Mary McGee, who first learned how to ride at age 21, will forever be remembered as the most acclaimed female pioneer in the sports of desert off-road racing and motocross — her true passions — only discovered after many years of successfully racing cars and motorcycles on road circuits.

It didn’t bother McGee that she was the only female racing back in those days — in fact, the satisfaction of breaking down the barriers she faced only fueled her competitive nature. For three decades, McGee’s passion for racing, especially on her dirt bikes, would persevere, despite personal tragedy and injuries along the way.

Most of us weren’t even born in 1963 when Mary McGee throttled into her first race in the desert. It was an AMA District 37 Enduro held in Jawbone Canyon, California, and McGee was riding a 1962 CL72 250cc Honda Scrambler.

McGee, who was already known in motorsports circles for racing both cars and motorcycles competitively on paved circuits, entered the race on the advice of her friend, fellow racer, and movie star Steve McQueen, who had said to the then-27-year-old a few months prior: “McGee, you’ve got to get off that pansy road-racing bike and come out to the desert.”

After some training, including with the legendary Ekins brothers, McGee dove into the thrill of dust and 2-stroke exhaust with vigor, becoming the first American woman to race motocross, and also the first to compete with Europeans in international motocross in the United States. This, years after she’d also snagged the honor of being the first woman to race in a FIM-sanctioned road race in the United States in 1960.

The crown jewel in her pioneering career would come in 1975 when she became the first person ever — man or woman — to finish the grueling Baja 500 “solo” (a.k.a. “IronMan style”). She often said riding her 250cc Husqvarna in that event was the most difficult of her storied endeavors, and also the one of which she was most proud.

“It was very barren, no electricity, no doctors, no phone,” McGee remembered of the grueling event, and though she did come off the bike several times, she was thankful she never needed to use the Percodan she had tucked away in a pocket. When she finally arrived in Ensenada, Baja, Mexico, her bike had a blown shock and splintered spoked wheels, yet she’d finished an incredible 17th overall.

On November 27, 2024, the world lost the physical presence of this remarkable female rider, who was 87 when she suffered complications related to a stroke. In a Facebook post a few days earlier, she’d assured her followers she wasn’t in for a facelift, and that she “would be home soon.”

It was just one day before the launch of an ESPN Films documentary, Motorcycle Mary, a 22-minute short executive produced in part by seven-time Formula One World Champion Lewis Hamilton. The film celebrates the female pioneer in a way she should have been honored during her career as a trailblazer in the then-fully male-dominated world of motorsports.

“I didn’t pay any attention to it,” McGee said of the lack of recognition she received during her racing career. “I was having too much fun.” But for those who knew McGee personally, she was very grateful when, much later in her life, the accolades finally began to roll in.

After decades off the bike, McGee jumped into vintage motocross racing in 2000 after moving from Phoenix, Arizona, to Gardnerville, Nevada, where she reconnected with old motorcycle friends. Soon after, she bought a 1974 250cc Husqvarna and raced in the 60-plus and later the 70-plus class. When she hung up her racing helmet in 2012, she had finally gained some celebrity, especially among young female riders who were by then flocking to the sport.

McGee was named an “FIM Legend” in 2013 for her pioneering achievements in motorcycle road racing. Five years later, in 2018, McGee was inducted into the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame, and as the film Motorcycle Mary begins, she shows off her commemorative ring. “It says, ‘Drinks gas, spits nails,’ ” she laughs, an ever-vital twinkle in her eye.

Another of McGee’s mottos has been: “Say yes, and then figure out what to do,” a rationale that brought her many adventures during her well-lived life.

Born in Juneau, Alaska, in 1936, Mary and her beloved older brother, Jim, were shipped off to live with relatives in Iowa during World War II, her mother having felt the Alaskan coast would be too close to the action. In 1956, she married Don McGee, a mechanic and racing enthusiast who, alongside her racer brother, coaxed her to enter her first car race.

It was behind the wheel of a Mercedes 300SL that McGee became the first woman to race with the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA). A few of the cars she drove, often to podium finishes, included an AC Bristol, Ferrari Berlinetta, Lotus 18, Porsche Spyder, and Ferrari Testa Rossa.

In 1957, a friend was selling a 200cc Triumph Tiger Cub, which became McGee’s first motorcycle. She knew nothing about motorcycles at the time but immediately loved the feeling of riding, and soon the Cub was traded for a more reliable Honda C110. At first, there was no impulse to take to the track on two wheels — in fact, the motorcycles were used mostly to commute to her job as a parts manager at a car manufacturing company.

It wasn’t until 1960, while she was racing a Porsche Spyder in Santa Barbara, California, that the car’s owner mentioned racing motorcycles might be a good way to improve her car-racing skills, to which McGee is said to have responded: “Okay. Why not?”

Since there were exactly zero women racing motorcycles at that time, the American Federation of Motorcyclists (AFM) insisted McGee perform a “tryout” so the officials could confirm she could safely ride a motorcycle. Soon she earned her FIM license and began racing a 125cc Honda CB92 wearing her now-famous pink polka-dot helmet.

By all accounts, McGee was treated like “one of the guys” during her many years of racing, though in more recent years, she would say it was far more gratifying to be celebrated for her differences rather than her similarities to the men she competed against.

Sadly, McGee’s brother Jim, who had encouraged his little sister to begin her racing career in the 1950s was killed in a car racing accident in 1964. That same year, Mary herself was seriously injured in a head-on car collision, and as she was being treated in the hospital, she learned she was pregnant with her son, Jake. One would think any of the circumstances would act as a deterrent, yet for McGee, nothing could dull her desire to chase checkered flags.

 By the time McGee was inducted into the Off-Road Motorsports Hall of Fame (FIM) in 2023, she had become especially proud of how many young female off-road riders had turned to her for inspiration in recent years.

“But probably the thing I’m proudest about,” McGee says in the film, “is that I had something to do with showing women that they can come out and race motorcycles.”

All of that adoration seemed to culminate at the 2024 “Babes in the Dirt” event, an annual three-day dirt bike campout for women held in the Mojave Desert. There was a camp-side pre-release screening of Motorcycle Mary, which by its end had all the girls on their bikes shining their headlights at the screen and revving engines in Mary’s honor.

McGee was home in Nevada at the time, yet she was also right in the desert, flourishing within the hearts and ambitions of every single woman who attended the event.

Two months later, she was gone, having died the same day her friend and fellow motorcycling legend Malcolm Smith “left the building.” While the motorcycle world was left reeling, it’s not hard to imagine the two of them dicing and roosting all the way to the gates of the great beyond.

Photos by Mary McGee, Breakwater Studios, FIM and AMA

Author: Jamie Elvidge

Jamie has been a motorcycle journalist for more than 30 years, testing the entire range of bikes for the major print magazines and specializing in adventure-travel related stories. To date she’s written and supplied photography for articles describing what it’s like to ride in all 50 states and 43 foreign countries, receiving two Lowell Thomas Society of American Travel Writer’s Awards along the way. Her most-challenging adventure yet has been riding in the 2018 GS Trophy in Mongolia as Team AusAmerica’s embedded journalist.