While most high school students learn to drive a regular car and navigate the suburban streets, senior Aurora Straus has perfected the art of driving a racecar and races professionally at tracks all over the country. Aurora Straus is a talented musician, distinguished scholar, and an avid racer. She competes in a racing series called the Continental Tire Sportscar Challenge, which consists of ten races at tracks ranging from Watkins Glen in upstate New York, to Daytona in Florida, to Laguna Seca in California.

Aurora experienced her first taste of racing at 13 years old.  Her dad wanted her to develop safe defensive driving skills— not so she would become a racer, but to be safer on the roads.

She said she was “skeptical to say the least, but to his surprise, I quickly fell in love with [racing]. I love the control you have over the car, the physics involved in pushing it to its limit, and the rush that comes with having other racers side by side with you.”

Both Aurora’s favorite and least favorite aspect about racing is the culture. As a woman, she feels underestimated and disrespected at times.

“I’ve had to earn respect on the track, even though this same respect is assumed for other male competitors. However, this culture is also one of the main reasons I’m determined to stay in the sport for as long as I can.”

One major part of racing culture that inspires Aurora is being a role model and breaking stereotypes around women who race.

“I love talking to little girls that come to the track specifically to see my car, and grasp that they, too, might upend stereotypes, and maybe eventually take my place.”

Aurora wants to continue pursuing racing, and plans to take a gap year before continuing her studies at Harvard University.

Aurora said, “My racing career has picked up a lot of momentum as of this year, so a large reason for taking a gap year is so I can dedicate more time to it. Racing doesn’t just require travelling to the races – it also requires relationships with sponsors. Cultivating relationships with companies, and convincing them that paying your racing costs is a good idea for them is a tedious process.”

By taking a little bit of time off, Aurora will allow herself some breathing room to develop those relationships, practice more, focus on the sport and gain some clarity about what she wants to do in the future.

While Aurora is passionate about racing, it is a large time commitment and she has had to make some sacrifices.

Aurora often finds time to squeeze in schoolwork on flights and when traveling to and from races, and tries to teach herself any material in advance in order not to fall behind. She feels she has “definitely compromised things that I’ve planned on doing the last few years, whether that be making it to every Coffeehouse, writing my own music, performing outside of Hackley, or going out with my friends.”

On the racetrack, in the classroom, or on stage, Aurora Straus is a force to be reckoned with.