Mary McGee Motorsports Pioneer And Baja Racing Legend
Please enjoy this archive edition of Slow Baja with Mary McGee. The Off-Road Motorsports Hall of Fame just voted McGee into the class of 2023, and I am delighted to share this Slow Baja conversation that originally aired on 1 August 2022.
Mary McGee is an American motorsport racing pioneer. She was the first woman to compete in motorcycle road racing and motocross events in the United States. McGee started as a sports car racer in 1957. She drove the finest cars of the period. McGee raced the best of the best, from her first race in a Mercedes Gullwing 300SL to running Porsche Spyders and Ferrari Testa Rossa.
After legendary racer and Porsche dealer Vasek Polak suggested she take up motorcycle racing to make her smoother in the car, McGee started road racing bikes in 1960. At a New Year's Eve party in 1963, McGee's pal, actor Steve McQueen said, "McGee, when are you going to get off those pansy road racing bikes and come out to the desert?" A few weeks later, she began riding dirt bikes and racing with McQueen and his stuntman pals.
She raced a Datsun 510 in the first NORRA Mexican 1000 in 1967. McGee was inducted into the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame 2018 and named an FIM Legend for her pioneering motorcycle racing career.
Her career accolades are as follows:
• Past Pacific Coast Champion SCCA Sports and Formula Cars
• First woman US MC/FIM motorcycle race in the US – 1960
• First woman to finish the Baja 1000 in 1968
• First woman to Road Race motorcycles in the US
• First woman to race motocross in the US
• First woman to compete in International motocross
• Only person to ride the Baja 500 solo - 1975
• Inducted into the Off-Road Motorsports Hall of Fame - 2023
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