I met Ted in 1954. He usually wore Levi's and both front pockets would be worn out from carrying so much cash. He didn't work. He played with his boats and played the horses...

He said while he was in the Navy, he worked Shore Patrol and would sell watches and stuff off the ship...like the sinks, toilets, sheets, and whatever else he could find laying around... He bragged that he sent home cigar boxes full of hundred dollar bills when he was in the Navy. He had pictures that he took after major invasions on various islands. He said he helped bury thousands.... It was freuently hard to tell when Ted was telling the truth or not, but no one cared...He went to all the races and he didn't work...So what???

After that Long Beach race where Ted told my brother "He was going to climb his frame."...Ted bought some Mishey boats and quit making the Pumpkinseed glass boats...but he started making wood copies of Mishey boats...He was quite a craftsman....

Around 1962....He got into some kind of trouble, late at night, we never really knew what happened but Ted got shot twice, once in the back and once through the top of his shoulder...Nearly killed him...He was shot by a private security guard....There were all kinds of charges against Ted...

That is when we learned , in court, that he'd played for the Navy. Quarter backed the U.S. Navy's team after the war...Anyway, with him not having a job, his lawyers suggested he get a job. So, my dad hired him. My dad had to go to court and say what a good worker Ted was.....


Problem was, Ted only worked when I worked and I went to summer school until 11:00 everyday... My old man would get mad at Ted, and Ted would say well Ronnie doesn't get here until 11:30, why do I have to get here....?

My dad contraced to tear down this five car garage...First thing, Ted starts to pull nails with my dad's hammer...My dad tell him to use the steel handleded hammer...Well, I get to work, and Ted has DUCT tape of the hammer...Ted says he put it on so the hammer won't break...

After about two days, my dad says, "Hey, I'll give you guys $2,000 to tear that garage down and haul it off..." $2,000 is a ton of money....We end up pulling the garage down with his T-Bird, there a '56 Chevy in the garage. We just tow it around the corner and leave it...In less than four days, we carried that garage off...

My old man paid us off...and neither Ted nor I worked the rest of the summer...Ted got off probation.....and didn't work again until 1970 (8 years later)..when Bob Nordskog hired him...In 1970, Ted didn't have a social security card....

[geodavid]

After he left Nordskog, Ted worked here for a couple of years before going to Guy Laurendeaux's Aircraft seat company. He would design and functional test seats for commercial aircraft there. I am pleased to say that we still have Ted May built garage doors on the shop. Ted was a friend to everyone in boat racing. Also have a 20H conversion that we bought from Paul Drake. Great to hear Paul is in good health and riding his bike. Paul was a certified Aircraft mechanic for many years at Douglas before also working for Nordskog. A very good B Stock Hydro driver and fluent in the French language. There never will be anyone to have more fun in a boat than the "Mercury Maniac," Ted May. Hope we can again see him Ron.

[Ron Hill]

This is from Powerboat Magazine, October 1971... Provo 250... Mentions Ted May....Here is a pictures of Barry Woods, Freddy's dad, Fred Hauenstein, Sr., and Freddy Hauenstein.... Margarite, was this about the time Ted was living with you and Barry....???

Talk about Ted and eating... When the Good Humor Man came by with Ice Cream, Ted always stopped him and basically bought ice cream for any kids that lined up. I don't think Ted grew up having much money , if he had any. His parents moved here from Poland and times were tuff when he was a KID...He stayed a KID forever....at least in his heart...

He had these STUPID ducks...Someone told him DAY OLD bread was good for ducks....So, he bought day old bread. One day, the Helm Bakery truck didn't have any (Stale) Day Old bread....Ted said, "What the hell, ducks won't know it isn't stale..." (You fed day old bread to ducks to save money, it was cheaper...But Ted never worried about money....He usually had some...

AD: Can you believe that HAIR DO on Fredddy Hauenstein???

[Arias9]

Yes, Ted could easily have been living with us in 1971 - all the way up to 1975 when we moved to Portland. He didn't live with us continually, he would come and go but would stay for months at a time. I believe this started in 1969.

[Bob Diotte]

Ron,
I was one of the "neighborhood kids that Ted took to the races. I went to Teds house on Shipway one day after school with Butch and did not leave for three years. That afternon I was in their back yard in a boat on saw horses and Ted was traching me how to drive. The first race I was in was the Colorado river marathon in a A stock Gates runabout. Ted, and Pat were such wonderful people, they treated me and some other "strays" as part of their family. I learded a great deal from Ted that has stayed with me.

