Harvard Graduate Aurora Straus Is Breaking Down Barriers In Motorsports

Unlike a lot of professional race car drivers—the kind who like to brag that they’re basically born with a steering wheel in their hands—recent Harvard graduate Aurora Straus says she never really expected to be a race car driver.

“My dad is a car nut and huge adrenaline junkie, and my mom is one of the most competitive people I’ve ever met,” Straus explains. “Maybe it’s in my blood after all.”

The 24-year-old driver, who competes in the Radical Cup North America circuit, said this week, “I first got behind the wheel when I was 13 with my father in the passenger seat— not to be a race car driver, but to learn some basic driving skills.”

It was an early lesson in the basics of handling a car. Stuff like “correcting (her) slide,” she said, and learning to navigate the icy roads around wintertime Upstate New York.

But shortly after mastering the fundamentals the race track came calling.

“As a four-foot-ten girl who thought she would be a teacher when she grew up, it was completely addicting,” Straus said. “There are only a few moments in my life that I can remember like it was yesterday. But my first time on a racetrack is one of them.”

Within three years, Straus attended Skip Barber Racing School during the summers, and hit her local track as often as possible. Then she turned professional at age 16. At about the same time that Straus went pro, a company called ModSpace approached her about competing in the Mazda MX-5 Cup.

“Racing in the (Mazda MX-5) Cup as a 16-year-old was an honest-to-goodness trial by fire,” she said. “Anyone who has watches those races knows how competitive and elbows-out they are.”

Straus’ next step was to make her IMSA debut. That first foray into racing as a pro began in 2016, and over the course of her first part-time season Straus grabbed a handful of Top 10 finishes. In 2017, she made her full-season debut, in the Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge, finishing that year as the top rookie in her class.

Currently Straus competes professionally as a full-time driver of the #17 Radical SR3 for the Richard Mille Racing Team. Earlier this year she also graduated from Harvard University as a member of the Class of 2022, with highest honors while majoring in History and Government.

On top of that feat, Straus concluded her 2022 racing season with a win at Sonoma Raceway, in the final Radical Cup North America competition.

Just after Thanksgiving, I connected with Aurora Straus for a quick interview and to talk about her time in racing.

VIDEO: Straus describes spending her teens in a race car

Andy Frye: So, what was it like to learn racing as a teenager? ​

Aurora Straus: My journey into racing was a big unconventional and rocky! I am blessed to have supportive parents that didn’t just send me to a Skip Barber Racing School, but also taught me how to write sponsorship proposals.

After a bunch of club track days in a (Mazda) Miata, the opportunity presented itself thanks to a company called ModSpace to run in the Mazda MX-5 Cup. Racing in Cup as a 16-year-old was an honest-to-goodness trial by fire. But I learned so much, and can’t thank everyone at Mazda and ModSpace enough for giving me the opportunity to grow in that series. I made my IMSA debut in 2016, drove from somewhere around 25th to 9^th place, and the rest is history.

I first got behind the wheel when I was 13, to learn some basic driving skills, like correcting a slide, before I started driving myself to school on icy New York roads. Driving on a racetrack for the first time felt like love at first sight for me. I’d never experienced anything like it—racing is so much more than an adrenaline rush. It’s the feeling of control over your own destiny, the combination of engineering precision and straight-up guts, that knot in your stomach that comes from braking 20 feet later and the satisfaction that comes from getting that corner just right.

AF: Why did you pick the current format you are in?

​Straus: Truth be told, I sort of fell into sportscar racing more than choosing it, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. Some context for those who may not know—if you’ve ever seen movies like Ford v. Ferrari or news about the 24 hours of Le Mans (and) Daytona—I do that type of racing.

I can only speak for racing in North America—it is insanely competitive on-track, yet everyone is a family off track. Some of my best friends are people who have also contributed to my toughest battles on track.

Related: Samantha Tan talks owning her racing team, beating men

From 2015 to 2021, I raced in “GT cars,” or cars that are approximately 75% the same makeup as street cars. In 2022, I did my first season in a high-downforce car, racing as the first woman ever in Radical Cup North America. Part of why I picked the series is because there are great opportunities in high-downforce sportscar racing long-term, and I want to be a part of them. Frankly, the car has been a challenge from a physical standpoint, but definitely a welcome one. xI want to duke it out with the strongest of the guys!

​AF: How would you describe your driving style?

​Straus: ​I think my strongest attributes behind the wheel are the ability to learn and absorb feedback, and the ability to be consistent. Part of why I love sportscar racing is because it puts a particular emphasis on these two traits—in the endurance races that I have typically done, you run with other drivers, and try to leverage each other’s data to find extra time. For example, my co-driver may be braking later into a corner, but I get back to the gas sooner—so it’s possible for us both to learn from each other)

The second trait, consistency, is critical in longer races where it is much more prudent to have a consistently competitive lap time versus one great lap time followed by a substantial drop-off.

AF: What are the best moments of your motorsports career thus far?

​Straus: This sounds crazy because this race didn’t end well for me—in fact, my teammate was caught up in an incident, so our car didn’t even finish the race — but one of my proudest moments from my racing career so far is the first time I ever drove a GT4 car, at Daytona in January 2018.

I had gotten a last-minute call to drive the car that I couldn’t refuse. I was an 18-year-old kid scared sh*tless, but I managed to drive the car through the field and into the Top 10, in what was honestly some of my best driving to-date. I left that race a significantly more confident driver, and felt like I was able to show the paddock what I was capable of with very little seat time beforehand.

Another great moment in my racing career is my first pro win, in 2018 at Circuit of the Americas. That one was special for a ton of reasons. The best wins are ones where it’s a battle to the end.

AF: The majority of racers are men. What have been the biggest challenges so far as a participant in your sport?

​Straus: The racing world has changed in an unbelievably positive way for women in the last five to ten years. I experienced the biggest challenges early on in my career, and am hopeful that the next generation of girls in motorsport will not have to deal with them.

Anyone who has ever been a middle school girl knows that self-confidence doesn’t come easy in any context, let alone (within) hyper-competitive and male-dominated as motorsports.

Everyday sexist moments are much rarer now, and I am not only confident enough to brush them aside, but also in the position to actually call out and address them—but ten years ago, they were debilitating. I ignored the semi-frequent “is she 18 yet?” comments, being called “cute” or “sweetheart” by competitors that I deeply respected, and generally did nothing when fans inevitably got too close during pre-race meet and greets.

Related story: Lindsay Brewer, “Future of IndyCar”?

Reflecting on these moments from early in my career, I’m incredibly grateful for two things — firstly, for every one racer or fan that I met who acted this way, I met hundreds of people who were incredibly supportive. (Some) have even spoken about how one day, they want their daughters to race.

Today, the industry is having very productive conversations about how to get women to the highest levels of motorsports, as well as how to create a culture that is more welcoming as a whole. I may not always think that we’re distributing resources and opportunities in the most effective way—that is a whole other conversation that I am happy to have with folks outside of this. I’m so grateful to the motorsports community for taking the critical first steps in creating an equal playing field.

Read Frye’s interviews with Samantha Tan and Lindsay Brewer.

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