Mary McGee

Mary McGee (born December 12, 1936) is an American female racing pioneer. She was the first woman to road race motorcycles and race in the United States. Starting out as a sports car racer, she competed in motorcycle road racing and motocross from 1960 to 1976, then began competition again in 2000 in vintage motocross events.

McGee was born in Juneau, Alaska on December 12, 1936. She then moved to Iowa to live with her grandparents during World War II as Alaska was considered to be at risk of a Japanese invasion. In 1944 the family settled in Phoenix, Arizona. Eventually she met her husband, Don McGee, who was a mechanic who had worked on the east coast. Shortly after their 1956 wedding Don introduced her to racing cars which eventually lead to racing motorcycles. While a tall 5’11”, Mary always described herself as "fast on my feet, fast with my brain, self-conscious and lacking confidence", however she had "no trouble with confidence on the race track".

McGee began racing sports cars with the Sports Car Club of America in December 1957, driving a Mercedes 300SL owned by George Rice of Phoenix Arizona. She consistently won her races, which earned her media attention. A January 1962 article in Motor Trend started with "Housewives revolt!" and ended with "so ladies if you are bored with freeway traffic, don’t give up. Buy a motorcycle and join Mary McGee." She continued racing sports cars until the summer of 1964. McGee raced a variety of cars including:

Some of the tracks McGee raced on include:

While McGee raced with the California Sports Car Club (Cal Club) and the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA), she placed:

McGee bought her first motorcycle when a friend needed to sell a 200cc 1956 Triumph Tiger Cub, in 1957. She knew nothing about motorcycles at that time but was willing to learn and ended up falling in love with the sport. The Tiger Cub didn’t always start, so she traded it for a Honda C110 that she used to commute to her job as a parts manager at Flint British Motors. In 1960, while she was racing a Porsche Spyder in Santa Barbara, California, the car’s owner, Czech race-car icon Vasek Polak, suggested to McGee’s husband that she should ride a motorcycle to improve her car-racing skills. When he told her, McGee responded with, "Okay. Why not?"

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