PS: That damn cougar Orphie ate my favorite jacket.

[Skoontz]

After hearing the story from Ron, Ted was asked to display the fire extinguisher in the "Hell Cat...What do ya supposed he called his fire extinguisher??

[Ron Hill]

He said his fire extinguisher held AT LEAST A QUART!!!! He still got a ticket!!!!

[Miss BK]

The first time I actually got to talk to Ted I was hanging around with some of the kids he brought to the race (Brawley, CA) about 1977. But because I'd been to every Havasu Outboard World Championship and Parker Enduro up to that point, I knew exactly who he was.

All of us kids had been sitting around doing nothing, when Ted came up and found all the boats still needed gas. He said something about it, and one of the kids said they were just about to do that...

I was sitting in awe - thinking "WOW! THAT'S THE FAMOUS TED MAY!" when he suddenly looked at me and said, "If you didn't have these clods in the way maybe you'd get someting done!". And I thought.."WOW! THE FAMOUS TED MAY JUST CALLED ME A CLOD!" :D

Of course, later Ted ended up "adopting" our novice team too (my brother, his girlfriend and me) and we then started calling him "Uncle Ted".

After receiving years of help from Ted, I was proud to do all I could to return the favor - I was his pit help and scorekeeper at Parker and Havasu for many years thereafter. I even once convinced my fiance to repair the old Hell Cat when it was starting to come apart at the seams at Havasu in the late 80's or early 90's.

I really miss Uncle Ted. :(


PS --- I named my first boat "HELL KITTEN", and the boat in my avatar is the "HELL KITTEN II".
When I told Ted what I had named my boats in honor of his Scotti hull, he said, "Did you talk to Mama Cat about that first?" :)

[Skoontz]

Great story BK...It has been said that Ted is the sole reason Long Beach Harbor now has a no wake zone...And he showed his fire extinguisher to the US Coast Gaurd...They did not find it amuzing, but many of the guys on harbor Patrol I have run into loved seeing that boat dance. They had to stop it because it was their job and I think that's what saved it from being impounded.

[capnzee]

I had the honor of co-driving with Ted at one of the last Parker Enduros. We were driving one of his famous V-4 Johnrudes. Ted started the race but only lasted about 50 minutes when his engine failed. It was illegal to change powerheads in those days, but you could change as many parts as you wanted. Together,(with Ted doing most all of the work and me handing him bearings and tools) we rebuilt the entire powerhead on the tail gate of his old Ford pick-up. There was only about 40 minutes left in the race and the competition was not strong in our class. I think it was a 100 cu. in. class. If we got back in the race we could win the class and a few bucks to boot. Ted figured it was his boat and he should finish the race. I figured that I had paid half of the costs and it was my turn. Well, we got to arguing about it on the deck of Ted's Scotty (or was it a Molinari) and Ted slipped and fell in the water. I jumped in the seat and finished the race with Ted standing in the water yelling that I had better not "break it!" I remember seeing Ted pickup the pay check but I never saw my half. I think he spent it buying ice cream for the kids. :)

[Ron Hill]

Ted and Pat only had one real child. His name was John. But he was always called "BUTCH'...Here is Butch after he'd finished the Colorado River Marathon in one of Ted's Mexican Floater.

Elgin Gates had these boats built in Mexico, I'm really not sure how fast they were, but on smooth water, in Needles, with a 20-H, "Jacked to the stars", they were a fun ride...

NOTE: Jacked to the stars was a Ted May term of jacking them up until they drove like a squirrel cage....Fast but only "LOONS" drove like that!!!

[Ron Hill]

A Mexican Floater would go as fast sideways as it did straight. Here is Ted, he and Butch May had just finished 1-2 in the Colorado River Marathon...Circa 1966...

He was 46 years old here, look at the muscle structure in his Ex Quarterback arms...

[russhill]

Bunker, I think you're a little careless with your Ted May quotes. I'm afraid anybody out of the area (Mid-Worst or Least Coast) might not understand.

I'll try to clarify: Anybody that wasn't a cool, sane driver "drove like a loon"

Ted's arithmetic was some what limited. Any number above over about six was "a hunnerd and eight" or, better yet "a hunnerd and twenty eight."

