RPM
Racing News Remember When by Don Gamble
Al
Deane started his career in the auto industry as a parts man at Morton
Chevrolet. His work ethic led him to become the owner of Deane Pontiac - Buick
for thirty one years. Al always
liked to go to
He
had a very impressive roster of good drivers that included: Herb Buck, sons Skip
and Doug Deane, Tom Fleming, Davey Jones, Jim Magill, Ed Murphy, Fred Reisinger,
Jim Shaffer, Jack Sodeman, Dwight Steele, Jack West, and Russ Woolsey. Skip ran
for about fifteen years and Doug for two years but they never raced against each
other. He started in the claimers
with driver Joe Kertesz then the sprint cars, and eventually the modifieds.
Jim
Magill drove a couple races for Deane in 1965. They took a 1957 Chevy that Al
campaigned in the Claiming Division to attempt qualifying for the Tri-State
Championship 150 at Heidelberg Raceway in Carnegie
In
1966 they rebuilt the sprint car and during the season they had a “falling
out” and Deane sold the car to Magill. The
winter of 1966 Al teamed up with Grover Falk together they built the coupe
pictured above. Russ Woolsey was
their driver. They were running a small block Chevy engine which Deane liked.
Falk wanted to run a big block. Al
decided to sell the car to Falk who then put in the big block and hired Vic
George as his driver.
Deane
was out of racing for a few years until he purchased the black #7 that Dale
Johnson drove to many victories at Blanket Hill Speedway in
Al
felt that the best part of racing was spending time with family and friends and
the toughest part was Jim Shaffer finishing second at the Sharon Nationals.
The team’s most memorable moment in racing was the day that Skip won at
Orville
Al
got involved in racing because he loved automobiles. His favorite competitors
were Bob Rice and Yip Robinson. The pit crew included Ed Naugle, Mike Lavin, and
Bill and Francis Dreyer. He had a co-owner, Grover Faulk, for a couple of years
and eventually sold the original number 65 shown in this article to Faulk and
Russ Woolsey and Vic George took over the driving duties.
Try to imagine Woolsey at 6’7” and George at maybe 5’7’’
sharing the ride from time to time. When Falk quit racing he sold the car to the
King Brothers who still have it. The car was on display at the banquet a few
years ago when Mercer Raceway honored Vic George with a legends award.
Tracks
where the team competed included: Blanket Hill, Buckeye, Butler, Canfield,
Clinton, Greater Pittsburgh, Green
Valley, Heidelberg, Hickory, Jennerstown, Latrobe, Lernerville, Meadville
Fairgrounds, Mansfield, Ohio, Mercer, Motordrome, North Hills, Sharon, South
Park, Sportsman’s Speedway, St. Clairsville, Tri-City, Uniontown, Wayne
County, Williams Grove.
I often ask how teams pick their car numbers and Al’s daughter Linda explained; “dad was trying to decide, he reached in to his pocket and pulled out all his change, there was 65 cents and that’s where the number came from”.
Al
Deane and his wife Patricia made their home in Economy, PA where they raised
their five children Linda, Skip, Doug, Jeff, and Danny.
Al
Deane was one of the pioneers in local short track racing who provided
opportunities for many talented individuals to do some excellent racing. Al is
one of the reasons we will always “remember when”.
Rappin' on Racin' and Trackside
Rappin'
on Racin' can be heard live Mondays at 6:00 on WEDO 810 on the AM dial and is
available over the Internet by way of our website www.speedwayproductions.biz.
Trackside from Lernerville Speedway is on Friday evenings at