Claude Austen Newton May was born in 1910, an only child, his aunt was married to Chris Bird, a prominent driver at Shelsley Walsh before and after the First World War.

Austen worked for the family tyre business and first ventured into competitive motor sport, as passenger for Ken Crawford in his Wolsley Hornet, on the 1933 Lands End Trial. At that time, trials were very popular, initially as tests of reliability but later in the more competitive form of sporting trials. Austen acquired his own cars, first a Jensen-bodied Hornet and then a succession of MGs. He found that he was good at trials and began to accumulate trophies.

The Second World War intervened and left a gap in Austen’s life which was only partially filled by his duties in the Auxiliary Fire Service. He began to write about his experiences in trials which were published as Wheelspin in 1945 by GT Foulis.

After the war, Austen returned to trials in a Morgan and then a Ford V8, and published Wheelspin Abroad in 1949, a first hand tale of Continental competition in a 1 1/4 litre Y-type MG.

Austen May also kept a close eye on the development of 500 racing and at the end of 1948, he acquired Stirling Moss’ Cooper Mk II which he debuted at the Goodwood Easter Meeting in 1949.

Austen May in his Cooper at Goodwood, Easter 1950

This was followed by a new Cooper Mk IV with which he competed regularly at home and abroad, including fifth place at Monaco in May 1950 to such luminaries as Moss, Schell, Parker and Bayol and fastest time of the day at Prescott in July 1952.

In 1951, his fifth book, Formula 3, A Record of 500cc Racing, was published, again by GT Foulis. It is an insiders view and provides a highly detailed record of the early years as well as being an excellent read.

At the end of 1952 he acquired Eric Brandon’s Cooper Mk VI  and, again, took fastest time at Prescott in September ‘54 and was the highest placed JAP engined car in the 100 mile race at Silverstone, finishing fourth. Austen’s final 500 was a Mk VIII which he used for the 1955 and 1956 seasons, winning the Autosport Trophy in '56. At the end of 1956 he decided to retire and moved into the commentary box but after three years was tempted back into the cockpits of a Lotus 7, Lotus 18 and a Formula Junior Cooper for his final stint of competitive driving. C.A.N. May died in October 1984.

Prescott September 1954 in the Mk VI

Our thanks to the May family and Paul Barrow.