The "don't monkey with it" came about when you, Bunker, were about 8 or 10 and wanted a skimmer board. Your mother took you to the plywood store and they ran into Ted. Ted said, "don't buy any of that (expletive deleted), come over to my house. I'll give you a good one. Well they did and Ted gave Bunker a nice skimmer board. In his loud and strong voice he told Bunker he could have it but "don't monkey with it." Bunker was a kid and Ted May was a big-time boat racer. Bunker didn't "monkey with it."

[Doug Martin]

TED MAY Gave Me my first lifejacket that was fifty years ago. He was always a great friend to my family and a HERO of mine. I bet he has more miles in a race boat then anybody.

A side note I believe that lifejacket was made by Ronnie Hills Mother a true SWEET LADY

[Jerry Combs]

Wow the Puddle. We use to test there all the time. Ted was there alot. If he and I were the only testing. Me in my JU then he would be in a ASH but if someone was there with another ASH you would see Ted in a BSH. Ted was always the fastest even if he had to get in his DSH.
But when it was him and I he would play like I had a chance to beat him only just to get to the corner first. This would go on for hours BLESS HIM for that. It was like I got to play baseball with Babe Ruth. He was that Huge in Boat racing to me

Doug, Ted was always a huge influence on all of us who were blessed to be his "students". Lots of good times were had at that little puddle.

[geodavid]

Hey Doug,
There was a story circulating before I started racing about your Dad breaking down in the marathon and floating toward Mexico before they found him. How about the "real" story?
Was that 1977 accident in 25 or ASH? Somebody turned a new hydro up on it's side in the quals and Erik center punched it clear through driving my pickle fork. Followed by someone running over a loose boat. I had a great view from the cheap seats running last.
When Doug rescued me, it was late in the day and really, really cold. Ted poured about 5 gallons of gas in a hole and sparked it up. It warmed up everyone in the pits. Only thing missing were the brats on sticks.
Hey MISS BEE KAY....Do I know you????
Ted May AKA Tadeuz (Tah-doosh, the Polish pronounciation) loves kids, had a penchant for "all you can eat" restaurants and always had fireworks. What made Ted the greatest was that nobody had more fun boat racing. Got to reminisce with Joe about Ted in Depue. The definition of a true gentleman racer...Roger Johnson. A guy everyone truly liked and respected. So happy you are driving a real race boat Joe...a runabout. We sure miss your Dad.

[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". :D 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]

http://www.boatracingfacts.com/forums/images/icons/icon1.gif Ted May A Saga
<hr style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" size="1"> <!-- / icon and title --> <!-- message --> 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.

[Ron Hill]

Ted's wife, Pat, could cause a traffic jam just by walking across the street. She was a RED HEAD, and Dolly Parton would have been jealous of Pat's overall figure.

Pat never seemed to work, but when we first met Ted, neither did Ted. So working wasn't in their schedule.

Pat threw some great parties, and one huge one about 1960. She rented a HIGH CLASS restaurant and had steaks for everyone.

Around this time, Pat told me she modeled "Gloves and Hose". Me, being an 18 year old kid, thought this seemed like a good job.

While reading Playboy one day, I saw Pat May in her 1959, BROWN BUICK. There was an article about Pat. She was the ORIGINAL model for the lady who wore GLOVES and HOSE on the Joke Page of Playboy.

I remember the article as if it was yesterday. As Pat had this '59 Buick, brown with CUSTOM Tijuana Tuck and Roll seats.

Pat loved that Buick and charged Ted, $250 to use it to go to the boat races. She "RENTED" her car to her husband. Ted took the Buick to Guntersville, Alabama, 1961, and Pat charge him a $250 cleaning deposit.

Anyway, over the years, I have looked "High and Low" for this article that would have been about 1960. I've looked on E-bay, no luck. Last week at a swap meet, I saw an August 1960 Playboat with this model on the front. But no mention of who played the part.

As I recall, the article never mentioned Pat May by name, may be some of you out there have a 1960-62 collection of Playboy's that would help me solve the mystery.

ADD:

Pat was a Red Head, but she has this black wig, just like the Playboy model.

[Ron Hill]

Californian's are smarter than MID-Worsters. We have close to 12 months a year to play with stuff, so we work "SMART", so we have more time to play.


