Mike Chester, like many many many young men coming of age in the late 70’s and early 80’s had a ‘need for speed’ and this need for speed gravitated towards three wheelers as they burst onto the scene in the 70’s and then in the 80’s with their high performance coming straight from the factory. Team Honda had seen what Three Wheeler owners were doing with smaller ATC90’s and 110’s and had a plan to forever change the face of Three Wheeler racing.

When the 1st ever factory high performance Three Wheeler, the ATC 250R, was first introduced in late 1980, Honda asked 3Wheeling magazine to put together some names to run the SCORE Parker 400 Off-Road race in February 1981. Some of the names that were mentioned included Mark Wiexeldorer, Mike Chester, Dean Sundahl, Bob Williams, and others.

At this point in time, one could say the 1st ever Team Honda ATC Racing Team was born. However, ‘officially’ the 1st Team Honda ATC, managed by Wess McCoy, consisted of Mike Coe, Mike Chester, Curtis Sparks, Mark Wiexeldorer, Tom Gaian & Dean ‘The King’ Sundahl. (It should be noted that Sundahl did extensive testing and refining of the ATC250 for over a year before it’s released riding pre-production models.)

With the Team in place and Three Wheelers becoming more popular then ever and the new ground breaking ATC 250R ready to change the sport forever spirits were high and the future was bright for everyone involved.

However, for Mike Chester things were about to go bad really fast sending his life and career into a downward spiral .

As the original ‘Honda 250R’ was exploding & becoming a mainstay at every single racetrack across America, so to was the young Mike Chester. By all accounts Chester was a ‘pure talent’ & more importantly ‘a really cool and funny guy.’

Mikes career in Three Wheeler racing seemed to be very bright with sky the limit. But in the blink of an eye Mikes whole life would change.

The year was 1982, the Speedway 119 in Chula Vista, CA served as the backdrop for what would become an infamous day in 3 wheeler racing history.

As the story goes – while pitching his modified 250R Airfooler around a turn, Mikes foot became entrapped between the rear wheel and rear fenders. This lead Mike to lose control of the Three Wheeler and he crashed. As we all know, crashes happen all of the time in all forms of racing. However, with the crash the worst happened and Mike ended up landing on his head in a very scary position.

Professional Three Wheeler Racing Legend Mike Coe said to me about the incident -
“I was in the race, and just narrowly escaped getting caught up in the 1st turn crash. As with many apparent “easy” get offs, Mike suffered a neck and back injury that left him paralyzed. It is amazing when you see people walk away from horrendous accidents and yet others suffer severe trauma from what appears to be nothing more than a simple low speed spill that we’ve all had numerous times.”

As mentioned, this crash would render Mike paralyzed. Never to walk again, let alone enjoy a racing career. All of Mikes former friends and teammates went on to enjoy success, fame and fortune racing three wheelers while Mike sat in a wheelchair.

By many accounts, Mike became withdrawn from former friends after this incident. Soured by what had happened and having to watch his friends gain popularity racing the machine that paralyzed him, Mikes world became a dark place.

When the CPSC cracked down on Three Wheelers a few short years later, every Tom, Dick & Harry were suing Honda & other Three Wheeler manufactuers over injuries they felt were ’caused’ by the ATC’s they rode carelessly, without proper safety equipment, training and/or intoxicated.

Many of these injuries happened because, as I said, the riders were poorly trained/experienced, were not wearing proper safety equipment, were high or intoxicated and probably were riding poorly maintained ATV’s. Chester however WAS an experienced rider, a damn good one by all accounts. Mike WAS wearing proper safety equipment (for that era anyways) and Mike WAS riding a properly maintained, well tuned ATV.

Mike Chester, unfortunately, had an accident. And accidents WILL happen, be it on an ATV, on a bicycle, walking down the street or getting out of bed. Nobody is immune from accidents happening and/or the consequences of them.

What really, really sets this apart from a common accident with an injury that, given time, heals – Mike Chester, in his prime, at the top of his game & ready & poised to become one of the best racers of his era suffered an injury that no amount of time can heal. Not physically & probably never fully heal mentally from.

I can not imagine the pain, both physical and mental that Mike has endured since this incident and put into his shoes I am unsure how I could go forward. We must remember that Mike was a very young man, a very outgoing young man who had so much took away from him at such an early age.

Again, it’s a saga & a sad one – an unfortunate incident that leaves you wondering ‘What If?’

Also – this is another example why I STRESS to all of Airfooler.com members/readers to PLEASE always wear proper safety equipment when you ride.

I look forward to your comments readers.

Until next time – keep it on 3!

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 18th, 2010 at 2:44 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.