Ed Deak - Inducted 2005

Pioneer - Sports Car and Road Racing

The fabric of motorsport in Canada is woven with the names of thousands of individuals, a few form-ing the prominent showy side, but many others providing the supporting background. Ed Deak is part of that supporting fabric and without his ef-forts motorsport, rallying in particular, would be weaker. Indeed, if Ed had not pushed for changes in the sport it might not be where it is today, and some of the players might not have survived.

Ed was born April 30, 1927 in Hungary, survived the German occu-pation and crawled his way out of the war to find himself in a commune on an abandoned airbase in England. It was here at the dawn of the post-war era that Ed became interested in motor-sport and became a prodigious reader of motorsport magazines. Faced with the choice of continuing to farm or im-migrate to Canada, Ed and his new wife Marta chose to buy a Douglas motorcycle and seek their fortune here. After an arduous trek across the coun-try they settled in Vancouver.

Although Ed was interested in motorsport, he lacked a vehicle or funds to participate, so it was natural for him

Ed Deak, 1964 Shell Rally  (Marcel Chichak collection)

By Marcel Chichak - 2005

Ed was an artist also  (Harder and Chambers Collections).

to get involved as a rally navi-gator. As early as 1959 Ed was enter-ing and winning club rallies in the Vancouver area, eventually partici-pating in something like 90 events throughout the 1960s. His passion for the sport prompted him to join the Columbian Autosport Club and be-come its president in 1964, serving again in 1970. He also served as CASC Rally Steward in 1964.

Through constant correspondence with Jim Gunn, president of CASC at the time, Ed became involved with the Shell 4000 Rally, initially being made responsible for designing and building the start/finish ramps for the rally, and the ever present timing boxes used by all competitors as they crossed the country. In 1964 and 65 Ed was an official of the event, being assigned to drive the photo car for Bob Ragsdale, official photographer. In 1965, he con-tacted Nissan Canada and formed the Datsun team for the 4000, captaining the crew, hand picking its members and earning the first CASC points for Datsun. As the 4000 transitioned from a long distance TSD rally to a long distance stage rally so too did the risk of

injury from accidents in the stages and the need to advance safety meas-ures. It was Ed who took a very firm, and occasionally unpopular stand to introduce minimum standards for on-board safety equipment and stand-by ambulances for all stage rallies. Although this is taken for granted now, credit has to be given to the instigator.

In 1965 Ed created the "Deak Trophy" to honour the top rally navi-gator in the country. This award has been given every year since and is now administered by CARS.

Currently living on a ranch north of Williams Lake, BC, Ed is an organic farmer, artist, woodworker, inventor and political activist. Ed Deak flirted with the top tier of rallysport but was never far from the front of any event he ever ran and everyone knew his name. As a promoter and supporter of motorsport he was a leader going well beyond the call of duty to grow the sport. His legacy is left, not only in the history of the Shell 4000 Rally, but in the shape of rallying as it exists today and his name will remain in the forefront of rally navigation with the Deak Trophy.