In all the years you guys came to Parker and Havasu, Ted never brought Pat. Pat actually divorced Ted about July 4th 1962.

Ted went to a race in Lodi and torn the transom out of his Swift D Hydro, and actually broke his tail bone in the wreck. Pat had gone somewhere for a "FILM SHOOT" and was out of town.

Ted had never built a boat yet, but decided to take his Swift apart piece by piece. Well, Ted had this D Hydro starting with where the transom was to the bow handle scattered down the side walk. Ted was copying each old piece making a new one ....Pat came home to her NICE HOME, IN A NICE NEIGHBORHOOD, in her new Lincoln Continental and what does she see??? Boat parts all over the front sidewalk, table saw in the front yard....Boat trailers with boats all over it, motors laying in the driveway...She filed for DIVORCE the next day.

[racnbns]

Californian's are smarter than MID-Worsters. We have close to 12 months a year to play with stuff, so we work "SMART", so we have more time to play.


In all the years you guys came to Parker and Havasu, Ted never brought Pat. Pat actually divorced Ted about July 4th 1962.

Ted went to a race in Lodi and torn the transom out of his Swift D Hydro, and actually broke his tail bone in the wreck. Pat had gone somewhere for a "FILM SHOOT" and was out of town.

Ted had never built a boat yet, but decided to take his Swift apart piece by piece. Well, Ted had this D Hydro starting with where the transom was to the bow handle scattered down the side walk. Ted was copying each old piece making a new one ....Pat came home to her NICE HOME, IN A NICE NEIGHBORHOOD, in her new Lincoln Continental and what does she see??? Boat parts all over the front sidewalk, table saw in the front yard....Boat trailers with boats all over it, motors laying in the driveway...She filed for DIVORCE the next day.

Ron--

How come it takes you guys 12 months to do what we get done in 3 months? If it wasn't for us mid-worsters [MOUSE, SUGAR RAY AND BRUCE] you guys would have never got off the beach at Parker and Havasu! Just Kidding and you know it.

I remember the year we had a free weekend and we came up to Needles to watch a REAL boat race. Ted had a D stock hydro with a picture of a porpoise painted on the bottom. He would come off the beach with the boat pointed to the moon and wave the porpoise at the crowd. What a guy, not only a hell of a boat racer but a real showman.

Leeky Jack[SLIP] had that Switzer wing we pounded the bottom out of[OMC trailer] and decided it wasn't worth keeping so he gave it to Ted. Ted repaired it and ran at Parker and darn near won, was 2nd I think. Not sure if he ran our stuff or Mercury but it wouldn't matter cause Ted would make it work.

Bruce

[Ron Hill]

Amateur

Gonzales was given a 51-cent racquet by his mother when he was 12 years old. He received tennis analysis from his friend, Chuck Pate, but mostly taught himself to play by watching other players on the public courts at nearby Exposition Park (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exposition_Park_%28Los_Angeles%29) in Los Angeles. Once he discovered tennis, he lost interest in school and began a troubled adolescence in which he was occasionally pursued by truant officers and policemen. He was befriended by Frank Poulain, the owner of the tennis shop at Exposition Park, and sometimes slept there.[3] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pancho_Gonzales#cite_note-bio-2)


Ted grew up around Exposition Park. Ted took credit for Poncho becoming a tennis player.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pancho_Gonzales#cite_note-bio-2)

[Ron Hill]

Well, after Pat filed for divorce, Ted was looking to rent a tent and a six car garage. After the divorce was final, Pat had convinced the judge that Ted had no job, no skills and that she should be appointed his "Guardian".

So, as Ted's "Guardian" she let Ted live with her.

About this time they started Lion Country Safari in Irvine. Lion Country hired Pat to walk around with the Lions wearing a lion cloth, and little more. Pat was a great looker and the Lions loved her. And so did the tourist.

Pat rode on the Lion Country Safari Float in the 1973 Strawberry Festival Parade in Garden Grove, she and about six lions were on the float.

It was while she was working at Lion Country that the bought the new BIG house in Fountain Valley and this is when Pat brought Orphie home to raise. Orphie grew fast! He ate a 150 baby chickens a day.

[AngelsFanMomma]

Sorry...the quality sucks...I gotta work on scanning all these pictures in. But I love this picture and it is displayed proudly on a picture of the Port Of Long Beach/Navy Base where we spent most of our time together with Steve Cox and his two daughters Amanda and Laura.

