Sports offer few instances in which boys and girls share the same playing field. Sure, girls and boys often participate in the same types of sports such as basketball or soccer, but as unfair as it may be, they rarely find themselves competing in a head-to-head format. Yet every once in a while – given the right athlete, and the right sport – these gender-specific boundaries can subdued. And while the sport of racing provides a well-known exception to these unwritten rules – the most obvious example being NASCAR driver Danica Patrick – it takes a special kind of competitor, someone like Jacksonville’s Bailey Logue, to not only run with the boys, but at times leave them completely in the dust.
The 15 year-old, soon-to-be sophomore at Routt Catholic High School, Bailey Logue is entering her second year on the go kart track, but as she’ll tell you, the sport of racing has been a major part of her and her family’s life long before she stepped into her first kart.
“I grew up around dirt racing and other bigger cars like the street stocks, and my grandpa and dad thought it would be a good experience to start racing go karts,” said Logue of how she got her start in racing. “My dad was a driver and my grandpa helped set up and owned cars that Jim Patrick and Jim Lomelino drove for him.”
With the Logue family’s close ties to the sport of racing, it seemed like only a matter of time before Bailey would find herself behind the wheel of her own car.
“How it really got started, I was announcing the races (in Jacksonville), my dad was going to the races every Friday, and when (Bailey) was young she would always want to sit with grandpa. And eventually my dad said ‘You need to get this girl a car, she really knows what she’s talking about,” said Bailey’s father, Travis Logue, who raced go karts on and off for the better part of 20 years. “Last year, she finally beat me on a quarter-mile in Jacksonville and that’s when I decided to hang it up and she started to take racing more seriously.”
Although Logue had familiarized herself with the various aspects of racing, she admits that there was a bit of a learning curve when she first started.
“The hardest part was just getting the kart set up and getting it to turn how I like it to,” Logue said about the learning process. “Most of it is the kart set up.”
Once she found her comfort level inside the kart, Logue began competing both locally and at various tracks throughout the midwest. Most recently, Logue has been on a bit of a hot streak that has included: a $150 prize for her first place finish at Cerro Gordo Speedway, just east of Decatur, Illinois, qualifying in the top ten at Du Quoin, three wins at Quincy, and a third place finish at King of the Ring in Humansville, Missouri.
“We recently changed her number from 48 to 8, which is a tribute to Ronnie Milton, and ever since then we’ve rattled off seven in a row,” said Travis Logue, who’s drawn double duty as both father and pit crew chief. “She’s been on a roll.”
For Logue and her family, racing has been as much about camradery as it’s been about competitiveness, as they’ve made a number of new friends through the sport. When asked what her favorite part about racing is, Logue said for her, it’s about “being around friends and family.”
“It’s like a second family, no different than a travelling soccer team or baseball team,” her father said.
As for her most recent showing on June 18, Logue finished 8th in the regular class and 10th in the Hoosier after experiencing some mechanical difficulties during the Midwest Hoosier Elite Series at K3 Speedway in Kankakee, Illinois. Logue’s next appearance will be on the quarter-mile track at Macon Speedway during the weekend of August 8. With such a fast start to her career, Bailey Logue shows no signs of slowing down.
