Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
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VOL. 51 ISSUE 9 MARCH 4, 2014 P105 beach course 10th in 1950 riding a Harley. By the mid-1950s, Deeley retired from racing and became even more involved in the business end of things. A businessman with a racer's men- tality, Deeley was a risk taker. Over the objections of his father, who did not believe Japanese bikes would catch on; he took on the distributorship for Yamaha in Canada and also for Honda in Western Canada. In spite of his father's warnings his ear- ly relationship with the Japanese manufacturers would prove to be one of the best business moves he ever made. Later Harley-Davidson approached Deeley about becoming its Canadian distributor and he took them up on that offer as well. Deeley never lost his love of racing and became one of the leading racing sponsors in North Amer- ica. At one Daytona race there were approximately 22 riders receiving Deeley sponsorships to one de- gree or another. He proudly pointed out the fact that he spon- sored two World Champions at one point in their careers. Steve Baker and Barry Sheene both raced for Deeley as they came up through the ranks. Deeley also backed Michael Duff, Canada's top World Championship Grand Prix competitor, and is perhaps best remembered by American fans for being Yvon Duhamel's sponsor early in his AMA professional racing career. Deeley served on the AMA's competition com- mittee from the late 1940s through the early 1970s. He also was an AMA district commissioner for Brit- ish Columbia and was instrumental in forming local motorcycle clubs and eventually the Pacific North- west Motorcycle Association, which strengthened sporting ties between the United States and Can- ada. Deeley's business grew steadily under his guid- ance. At one time or another he was the Canadian distributor for nearly every brand of motorcycle. At times, Deeley felt it was best to keep his various business agreements discreet. With a smile, he told of one of his many trips to Japan. "The Honda people met me at the airport in Tokyo and I went off to meetings with them for a week. The Honda people brought me back to the airport and I acted like I was departing back to Canada, but I simply walked back up to the ar- rival terminal where Yamaha representatives were waiting with a sign in hand to greet me on my ar- rival to Japan." When Deeley took over the family business it employed about 25 people. When he retired the company employed more than 120 employees and had expanded to include a distribution center in Toronto. He helped build up a dealer network of more than 70 retail outlets. In 1997, Deeley was awarded the AMA's high- est award – the prestigious Dudley Perkins Award. He was the first Canadian to receive the award and only the second non-U.S. citizen to receive the honor, following Soichiro Honda. He was also inducted into the Canadian Motorsports Hall of Fame and the British Columbia Sports Hall of Fame. Woven throughout his celebrated business ca- reer were numerous acts of philanthropy. In 2000 Deeley donated one million dollars to the "Dare to Believe" campaign for the Vancouver Island Can- cer Research Wing. A donation he made in honor of his wife Joyce. When inducted into America's Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 1999 Deeley was nearly 80 years old, but still going strong. He continued to work with Harley-Davidson on design projects and built up his Vancouver motorcycle museum collection, which at the time included more than 300 motor- cycles, many of them rare or one-of-a-kind ma- chines. He continued working right up to the time of his passing in 2002, when he was 82. CN Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives MOTORCYCLE MILLIONAIRE