Elfrieda Mais

Elfrieda Mais was a star of the early 20th-century fairground race circuit in the USA. She died in 1934 when a driving stunt went wrong.

She raced in the USA between 1912 and 1934, initially alongside her husband Johnny Mais. She was born Elfrieda Hellmann in 1893 and married Jonny in the summer of 1911. She always raced under the name “Miss Mais”, although her marriage to Johnny was short-lived and the first of four. 

As women were prohibited from driving in sanctioned events, she mostly did speed trials and demonstration runs. The early part of her career is a little unclear as she was sometimes mixed up with Arline Mazy, another driver. 

It is in 1915 that her name starts to become a common sight in American newspapers. She took on another woman, Bunny Thornton, at the “Record Aviation and Auto Racing Meet” held as part of the Minnesota State Fair. Elfrieda was driving Johnny’s Mais Special. Bunny Thornton was referred to as the English champion, although she was probably not English. Their wheel to wheel race was over five miles and was won by Elfrieda. The pair renewed their rivalry at the Illinois State Fair, reputedly for a prize of $1000. Bunny was the first of many high-profile female rivals that Elfrieda had over the years.

Her first major male rival was De Lloyd Thompson at the 1916 Minnesota State Fair. This race was even more remarkable because Thompson was flying an aeroplane and Elfrieda was in the Mais Special. This was one of a series of car vs aeroplane races that Elfrieda did, including one in South Dakota shortly after her match with Thompson. She may have even raced against a female pilot, Ruth Law. It was reported in the Springfield News-Leader that noted aviatrix Katherine Stinson defeated Elfrieda by an eighth of a mile in a similar race at the Tri-State Fair.

At around this time, she set a series of speed records, but as she was not part of the motorsport establishment, these were not official. Nevertheless, she periodically bragged in the papers of how she was the "champion woman driver of the world". She continued to work with Johnny and the Mais Special, sometimes presenting herself as Johnny’s sister. In a syndicated 1928 newspaper article she claimed that another Mais sibling, Dolores, had been among her rivals. Elfrieda did have three sisters: Lui, Margaret and Alice, but their name was not Mais.  

For the time being in 1918, Elfrieda and Johnny were still publicly a couple and they began promoting their own car and motorbike race meetings. Both the Mais Special and a Mercer were usually on the bill. They put on events in Kansas, New Mexico and Arizona. In 1919, Elfrieda also drove an Essex car for speed record runs and in 1920 she added a Dodge to her stable.

After a couple of years spent attempting speed records, she made a return to wheel-to-wheel competition in 1921. A women’s race was organised at El Paso between Elfrieda in the Essex, Marie Jones in another Essex and Lottie Sanders in Stutz, probably all owned by the Mais family.

During the 1920s, Elfrieda competed less, partly due to the increasing professionalism of the US motor racing scene and its continuing sidelining of female drivers. She had also separated from Johnny by this point. She still attempted a series of record runs, often in her adopted home state of Kansas where she and Johnny were the leading promoters. These were not sanctioned events and reporting of them is inconsistent, with times stated as new records that contradict earlier ones. The fairground racing scene owed as much to show and spectacle as to sporting principles and promoters were not above stage-management of their events. The skill of the drivers is not in doubt although race results are not hugely reliable.

Ditto drivers’ backstories: Elfrieda claimed in her 1928 interview that she retired from the circuits in 1923 after seeing off another woman driver called Phoebe Miller. I have found no evidence of the mysterious Ms Miller, supposedly a ”millionaire sportswoman” from Memphis who retired herself following her marriage. Elfrieda was certainly less active as the 1920s wore on. She did find herself some more female rivals in 1924 in the shape of Jane Stanage and Mrs Robert H Radtke, who raced her at the North Shore Polo Club speedway. Only Jane Stanage turned up on the day and Elfrieda defeated her.

She took on another female driver, Marion Martins, in Canada in 1925. The two went head-to-head at Regina, Calgary and Edmonton fairgrounds, all half-mile dirt ovals. Elfrieda won one race at Victoria Park, Calgary. Her car was a Briscoe. Marion was almost certainly the driver who went on to become Joan La Costa. 

Joan La Costa eclipsed Elfrieda in the next few seasons, both in speed and in flamboyance. Elfrieda attempted to gain prominence once more in 1928 and her already-mentioned, largely fabricated media interview was part of this. She was now a German driver and had won a ladies’ title in 1927, although she had actually been relatively inactive. 

Increasingly, she turned to stunt driving at fairground dirt tracks to earn money and satisfy her taste for danger. She had tried to enter official AAA events in California in 1931, but her entries were refused and the leading US motorsport authority reiterated its ban on female drivers. In May, she was one of three women who tried to enter the Indianapolis 500. She continued to challenge both male and female drivers on dirt tracks, sometimes in a Duesenberg. 

She was killed in 1934, when one of these stunts went wrong. Having survived driving through a burning wall, her car went through a guardrail and overturned on a bank at the Alabama State Fair. She had previously performed the act successfully on several occasions. 

She is buried in Indianapolis. 

(Image from theoldmotor.com)