Charles Richard May (born 8 May 1944 in

Southampton Southampton is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. It is located approximately southwest of London, west of Portsmouth, and southeast of Salisbury. Southampton had a population of 253, ...

, England) was a

motorcycle speedway Motorcycle speedway, usually referred to simply as speedway, is a motorcycle sport involving four and sometimes up to six riders competing over four clockwise, anti-clockwise laps of an oval circuit. The motorcycles are specialist machines that ...

rider that rode for

Reading Racers Reading Racers were a British motorcycle speedway team. Formed in 1968, they won four British League titles during their history. The club closed in October 2008 after the lease on Smallmead Stadium was sold and the site was demolished. His ...

and

Poole Pirates Poole Pirates (also known as Poole Speedway) are a motorcycle speedway team based in Poole, England, competing in the SGB Championship. The club have been the champions of the United Kingdom on ten occasions. Poole Speedway is promoted by l ...

between 1969 and 1977.

Career

"Dickie" May was the Southern Centre 350cc Solo Grasstrack champion in 1967. In 1970 he was part of the Young England side that faced a Young Sweden side in the Division 2 Test Series tour In 1971 he won the Golden Helmet from Ken McKinlay. May joined

in 1969 and spent five seasons with them, culminating in winning the 1973 British League, along with regular riders

Anders Michanek Anders Michanek (born 30 May 1943) is a Swedish Speedway rider. In 1974 he won the Speedway World Championship in his Swedish homeland with a maximum score of 15 points. He earned 101 caps for the Sweden national speedway team. Career Michane ...

, Dag Lövaas, Geoff Curtis, Mick Bell and Bernie Leigh. He also rode for

. While riding for the Pirates he competed in the preliminary round of the British Qualifiers of the 1974 Individual Speedway World Championship and was the leading bonus point scorer that year for Poole. Speedway writer Arnie Gibbons (author of ''Tears and Glory'' ) wrote in the ''Speedway Plus'' article "We had Joy, We Had Fun" that after a meet on 5 October 1970, May had become his first speedway hero after scoring a 12 point full maximum which helped the Reading Racers beat Eastbourne.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:May, Richard 1944 births English motorcycle racers British speedway riders Reading Racers riders Poole Pirates riders Living people 20th-century English sportsmen