Former BRM car mechanic Dick Salmon, now aged 99, writes book on Bourne’s Raymond Mays
At the age of 99, Dick Salmon could be forgiven for wanting to put his feet up and reflect on his amazing life as a former world championship-winning racing car mechanic, writes Bob Warters in this special report.
But there’s no such thing as writer’s cramp for this lively nonagenarian, who is already looking forward to his 100th birthday on July 22 and his next project.
Despite having already written and published his own memoirs ‘A Mechanic’s Tale’ featuring his exploits travelling the world with the famed Bourne-based BRM racing team, Dick was determined to pay a lasting tribute to the late Raymond Mays - the entrepreneur who spawned the town’s race engineering history and which still thrives today.
‘Raymond’s Legacy - a century of motorsport in Bourne’ drills down into Mays’ early years as a motor racing enthusiast and competitor, particularly as a hero among the daredevil hill climb fraternity.
A fearless bunch, they often risked their lives taking home-built mini racing cars to their limit on some of Britain’s steepest, terrifying ascents in the name of thrills and sport.
The book traces how Mays started making his own ERA cars (English Racing Automobiles) in garages behind the family home at Eastgate House, 5 Eastgate, Bourne in the 1930s and eventually progressed to the BRM (British Racing Motors) brand, where they challenged the world’s mid-century manufacturing giants including Scuderia Ferrari, Alfa Romeo, Maserati and Mercedes.
Says Dick in his introduction to his 188-page A4 book, which includes 33 fact-packed chapters, historic images and hair-raising incidents: “Raymond’s dream to beat the German Mercedes and Auto Union cars of the period was finally realised when his BRM car won the Formula One world championship with Graham Hill in 1962.
“I remember it well as that day I was Hill’s mechanic at the East London circuit in South Africa,” says the diminutive author, who now counts bowls among his current diverse pursuits.
Though Dick admits it was a labour of love recalling the accomplishments of Mays, it was a long journey of research from a seed of an idea to publication of the book in January.
It included months recording historic detail, photo research and help from friends and family including his Norfolk-based son Michael and his partner Jayne.
“I didn’t keep a diary, of my time as a mechanic with BRM. Perhaps I should have done but never thought of it at the time,” he recalls.
“Fortunately, even at my age I have a fairly good memory of my career and the people I met and worked with on our travels around the world.
“I am even reasonably proficient on the internet and was able to find out more about races I worked at and which helped to jog my memory. I was also helped by various invaluable sources, especially Rick Hall at Hall&Hall, one of several (race car engineering) companies that have evolved from ERA/BRM locally.”
Indeed Rick has written a fascinating foreword to the book adding further insight to the town’s burgeoning racing industry.
As well as Mays, he pays tribute to Sir Alfred Owen, CEO of Rubery Owen the company which bought BRM in 1954 and played a major role in its establishment as a world championship contender.
“I never thought Mays received the recognition he deserved,” he says.”He was the grandfather of British racing by not only putting Bourne on the map but also Great Britain. Then and now the town is still the epicentre of motor racing worldwide.”
Around Bourne there are several acknowledgements of the Mays legacy at Eastgate House, Coggles Causeway, South Way, Raymond Mays Way, the Heritage Centre and Graham Hill Way, as well as the Raymond Mays pub in North Street - a Wetherspoon venue which Dick officially opened in June 2022.
So what kind of boss was Raymond Mays?
“He was a real gentleman and would always speak to the average man in the street and treat everyone the same,” said Dick.
“I remember that he always looked smart. Whenever I saw him he was wearing blue - blue suit, blue shirt (the car’s original colours). And he was a shrewd businessman. He loved the opportunity to make some money and, as I say in the book, if there was a chance for the drivers and the team to pick up some extra cash by entering a race, he would back them.”
How did his relationships with the Mays organisation start?
“In the early days before I joined the Grand Prix team I did some work for him on his Bugatti which he used for hill climbs and remember one event in Wales where his wheel came off.
“He always reminded me from then on to ‘check the wheels, Dick, then check them again, please.’”
The former mechanic recalls an incident later that eventually earned him the chance of a job on the BRM racing team
“The chief engineer had overturned one of the support vans and they couldn’t get it started. I suggested a solution which proved correct and was invited to join the racing team working at the Folkingham workshops. It also entailed travelling to test tracks at Silverstone and Monza in Italy - where Raymond and his friends liked to socialise - and to events in Europe and further afield.
“Originally we would take the cars on trailers and transporters. Later there would be six mechanics including ( two engine and one gearbox specialist) who would travel separately to events, driving the workshop van or in Ford Zephyr Estate cars. It was tiring but fun.”
Mays inevitably would be there at the track destination, deeply involved and never missing a networking opportunity.
Dick recalls: “It could be pretty hectic at race meetings as teams were only allowed two mechanics over the pit counter - not like it is today ( with a large team of helmeted mechanics waiting to pounce on any pit stop).
“I remember once at Aintree I was complimented for changing a tyre in 20 seconds. Today they can change all four in less than three seconds!”
And he was privileged to meet many of the great drivers thanks to Mays who once brought famed Argentinian legends Juan Manuel Fangio and Jose Gonzalez to the workshops at Folkingham.
“Neither of them would fit into a modern race car but they were real gentlemen and even though neither spoke a word of English we were able to communicate through gestures and shrugs.
“We all worked very hard, sometimes for 24 hours if needed, to get the cars ready. Yes, we had a moan and a whinge at times, but we were told by Peter Berthon, renowned director and designer, that we were very lucky to have such jobs. He was right, we were being paid to pursue our passion.”
All the drivers Dick met and worked with, he says, were different in their own way but dedicated to their sport.
“Stirling Moss was the fittest and probably the greatest driver never to win the world championship. He sacrificed his own chances to get Mike Hawthorn re-instated in a race, which effectively cost him the title.
“And there was Graham Hill - a dual personality - the public speaker and comedian and then the dedicated racing driver. He was obsessive, always watching and fiddling to improve the car.
“Jackie Stewart was always very safety conscious. He has done so much to improve safety in motor racing and was also responsible for setting up the Grand Prix Mchanics Association of which I am still a member and which meets regularly for reunions.”
Paying tribute in its opening pages to all who have contributed to the book, both in text and imagery, Dick also acknowledges in its final chapter that he hopes his book will clarify how Mays, who died in 1980 aged 81 and has a memorial tablet dedicated to him in the town’s Well Head gardens, played such a key role in establishing the recognition of Bourne as a motor racing engineering centre of excellence.
“I am proud that I can count myself among those lucky people who contributed to those years in a small way, all due to a man born in Eastgate House in Bourne in 1899. We should all be very proud of what he has done for the town.”
*Raymond’s Legacy - Century of Motorsport in Bourne,’ by Dick Salmon is published by Performance Publishing Ltd in Grantham, and is priced £32.