Taegen Poles: Race car driver and engineer in training.

Taegen Poles Headshot.jpg

DOB

October 10, 1998

Birthplace

Toronto, ON

Residence

Kingston, ON

Education

Queen’s University (MASc)

Queen’s University (BASc)

Trinity College School

Racing Teams

Energy Course North America

Poles are high on the list of things any racer strives for and she is certainly no exception. She is pursuing her passion and looking forward to a future in motorsport - both behind the wheel and as an engineer.

From a young age, Taegen was fascinated with the world of automobiles, racing, and design. She first got behind the wheel of a kart at the age of seven, and was instantly certain that it was where she belonged. Between working on her karts at the racetrack and designing robots at school, her passion for STEM and motorsports was clear.

While always prioritizing her academics, Taegen would apply the skills learned in the classroom to her performance behind the wheel, becoming a well-known name in the Canadian Motorsport community. She has participated in the Nissan Micra Cup, the Ontario Formula 1600 Series, as well as a variety of karting series in Ontario and Quebec. This includes the 2019 Ontario Provincial Interclub Series, where she was crowned the series champion in ROK Shifter.

In 2016, Taegen began her Bachelor of Applied Science at Queen’s University for Mechanical and Materials Engineering, and graduated with honours in the spring of 2021. She continued her educational journey with Queen’s as she began a Master of Applied Science in Materials and Nuclear Engineering, with her research focusing on in-situ testing and electron microscopy of copper samples.

From May 2019-August 2020, she completed a 16-month internship with the Queen’s Geomechanics Group as a Mechanical Testing and Advanced Computation Engineer in Training. She is also a mentor for W.A.F.F.L.E.S. Community Robotics, a local not-for-profit which teaches children aged 4-18 about STEM.

One of her proudest moments includes being selected as a W Series Qualifying Driver in 2019, which recognized her as one of 54 women around the world worldwide (and one of two Canadians) who have been a trail-blazer in the world of reaching gender equality in motorsport.