Deal jokes with longtime friend and now neighbor, Warren Moody, in Deal’s nearly-finished super-shop. It’s as big as a small home.
You could say Bob Deal has gasoline in his veins. He was born in Indianapolis in 1933, during what many consider to be the golden age of auto racing. His father and grandfather were both Indy car mechanics and, when he was two years old, “Dad accidentally locked me in the shop,” Deal recounts. “He came back two hours later to find me sitting in a race car, happy as could be, playing with the pedals and steering wheel.”
Deal’s future was taking shape.
The racing years
Deal grew up watching his dad work on engines and learning the craft himself. “I learned an awful lot from Dad,” he says. “When I had a problem with a car, he’d always give me three or four things to try because, to his way of thinking, it was just as important to know what didn’t work – and why – as what did work. He never outright gave me the answer to a problem. I eventually realized that he was teaching me diagnostics.”
Engines and racing became a lifestyle for Deal. His dad would pick him up at school so they could travel to a Friday night race, wherever it was that week.
Not surprisingly, Deal became a race-car mechanic, signing on with teams like Baker Engineering, Pat Clancy, Duane Carter, Firestone, Cheesman Racing, and Bill Stroppe and the Ford stock car racing team. “Working around race cars, I had the opportunity to meet and work with all the Indy 500 drivers of that era,” says Deal. “It was dream come true.”
While Deal was turning wrenches for Cheesman Racing, the team car, driven by Eddie Sachs, took the 1958 Sprint Car Championship. “It was like winning twice in one day,” Deal recalls. “Because we got the championship, and I met the girl who would become my wife.” He and Jan are still together, and they have two daughters, Lindsay and Wende, and one son, Rob.
