After graduating in 1962 Mayer followed his brother and Revson to Europe and joined Bruce McLaren who was setting up his Formula One team.

[1] For much of the 1970s McLaren enjoyed considerable success, with both Emerson Fittipaldi and James Hunt taking the drivers title.

[1] In addition to Formula One, McLaren also competed in USAC, CART, and CanAm racing under Mayer's management.

Mayer continued to work in motor sport, firstly in Indy car racing, running the Texaco Star team under the Mayer Motor Racing banner, and then in 1986 returning to Formula One as manager of Haas Lola,[1] a new team he co-founded with Carl Haas and running 1980 World Champion, Alan Jones alongside of former Ferrari and Renault driver Patrick Tambay.

He and wife Sarah (Sally) Bryant (divorced in 1993) had two children, Tim Mayer (named after Teddy's brother), who is also in motorsports, and Anne.