Mickey Thompson

If one were to give reasons why Marian Lee (Mickey) Thompson has a niche in American racing history, where would one start?

Challenger 1 on the salt flats of Utah in 1960.
Side rear view of Challenger 1 on the salt in 1960.
Challenger 1 in preperation for a run

He was an innovative car builder and designer. He was a master promoter. He was a successful race car driver and held several acceleration records. He won numerous Off Road races.

It is fair to say that his talents in so many areas made him unique. Rest assured, he began early. Born December 7,1928 in Alhambra, Calif., Thompson was restoring life to old Fords and Chevrolets before he could legally drive.

He began weekend jaunts to drag races and then entered his first Mexican road race in a Ford in 1953. He ran over a cliff trying to avoid the natives strolling along the course. He rolled the car, which struck some spectators anyway, and afterward was never quite able to explain the mishap to officials. He was whisked away by a friend from Ford.

However, the tenacious Thompson, who already showed great promise as a salesman, came back to Mexico with another Ford and the same sponsor. This time, he ran into a cliff. But he led the first lap of the five-day meet before that happened.

Thompson, by this time, had already established a garage and parts business and was setting records. In 1955, he was the first to exceed 120 miles per hour in the quarter-mile. Later that year, he was the first to exceed 150 miles per hour. He laid claim to Fastest American On Wheels in 1958 with a record speed of 194 miles per hour. He set his eyes on the world record of 394.2 miles per hour set in 1947 and began design on a world land speed record car.

Mickey Thompson built this car (Challenger 1) on his own and on October 6, 1959 M/T drove it to a World Speed Record of 363.48 MPH and the world speed record in A/BFS Class which stood till 1990 when Al Teage broke it at 389.372 MPH.

For 1960 the Challenger 1 was modified extensively. To try and cut down on drag the nose and tail were redesigned to try and help the problem. And to increase the horsepower 6-71 GMC blowers were added to the engines. This addition of the superchargers required a scoop be built atop the engines which increased the drag but was required. On September 9th 1960 Mickey Thompson and his crew made a one way record run of 406.60 MPH which was faster than any man had drive a car before.

The last running of the Challenger 1 was on July 24, 1962. There was a 10 1/2 mile course set up running North and South. His first attempt that day was from the South end of the course well this run was halted by the washboard conditions of the salt flats, with no suspension in the Challenger it was so rough not only was it beating him to death in the car he could not get any traction. After a small rest he went to the North end of the course and made another try, for a trial run, he did a respectable 357 mph.

When Mickey returned after the second run he announced that Challenger had rolled on the salt under its own power for the last time. He had also stated he would never again drive a car capable of 400 mph speeds.

Thompson made several assaults on the Indianapolis 500 in cars of his own creation. Among them were the Harvey Aluminum Special and the Sears Thompson Allstate Special. The best effort was turned in by rookie Al Miller with a ninth-place in 1963.

Thompson's skill in competition and in business served him and the racing world well. After his speed runs and other ventures into active competition, he established one of the most glamorous and prestigious Off-Road racing circuits, which brought the sport to several heavily-populated metropolitan areas and thus created new audiences.