HUMMELSTOWN, Pa. — Tytan Deal is a member of the Hummelstown junior firefighter program, but that’s not all he does. He has a need for speed as a racer.
He’s brought to the national spotlight being involved in a program called "Living Like Outlaws."
Most Friday nights, you can find Deal racing at Linda’s Speedway in Lebanon County. He’s been racing for five years, moving up from quarter midgets to the all-star slingshots.
When he’s not training to be a junior firefighter, he’s living out his dream on the track.
“It’s good to see the kids grow here, at the firehouse, as well as now racing. He’s one of three racers we have in the department," said Steve Kienzle, Hummelstown Chemical Fire Chief.
Tytan Deal said, “It’s one big family. It’s a hobby that’s expensive but you just get hooked to it really easily.”
Deal is one of 15 young drivers in the "Living Like Outlaws" program.
Linda’s is a track World of Outlaws employee Wes Irwin remembers fondly. It’s the track he began racing.
For nine months out of the year, Fredricksburg’s Wes Irwin is on the road with the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series.
He’s in his sixth season running the Outlaws souvenir trailer and pretty quickly into it, he knew he wanted to do more.
“I thought, man, I have this opportunity to be in front of a lot of people, thanks to the World of Outlaws," said Irwin. "So, they gave me a big stage to personally perform from. Why not share the experiences, places to visit and track to see with fans. A little more of an inside look."
And since, he’s grown his platform to more than 23,000 followers. During it all, that’s when the idea of launching the "Living Like Outlaws" program was born.
Eight girls and seven boys ages 9-18 from all over the country, from flat karts to 305 sprint cars and everything in-between, are in the program.
Irwin shares his platform with the young drivers that have a unique story as they try to grow a name for themselves.
“Excited because I knew he wants me to get somewhere, in my racing career and not just stay in these cars," said Deal.
“These kids are rock stars," said Irwin. "If we don’t have kids like Tytan, there’s no firefighters later in life and that’s not good. We need them to be race car drivers and we need them to be firefighters and those are the kids I like to represent."
The platform helps the kids with their communications skills, while increasing their online presence and opening doors to possible sponsors.
“I know a few of them have gotten sponsors from doing videos on my page, which is really cool, when you think about it at the end of the day," said Irwin. "It was just one of those things, why not share my page. These kids are our future and we want to keep these kids into racing. All my kids, and I call them my kids, are very unique people and are very goal driven and do a lot of things outside of racing."