[Ron Hill]

Well, after Pat filed for divorce, Ted was looking to rent a tent and a six car garage. After the divorce was final, Pat had convinced the judge that Ted had no job, no skills and that she should be appointed his "Guardian".

So, as Ted's "Guardian" she let Ted live with her.

About this time they started Lion Country Safari in Irvine. Lion Country hired Pat to walk around with the Lions wearing a lion cloth, and little more. Pat was a great looker and the Lions loved her. And so did the tourist.

Pat rode on the Lion Country Safari Float in the 1973 Strawberry Festival Parade in Garden Grove, she and about six lions were on the float.

It was while she was working at Lion Country that the bought the new BIG house in Fountain Valley and this is when Pat brought Orphie home to raise. Orphie grew fast! He ate a 150 baby chickens a day.

In and around 1955, Ted May built some fiber glass boats that he called "PUMPKIN SEEDS" they were about 8 feet long, no fins on the bottom and the were round bottoms. When were stater racing of KTLA-TV in the winter of 1955, Ted had about four of these "PUMPKIN SEEDS". They would go side ways as fast as they'd go straight. Between heats Ted and "CREW" would race around Lake Los Angeles somewhat like rodeo clowns do at rodeos.

One of the boats was called "MISS CARROT TOP". Mermaid bottom, orange hair and topless woman was painte of this boat. BPat may "Miss Carrot Top" drove this boat. Ted had played football for the Navy's team after WWII, the last war we won. As a result he had more football helmets, pants and jersies....(I'm sur th Navy never missed them). Pat would drive one of these "PUMPKIN SEEDS" with an orange ponytail sticking out of the helmet.....Sometimes, Bobby (May), Herbie or Cliffy Ham would be wearing the helmet witht he ponytail.

Dick Lane from KTLA-TV called them the "Mercury Maniacs" as Mercury was one of the sponsors fo the TV series (39 weeks of boat racing). Ted would pour gasoline on the water and then light it. He'd drive through the fire....the croud loved "The Mercury Maniacs".

In the old days we said a women was "Stacked" if she was well endowed. Well, Pat had been the original model for Playboy Magazine's joke page. She always said she models "Hoses ans gloves". If you ever saw the mannequin of the Joke Page", that was Pat May with the black hose, black gloves and black hair (Wig). Good she was good looking.

As time passed Ted and Pat lived together though divorced. I have lookeed for the issue of Playboy magazine that featured her, around 1959....but have not found it, though I remember reading it as it had Pat's 1959 Buick in the article. She charged Ted $150 deposit to borrow her car to go to the boat races. He wenet to Guntersville, Alabama in 1961 and 1962 with that Buick. He was on the road for almost three weks, living out of that car. He took Butch May, Bobby May, Herbie and Danny Anderson with him....

Ted never really had a job.....he just kind of "GOT BY"....

Hard to hear that Pat is gone.....

[Ron Hill]

This is Ted driving Bob Nordskog KT, a "HIGH RIDER" Molinari, glass boat. I'm not sure the year, maybe 1980.

[Ron Hill]

This picture answered the time line I was asking about. This is L-R: Bob Witt, Billy Seebold, Ted May and Johnnie Sanders. Wayne Baldwin photo. Seebold 190, Sanders in 196!

[Ron Hill]

Clear Lake 1975, Wayne Baldwin photo of Bob Nordskog's IT, before they called them KT's.

[Ron Hill]

May's reputation as a driver and powerboat racing authority is familiar to several generations in the U.S. and Europe. His expertise aided countless competitors, novices and veterans. Teaching, advising and showing newcomers what power boat racing is all about, Ted has influenced many young racers, especially in the Stock and Alky classes where he set several APBA and NOA kilo and competition records. He won the A Runabout World Championship in 1965 and 1966, then a national title in B Runabout. When the OPC category arose, Ted was among the first tunnel boat racers. He quickly made his name known in the one to nine-hour endurance events in the U.S. and abroad.

I never knew Ted was an Honor Squadron member, until I Googled his name today!

TED HAS PASSED ON NOW, I THINK OF HIM OFTEN!

[Ron Hill]

http://www.boatracingfacts.com/forums/images/icons/icon1.png Ted May...


