Why You Should Know “Motorcycle Mary” McGee

“It’s not whether you finish first, second, or last. It’s the struggle to finish. It is the journey of your life.”

Mary Bernice McGee, who passed away November 27, 2024 at the age of 87, was the kind of person who started what she finished. She was the first woman in the U.S. to hold a racing license from the international organizing body Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme, or FIM, one of the oldest and strongest motorsports organizations in the world.

Though she first started racing motorcycles on track, she found her niche in desert racing: She raced the first-ever Baja 1000 in 1967 with a Datsun 510, finished the Baja 1000 in 1968 with a Datsun minitruck, and, since that wasn’t hard enough, tackled the race by herself on a Husqvarna 250 in 1975. She finished 17th out of 365 entries (individuals and teams). She was racing competitively up until the age of 74, when she competed at the 2011 AHRMA Nationals in Phoenix, Arizona, and was still riding trails at 80.

Ironically, for someone best known for her exploits in the desert, “Motorcycle Mary” was born in Alaska. During WWII, her mother, a nurse, had to stay in Juneau, so she moved to Iowa with her older brother Jim. Her father had left the family not long after Mary was born, in 1936. Her brother is the reason Mary got into racing, first with cars, and then with motorcycles. Her husband, Don McGee, was a racing mechanic, and further encouraged Mary to pursue her desire to race.

She switched from road to desert racing because Steve McQueen made fun of her road bike at a New Year’s Eve party, suggesting that real racers rode off-road. (One wonders who else was at that party!) Mary wasn’t one to back down from a challenge, so off-road she went.

Nothing would stop Mary from racing. Not the death of her brother in a car accident in 1964, and not her own head-on highway collision, after which she discovered she was pregnant. She kept racing—her brother would have wanted her to. Don and her son regularly showed up to her competitions.

Throughout her life, Mary was an enthusiastic and relentless advocate for racing, a competitor who never lost sight of the importance of fun. The American Motorcyclist Association inducted her into its Hall of Fame in 2018, and the Off-Road Motorsports Hall of Fame welcomed her in 2023. If you want to learn more about Mary McGee, watch the short documentary by Breakwater Studios for ESPN’s 30 for 30 series.

It’s the best kind of historic film because it stars the lady herself, both in contemporary interviews and in period race footage. Be warned: You’ll be inspired.