People

Leo Mehl

Mehl joined Goodyear as a tyre compounder in 1959 and moved into the racing department in 1963 when Goodyear began to look at a bigger involvement in the sport. He played an important role in developing the tyres with which Goodyear won the Indianapolis 500 that year and later that year was posted to Goodyear's European headquarters in Wolverhampton and was made head of European Racing, replacing Fred Gamble. In October 1971 he became chief engineer of all Goodyear Racing activities and three years later took over as Director of Racing. His final promotion was to be head of all Goodyear competition activities in 1979. He retired from Goodyear in 1996 and became executive director of the Indy Racing League and a vice-president of Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He remained in that role until the end of 1999 when he retired from the sport.