Shae McAuley

Shae Imani McAuley (born December 2, 2002 in Brooklyn, NY) is an African-American racing driver who drives for Matthews Atlantic Motorsports in the Dash Cup Aspira Juniors division. She claims dual citizenship of both the United States and Wales, but she represents Wales in competition.

Background

Shae was born to parents Gwyn Driscoll-McAuley (1977-2017) & James McAuley (b. 1971). The family moved to Driscoll-McAuley's home country of Wales when she was just 2 years old. She lived in the town of Neath in West Glamorgan county. She took up racing in 2014 after her grandparents took her to the 2014 Round of New York on their yearly holiday in America. She, along with her grandparents, got to meet several drivers that day, including Tom Delgado, who despite being pressed by security to move along, insisted that he take a few minutes to talk to Shae. She got her program signed as well as two pictures, one of which came out very blurry. To this day, every time she gets a new phone, Shae transfers those photos to it, refusing to delete them or put them anywhere else.

When she returned home to Neath, she told her father that she wanted to race. Despite her mother showing the beginning signs of Alzheimer's disease, she insisted that Shae chase her dreams, so Shae started racing go-karts. It turned out Shae was very good at this, and took a similar path to the professional ranks as former Dash Cup driver Amanda Torres. Her success in UK national go-kart racing led her to be scouted by several start-up teams in the US. However, she would race less and less as her mother's conditioned worsened, ultimately stopping completely in the days before her death.

After Gwyn passed away, James decided the best course of action to get his daughter back in a positive mood was to take her back to the United States. In mid-2018, Shae was accepted into the very first class of stock car students at the Tom Delgado Racing School. She excelled right away, using her mother's death to push her to graduate top of her class. That success earned her a recommendation from Tom Delgado himself, and as a result she was signed by one of Delgado's friends, former FARC Elite Series champion Ryan Matthews and his team Matthews Atlantic Motorsports, where she was assigned to their Aspira Juniors setup.