This should go under "Bakersfield Memories" but I wanted to keep it with TED MAY Stories...

Seems it was the fall of 1963, we'd been to Boston to the Nationals, the Colorado River Marathon was over...about late September or early October it was an LASA race at Bakersfield. (LASA was the Los Angeles Speedboat Club) of which Gloria and Ken Steelman were the heads....

My folks decided not to go, so I went on my own. As usual, I didn't have any money, so Ted said I could stay with him. Doc Collins took us to dinner and as I recall, I'd never had Oysters on the half shell...but seems I ate about a dozen or more. Doc was always a great host when it came to eating or drinking....and I, in my youth, didn't want to let him down...

Sunday morning as we we heading for Lake Ming...Ted was wearing shorts and his Skin Diver booties...I was barefoot in cut off Levi's... We were driving Ted's 55 T-Bird... just before we got to the turn off for Ming, we ran over a rattle snake in the road.

I looked back and told Ted, "We didn't kill it, we'd better go back and kill him." Ted said, "WHY?".... I said, "Man, they are dangerous when they are hurt...".

So, Ted turns the Bird around and we stop on top of the snake...Ted BURNS out and the snake goes *** over teakettle....but he wiggles off... I say, "We didn't kill him..."

This snakes keeps wiggling up the hill and we keep running over him and peeling out... Sum bitch doesn't die...Bleeding like hell...

Ted an d I get out of the T-Bird, by now we are on top of one of those stupid hills by Lake Ming...we start to grab a rock.... then I say, "Wait, he may have brothers around here..."... So, Ted's gets this big rock in his hand and I'm walking backwards, looking for snakes, with my hands in his back pockets...so no snakes will get us...Ted smashes the snakes head...we haul out for the T-bird. we go down the hill about a hundred...

We get to the pits, everyone wants to know what hell were we doing on top of that stupid hill....we say, "Killing snakes"....

Some AMAZING NAMES...Ted May In Mexico


Ted May and Gene Maynard went to this race In Mexico, in Ted's 55 T-Bird. Ted pulled a triple deck trailer with that T-Bird, when he bought a Ford truck, the Bird had more than 200,000 miles...Gene raced DU, and lived here in Costa Mesa, two blocks from where I live, now.

Ted, looks so young in that one picture. Ted was SoCal's Racing STAR. Everyone loved Ted and Ted's stories. Like I said before, he went to more of my high school football games and practices than my dad. He was more of kid, than us kids...

He thought he'd won MILLIONS in MEXICO but when he cashed in the pesos, he didn't get much. Even though Ted always liked to race for money, I know he raced hundreds of heats for a small trophy. He was always very proud of his George Townsend Medal for most points in Alky (PRO) APBA...

Ted did have a temper and once it went off, usually, it would take several hours or a day, sometimes two days, for him to cool off.

His brother had been murdered by some guys that had followed his brother home from a bar, and as a result Ted never really drank....and if he'd have a beer or two, you couldn't tell if he was playing or was "DRUNK as a SKUNK"... I always felt he could hold his liquor...but maybe he wasn't acting...

He always called us "YOUNG GUYS" WINOS when we'd drink beer....Ted would usually keep an eye open for all us "YOUNG GUYS" when we were having a few beers...He was like a "Designated Driver" before there was such a thing...And he'd usully buy more than his share of beers.

One Wednesday or Thursday night, in 1968, we were heading to Parker. Ted, my fraternity brother Smitty, Jimmy Hauenstein and me...As we were leaving Indio, I bought a case of Coors. Ted said, "You Winos can drink, I'll drive". I had a '68 Chevy wagon with the High Performance 350. Ted just floors it, like it was his T-Bird and we roll up that hill out of Indio going about a hundred...

There are no cars on the road, and when we hit the top of the hill, Ted keeps her floored and we're going down hill at about 125 MPH. (Flat desert road). All of a sudden we catch up with a car, Ted "FLYS" around the guy who is going may 50, as we flash past I realize it is a CHP California Highway Patrol) ......The COP must have figured we'd crash somewhere down the road, then he wouldn't have to chase us.....but he never even turned on his lights, Ted never let up....the headlights just seemed to back up and disappear over the horizon....

I told Ted, "Damn, the cop ain't chasing us...slow down so we can drink our beer without being scared to death..."