19-year-old tells Harvard to wait as she pursues racing career
Lots of high school graduates take a year off before starting college. Some use it to travel. Others use the time to get a job and build up some savings.
At least one is using it to pursue a career in racing.
Aurora Straus, 19, has told Harvard to save her spot at the school for a year while she follows her passion for motorsports.
Straus currently races in the IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge. She was the highest-finishing rookie on the circuit last year.
While most teens are just getting their learner’s permit at 16, Straus fell in love with driving at age 13, when her dad signed her up for a safe-driving lesson at the Monticello Motor Club in upstate New York.
“My dad’s intention was for me to learn car control skills,” she told the New York Post of her father, Ari Straus, the CEO of the club. But instructor Stevan McAleer let her drive a few fast laps for fun.
For Aurora, it was an eye-opening experience.
“I will never forget the feeling of the machine under me. I was so small, and I had never experienced so much power. It was the first time I had ever gone into the triple digits,” she told the Post.
Being a young female in a male-dominated sport isn’t easy, and Straus said there have been times she has been frustrated at the attitudes of some men in the sport.
One of those times was as a 14-year-old, when she attended a racing retreat in Florida.
“One of the instructors … told me I braked like a girl, that I handled the car like a girl,” she said. “I was so discouraged that I almost quit.”
As she’s grown older, Straus says some of the comments have become more offensive.
She cites the example of the owner of a racing team making a comment about how she’d lure more supporters if she wore revealing outfits.
“I’m not here for people to take photos because I’m in a tank top, but because I’m a driver they want to follow,” she said. “I have encountered more men than I would have expected who would rather push me off the track than race side-by-side with a 19-year-old girl. [But] I want no business in victimizing myself.”
Straus said she’s come to grips with the notion that women have a long way to go before they’re treated the same as men in the racing profession.
“In a perfect world, I would be treated equally with every other driver, but that’s not how it works,” she said. “I get added marketing because of my gender, and I also get added pressure. The whole thing is relative.”
When fall rolls around, Straus plans to study English with a minor in mechanical engineering at Harvard and race on the weekends.
She’s also an experienced singer, having sung the national anthem prior to one of her races on the Continental circuit.
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