Kenneth Henry May (born April 5,[1] 1970 from Sacramento, California, U.S.) is a former American professional "Old/Mid School" Bicycle Motocross (BMX) racer whose prime competitive years were from 1985 to 2000.
His best known nickname is "May Day", a play on words involving his last name and the international call of distress Mayday which was in turn prompted by his hard charging "go-for-it" racing determined to come in first no matter what the cost.
His being knocked out after a severe wreck (despite having a helmet on) during the 1986 American Bicycle Association (ABA) Grand Nationals being a case in point.
[2] He often managed to recover quickly enough to be in the next moto (heat) of racing to take the win and transfer to the main.
First Professional race result: First place in "A" pro at the 1990 American Bicycle Association (ABA) in Reno, Nevada (Day 1) on January 13, 1990.
First Senior Pro** race result: Disqualified for the day for fighting with Alex Pflug (pronounced "Flewg"[7]) in the first moto after they collided in the third turn at the 1990 ABA Winter Nationals in Chandler, Arizona on February 18.
Primary sponsorships can be verified by BMX press coverage and sponsor's advertisements at the time in question.
Indeed, he broke his hand in his very first race in 1979[4] He acknowledged his predilections for on track mishaps in an interview:Gork: "What's with you and crashing?"
-----American BMXer May 1990 His aggressiveness also had a penchant to be displayed very graphically on his face:"Kenny May is pretty hardcore.
This can easily be identified by his facial expressions during a race—gritting teeth, wide eyed, loud huffing, snot spouting from his nose, saliva drooling out of the corner of his mouth, etc.
Sometimes this "trash talk" would provoke a physical altercation with another racer as it did with Joe Pinkney at the 1988 NBL Tanglewood Spring Nationals in Clemmons, North Carolina.
[18] On November 29, 1989 during the ABA Grandnationals in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma in a heavily contested race for the title of No.1 Amateur Cruiser that year, Kenny May had to be restrained by security guards to keep him from assaulting James Prichard (of whom he had several previous disputes with).
In this case he thought made an overly aggressive pass during his 17–21 Cruiser main in the second turn while Kenny was leading.
As noted in the "First Senior Pro Race result" category above Kenny May was disqualified for fighting with another racer, Alex Pflug (pronounced "Puf-lug"[7]) They collided in the third turn in the first moto at the 1990 ABA Winter Nationals in Chandler, Arizona on February 18.
May was asked and gave his side about the incident in a brief interview with Go magazine:"We were coming out of the first corner and I was in third and Alex was in fourth and he pulled up next to me.
As he puts it he believes in "Payback":"....I still won't deliberately take him out to pass him" [if the opponent was in the lead -ed] "--unless he's someone who's taken me out before.