It’s not every young woman who’d consider crushing cars in a Monster Jam Truck a dream job. But then Bailey Shea has always been rather unique. Before racing giant trucks, she was an ATV racer and spun out quite a career for herself. She was the first female and youngest female to win the Production A and Production B Class race and the youngest female to win a Women’s Class at nationals.
ATVs are behind her now, having made way for extremely large pickup trucks. The first time Bailey got in a Monster Jam Truck was in Paxton, Ill., for a training session. Overwhelmed in the four-wheel, car-crushing machine, giddy with delight, the tears sprang loose.
“A crew guy wanted to know what was wrong,” said Bailey. “I told him I was happy. I can’t believe I got to where I’m at. It’s not even a job to me, I love it so much.”
A veteran ATV racer, Bailey will start as a rookie on the Monster Jam tour circuit, but that’s all right by her. Bailey is used to bumpy starts. The daughter of Troy and Rinda Williams, Bailey was born in Chillicothe and raised in Lock Springs. At birth she was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis. She was in and out of hospitals the first few years of her life.
“I coded twice when I was three or four years old,” she said. “The doctors told my parents I wouldn’t live to see 11.”
Bailey found out later she had been mis-diagnosed. She actually had chronic sinusitis and asthma.
“CF is a life-threatening disease so that was quite a relief for my parents,” she said.
Bailey went to school at Jamesport and was involved in dance, gymnastics, cheerleading, basketball and softball.
Then a friend of the family started racing ATVs. Next thing Bailey was cutting up in the old four-wheeler meant for hauling and doing chores.
“I was jumping stuff, doing wheelies and donuts and crazy and stupid stuff,” she said. “My dad said I was going to hurt myself and I’d better get on a race track.”
So that’s what Bailey did — and she never got off.
“The first time I raced I had to learn how to drive a clutch,” she said. “The racing ATVs have a hand, foot, brake and clutch. It was quite a switch from the utility ATV I’d been riding around the farm that you just press gas and go.”
Bailey would race for the next 10 years, starting at age 15 and said, “I loved it; I ate it up.”
During her career, she won 19 championships out of 34 titles in 10 years; 17 of them were first place; 14 were second place; three were third place.
When Bailey was 22, she was competing in her number 48 quad runner in the Extreme Dirt Track National series races near Sioux Falls in South Dakota and took a bad spill.
“I normally ride a track the same way each time around,” said Bailey. “But a rider had hit a barrier tire trying to make a path and moved it. I clipped the tire doing around 60 and was thrown straight to the ground.”
Bailey broke six ribs; her shoulder; and her collar bone. Her ribs went through her lungs and her lungs collapsed, requiring two breathing tubes.
This horrible a wreck would have made most people ponder a career change. But overcoming obstacles is a running theme for Bailey.
“I was on pain medication and really don’t remember anything about the hospital,” she said. “But the doctors told me I asked to get up and go race. I told them I would tuck the drainage tube in my pants and go back and race and I promised to come back.”
Of course the doctors forbade it; but, still, only 15 days after that crash, before she was released by the doctors, she was in Ohio racing at nationals.
“I did really well for being broken,” said Bailey. “I didn’t do it to prove anything to others. I did it to prove something to myself. By the sixth lap I was hurting so bad I cried. But I pushed through it. It was worth it.”
Bailey doesn’t believe she was ever reckless, only driven.
“I have a determined mind set,” she said. “I know what I want and I don’t give up.”
Then, this last summer, Bailey broke her neck and back in a motor sport accident and has struggled to overcome those injuries.
“Right then, I realized I wanted to be inside a cage,” she said. “Where my head and neck are safe. By the grace of God, I got a phone call about driving Monster Jam Trucks.”
Bailey had been invited to participate in an event at the Monster Jam® show inside Indianapolis’ Lucas Oil Stadium. Bailey got to drive her first Monster Jam Truck during a testing.
“Monster Jam called and told me I was on the top of their list to go on tour with the show,” she said. “I completely switched, took the job, and now I’m in a Monster Jam Truck. The accident was a blessing in disguise.”
Shows featuring these oversized trucks are a million dollar industry with a world wide fan base. In 2015 Bailey will make her Monster Jam debut behind the wheel of the 10,000-pound Scooby-Doo™ Monster Jam truck.
“It is the biggest adrenaline rush ever,” she said. “You don’t know happy and excited until you’ve driven one. It is the coolest feeling ever. Strapped in, with 1,400 horse power under your butt.”
Bailey is one of two females on the tour. The other girl, Becky McDonough, drives El Toro Loco.
“Becky and I are exact opposites, but we’re best friends,” she said.
There are eight professional athletes on the tour. They all race a Monster Jam truck and a Monster Jam speedster and a Monster Jam ATV.
Bailey has not been able to bedazzle the Monster Jam truck in the same manner as she did her hot pink ATVs.
“I wanted to do my fire suit with diamonds and sparkles, but the sparkles are not flame retardant so I wasn’t able,” she said. “My goggles are blinged out and so are the belts in the truck and the speedster is hot pink. I’ve done what I can with what I’ve got.”
The Monster Jam people like Bailey’s girly side.
“I was kind of shocked that they were that into it,” she said. “During an interview they had me wear my hot pink sparkly heels inside the truck, like I was driving in heels. The other girl on the tour plays kind of a bad character. She’s hard core and I’m a sweetheart.”
Bailey’s driving has garnered her modeling jobs with sports and trade shows and promotional spots for Dixie Chopper; Hoosier Tire; and Honda. Rage built the motors on her ATVS; ELKA did the suspension shocks. Rath racing has done a lot for her and Fly Racing did all of her ATV gear and is now doing her racing gear for Monster Jam.
“Jeff Roberts is an ATV mechanic for the tour,” said Baily. “He got me started at age 15 on my first ATV. Now he’s there for me as I work my way up in the Monster Jam Trucks.”
Mr. Roberts is a father figure for Bailey and a good friend with her father who is comforted that he is there to watch over her. Mr. Roberts assures Bailey that he watched her climb to the top once and he’ll watch her do it again.
There is more to Bailey’s life than racing.
“I’m the coolest aunt in the world to my nephew now,” she said. “That’s a pretty big deal in my book.”
She went to North Central Missouri College at Trenton for two years, then studied to be a dental assistant at Concorde Career College in Kansas City. If she weren’t racing a Monster Jam truck, Bailey said she would go to school to be a dental hygienist, then get a doctorate.
One day Bailey would like to start her own type of dream foundation. She doesn’t make that much money yet, but on every single stop of the tour she visits the children’s hospitals and homeless shelters. She reads to the kids, hangs out with them, and tells them they are just as cool as all the other kids. She serves food to the homeless and visits them. She is in the process of organizing a drive to provide blankets and coats to the shelters. She is hoping her fans on Monster Jam will help her with it.
“Some people say I’m just doing it for show,” she said. “But I want to help. If I were in that position, I would want somebody to help me. That’s the way I look at it.”
Bailey will soon begin her rookie season with a 10-city arena based, points paying #MoreMonsterJam tour.
“I’m going out there for my fans, not to win, not to prove a point, but for my fans and friends and family who supported me for real,” she said. “I know my grandma and grandpa have sometimes been scared to death when I was racing. But they never gave up, they always supported me. My mom, my dad, my sister Tabby, my grandparents, through all the broken bones, they never once told me to stop or quit. They kept pushing me, telling me I could do it. They’re still here pushing me. I’m doing this for them.”
