Photo by Kamp Fender.
Paul McKee inside his Chelsea home. McKee began racing as an outlet following the death of his father and pays tribute to their relationship with his success.
As 36-year-old Chelsea resident Paul McKee stood by the racetracks and watched the rain pour down in buckets at Barber Motorsports Park on Oct. 26, he felt nerves like he never had before. Though he started motorcycle racing two seasons before, this was the first time he would have to take to the tracks, turning corners at a 45-degree angle at over 100 miles per hour — all in the pouring rain.
“This was a new level of worry because I knew the chances of something going wrong were exponentially higher with every rain drop. … I’ve done a lot of races, and I’m usually confident, but my confidence level was at nil,” McKee said. “But I cranked up my bike, and they were calling us, third call to come out for the race, and I was standing there by myself like, ‘Am I crazy? I don’t have to go, but I’ve worked for this moment. I’m here.’”
He pushed through the worry, he said, because he knew he had to be brave and defend the title he was crowned with last year, AMA/WERA (American Motorcyclist Association/WERA Motorcycle Road Racing) National Champion.
Sure enough, he ended up on the podium later that night, getting third place. It was “absolutely incredible, like magic,” he said. When he came back later that weekend on Sunday, he ended up running his best race yet, even against some of the biggest competitors in the league.
Most importantly though, he felt “rejuvenated,” like all the races and practice time on the bike had led him to the right place — a place where he felt connected to his dad, an avid motorcycle rider who died in 2015.
“Racing is about both honoring the legacy of my father and remembering him, but also passing forward not only the love and kindness that was his spirit, but also the goodness that people showed us during the time when we needed it most, when he was sick,” McKee said.
While his dad had lung cancer in 2014, McKee said, there were some really good people who came along and helped him and his family as they were struggling to keep up with everything, even after his dad passed away in 2015. They helped with everything from housework and providing food to fixing some of the household problems like electrical services and a burst waterpipe.
Photos by Kamp Fender.
McKee said his ultimate goal is to one day start a nonprofit and raise funds to help more people diagnosed with cancer.
“I mean, it wasn’t big things, but when you’re going through something like [cancer], you hardly have enough time to just try to deal with the problems that are happening left and right,” he said, adding that people taught him an important lesson about kindness during that time, a lesson he tries to give back to the 280 community now.
Since his dad died, McKee has shared his stories with people and dedicated his motorcycle racing to his dad — even wearing his dad’s birthday number, 29, on his jersey — and personally donating the money awarded per podium finish to the American Cancer Society.
The ultimate goal, he said, is one day to start a nonprofit and be able to raise even more money to help people with cancer and their families going through those hard situations. Even though McKee knows having a nonprofit is not feasible right now, he said he is “starting over” in a lot of ways, with renewed energy.
Not only is he racing, but he is going back to school full-time for his communications degree at Jefferson State University, he said, as well as recently creating his own landscaping company. As far as the nonprofit, he said, it will remain a goal of his until he makes it happen.
Until then, he will continue to donate his racing money and help the people in his life who are going through tough periods.
McKee, who had been riding motorcycles on and off for six or seven years and rode on the back with his dad when he was young, said he hadn’t really been a “motorcycle guy.” When his dad passed away, he found the extreme sport was a solace and connection to his dad he couldn’t find anywhere else.
“Through circumstances, [my dad] became my best friend, as well. We were really, really close, just good buds on top of being father and son. We’d really developed a bond, so when I lost him, up to that point, it was by far the hardest thing I ever went through and left just a vast, gaping void,” he said.
Even though he said he didn’t seek out the tracks, he was moved by the extreme focus of the racer, especially after watching a documentary about motorcycle racing and discovering the loss associated with some people who race.
After watching the documentary, McKee went to Talladega to meet some racers and talk to people about why they raced. What he found that day, he said, was a giant family of racers, one where he quickly began to build relationships with people and find the community was a safe place for him to challenge himself and seek refuge.
“It shows you the mindset of the road racer and how that can be a healing place for people to go to, and I think that’s a common trait among people who do extreme sports,” McKee said.
Unlike many in the sport, McKee said, he “sort of fast-tracked” to the racing part and started by only doing a couple of track days right after going to Talladega, but it hasn’t been a problem for him so far.
A lot people, he added, tell him that he’s crazy, and ask him what motivates him to do such a sport. McKee describes it to them by saying when he’s on the bike and he’s racing, he has no option but to focus intently on the task at hand, “because if you delineate from that focus in any way, it can be catastrophic.”
Unlike other interests, jobs and schooling, racing won’t let his mind wander back to the loss and pain because it requires all of his focus. Every single time he sits down on his bike to race and every time he goes around that track, he said he gains back some of himself that he lost after his dad passed away.
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Photos by Kamp Fender.
Awards from the AMA/WERA National Championship at Barber Motorsports Park and racing gear inside Paul McKee’s home.
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Photos by Kamp Fender.
Awards from the AMA/WERA National Championship at Barber Motorsports Park and racing gear inside Paul McKee’s home.
“I have purpose. It’s not just a hobby for me, and I think that goes for me personally for everything I do,” McKee said. “I can’t walk away from it.”
Since he started racing two seasons ago, he’s seen someone die on the track, crashed multiple times and broken his thumb, along with a few other minor injuries. He has had to take some time off for injuries from pulled ligaments and other accidents, but that hasn’t discouraged him.
His family, he said, is happy to see him honoring his dad but doesn’t quite understand why he chose something so dangerous. But McKee takes pride in the fact that he tries to be as safe as possible for each and every race.
“If you are going to put yourself on two wheels and nothing else between you and the ground, always use the greatest equipment you can possibly afford. If you can’t afford it, save until you can because your body is priceless. I’m a firm believer in that,” McKee said.
Before every race, all gear must be checked and completely up to code, as well as safety wired.
“They’re as supportive as a family can be about something that scares them to death. My mom came to one race, but that’s it. None of my families come to the races, they just can’t do it,” he said, but he understands.
When McKee was invited to the finals at Barber Motorsports Park and won AMA/WERA National Champion last year, he could barely believe it, especially after racing for only a year prior.
“I thought I was on a long road to even having an opportunity to accomplish something even remotely close to that. It was certainly emotional, and the fact that the whole time, on every podium, I was making sure I was saying, ‘This is for my dad, you’re not here, but you’re here with me, riding with me.’ For sure it was incredibly validating for all of my hard work,” he said.
In many ways, racing has also given him the confidence he felt like he lost over the last several years. Racing, he said, puts everything in perspective, and has taught him that he truly can face his fear of crashing and overcome it.
When McKee walks into a nerve-wracking situation like a big interview for a job now, he reminds himself that he once fell face down on the asphalt going 130 mph.
Racing has also had a healing effect on him, where he has had the opportunity to teach himself that he can still make and accomplish goals, all while overcoming fear.
“He was such a wonderful, loving man. … So I want to do anything I can do to keep his legacy alive,” McKee said of his father.
In the upcoming months, McKee plans on continuing racing — and hopefully making his way back up on the podium, to honor his dad once again.
