Safety pioneer

Deist is credited with pioneering and popularizing the use of parachutes in drag racing and land speed record attempts. The Glendale, CA native got involved with motorsports in high school and learned the parachute business at Irving Air Chute. In 1956 he designed a working, reliable parachute braking system for drag racer Abe Carson. Inductee Mickey Thompson saw it and encouraged Deist to offer it commercially. Deist Safety was founded in 1958 and over time Jim and wife Marian added other safety garb and equipment, saving countless lives. When Thompson needed 400+ mph stopping power for his Challenger I, Deist entered land speed racing, going on to provide parachute systems for inductee Craig Breedlove’s Spirit of America cars (400, 500, 600+ mph records), inductee Gary Gabelich’s Blue Flame (622 mph) and Richard Noble’s Thrust II. Bonneville’s 200 MPH Club voted Deist Man of the Year in 1982. He was inducted into SEMA’s Hall of Fame (1984), the Dry Lakes Racing Hall of Fame (1995) and was an honoree at the 1997 NHRA Hot Rod Reunion.