I first heard of Jim Deist when I was a teenager. Returning home from a summer on a ranch in Manitoba, I bought HOT ROD magazine and on the cover was Mickey Thompson's "Challenger" Bonneville stream liner and the car had a parachute designed by racer, Jim Deist, who worked for Irvine Air Chutes and went on to form his own company dedicated to racer safety.
Every drag car I raced had a Deist chute, but it wasn't until I went to Bonneville that I got to meet Jim Deist. He was good natured and tolerated my questions and answered them with a patient explanation of the physical science of stopping a large mass from high speed. Each year we would chat a bit as racers came by his truck to get parts or say hello. Everyone knew Jim and will miss the man with the cigar and black bib overalls digging through the piles of parts in his rig to find just what parts they needed.
It was just three week ago, that I last spoke to him on the phone to order parachutes for the Goldenhawk and he requested me to fax him the drawing and specs that he might design the right system for us.
Our team is saddened to hear of his death and we will have a DEIST decal on the car regardless of where we get the chutes.
"GOD SPEED JIM DEIST"
and we know you will have a soft landing in heaven.
Thank you from the racers.
R.I.P.
interesting article. I would love to follow you on twitter.
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