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By Buffy Swanson
Content creator and media personality Mandee Pauch Mahaney carved her own niche—and then some—in a world dominated by the men in her life. For her accomplishments and contributions, Pauch Mahaney will be honored as the 2024 Outstanding Woman in Racing during induction ceremonies at the Northeast Dirt Modified Museum and Hall of Fame, on the Weedsport Speedway campus. The public is invited to the free event, which takes place on Wednesday evening, July 10.
Mandee was raised smack-dab in racing’s spotlight. Her celebrated father, Billy Pauch, was winning in anything and everything long before she was born. Her brother Billy Jr., the heir apparent, has picked up where their dad left off. She grew up living in their public shadow.
“It was always Billy Pauch, ‘The Kid.’ My brother was ‘The Kid’s Kid.’ I’m Billy Pauch’s other kid over here! He’s got another one!” she reminded, trying to get everyone’s attention as a teenager.
Pauch Mahaney was a junior in high school when her father gave her the chance to race one of his old cars. She won a Powder Puff at New Egypt; climbed in her Uncle Timmy’s Enduro car at Grandview and won there; managed a terrifying couple of laps trying to qualify with the big boys at Big Diamond.
It wasn’t for her, she decided, returning to the grandstands.
That’s where Mandee found her purpose in the sport: trying to educate fans about what really goes on, before, during and after the races.
In 2014, she began blogging on Dirt Track Digest, giving updates of her family’s racing experiences around the circuit.
“I had thought, Who would want to know what the heck I have to talk about?—and it just went over so well!” marveled Mandee, whose efforts were picked up by National Speed Sport News.
She had found her voice, her role—and went on to capitalize on it.
Written blogs were elevated to vlogs in 2017 when Mandee grabbed a video camera and launched her YouTube channel, “Dirt Track Untold.” Completely self-taught, she has honed her craft ever since, adding multi-angle in-car camera footage, live Q&As, tech tips, behind-the-scenes stories from the shop and the road, all centered on her immediate family—her father, her brother, her husband Mike Mahaney, and now, her nephew BP3 and niece Avery.
“For a while when I first started, I was taping all the drivers. Then I realized that people wanted to see our family. So I’ve made my YouTube channel more family-oriented,” Mandee said. “People have watched my nephew grow up in these videos. And then I married Mike. It’s like…we’re all growing up together.”
It’s a brave undertaking because Pauch Mahaney doesn’t hold anything back—the good runs, the bad nights, the personal interactions amongst family members and crew are all out there in each video, bringing every viewer inside their circle.
This year, Mandee took it to another level of intimacy when she began mic-ing the drivers and crew.
“As soon as Mike and Billy get out of the car, I’ll zip up a mic on their suit and let them carry on. Of course, there are secrets—you can’t tell everything!” she laughed. But she’s done a good job of bringing fans right into the huddle, in the heat of the moment, while remaining cognizant of the fact that, “They’re not there for me to make these videos—they’re there to race. I don’t want the videos to tromp over why we’re there.”
Expanding outside the weekly on-track action and family focus of the videos, Pauch Mahaney began featuring podcasts on her channel—a broader platform that enables her to explore topics in-depth with industry players outside the clan.
“My YouTube channel has a very strong fan base of people who want to watch the racing stuff. But I’m more than just racing. That’s where the podcasts came in,” she said. “The podcasts are an opportunity to shine light on other people in the racing world and offer more than just the Pauch-Mahaney thing.”
Recent segments have featured promoters Brett Deyo, Jeff Hachmann and Kirk Spridgeon, racing wives Jillian Gravel and Jacqueline Rumley, FloRacing’s Michael Rigsby, broadcasters Hannah Newhouse and Johnny Gibson, and more.
Thanks to Mandee’s videos and online presence, more than 37,500 subscribers in 10 countries have gotten to experience racing, up-close and behind-the-scenes, at 35 different Modified tracks last year alone. The 1,036 episodes and 81 podcasts she’s produced to date have received over 13.1 million views.
But why stop there? Mandee has so many balls in the air she’d put a circus juggler into a panic.
Club DTU—an offshoot of the YouTube channel—“is essentially a glorified fan club like my dad used to have, with a monthly newsletter and all,” she explained. Memberships start at $5.00 a month, with supporters receiving a variety of perks from instant race recaps to community chats and early access to merch. “It’s cool because we cover all the bases—and it brings a whole new relationship to our fans.”
The DTU site also offers a variety of organizational tools geared to the racer—digital checklists for setups, car and trailer maintenance (“like the written notes my dad used to keep”) can be purchased for download.
Mandee is heavily involved with the “Pony” movie production filming at Bridgeport Motorsports Park, as is her brother.
She’s been asked about holding training classes for race teams trying to gain a social media presence. But where’s the time?
It takes anywhere from two to four hours to edit raw footage and produce each video—and that’s not counting shooting or travel time.
As for travel—many OTR truckers don’t put in the miles Mandee does. She bought the house next to her grandmother’s in Flemington, NJ, not far from the Pauch compound; Mike’s family homestead is in King Ferry, NY; and his race cars are kept way up past the Adirondacks. It seems like she’s everywhere at once.
“Each week we have to sit down and figure out where I’m going to be, where Mike’s going to be, what’s the most efficient way to be where we need to be,” admitted Pauch Mahaney, who keeps piling more projects on her full plate.
“If I’m not expanding, I’m dying—that’s what I tell myself. It sounds very dramatic! But I’ve always got to be growing.”
