Mickey Thompson
Encyclopedia
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
off-road racing
Off-road racing
Off-road racing is a format of racing where various classes of specially modified vehicles compete in races through off-road environments.-North America:...
legend. He won many championships as a racer, and later formed sanctioning bodies SCORE International
SCORE International
SCORE International is an off-road sanctioning body in the sport of desert racing and is famous for its flagship event, the Baja 1000 as well as the Baja 500 and San Felipe 250. SCORE races are held in United States and Mexico...
and Mickey Thompson Entertainment Group
Mickey Thompson Entertainment Group
The Mickey Thompson Entertainment Group was a sanctioning body for an American off-road racing series that took place inside stadiums. Some events were televised, including on TNN and ESPN. -History:...
(MTEG). He also raced in dragsters
Drag racing
Drag racing is a competition in which specially prepared automobiles or motorcycles compete two at a time to be the first to cross a set finish line, from a standing start, in a straight line, over a measured distance, most commonly a ¼-mile straight track....
and land speed record
Land speed record
The land speed record is the highest speed achieved by a wheeled vehicle on land. There is no single body for validation and regulation; in practice the Category C flying start regulations are used, officiated by regional or national organizations under the auspices of the Fédération...
automobiles.
Thompson was born in Alhambra, California
Alhambra, California
Alhambra is a city located in the western San Gabriel Valley region of Los Angeles County, California, United States, which is approximately eight miles from the Downtown Los Angeles civic center. As of the 2010 census, the population was 83,089, down from 85,804 at the 2000 census. The city's...
. He was known universally as "Mickey." In his early twenties, he worked for the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
newspaper while becoming involved in the new sport of drag racing
Drag racing
Drag racing is a competition in which specially prepared automobiles or motorcycles compete two at a time to be the first to cross a set finish line, from a standing start, in a straight line, over a measured distance, most commonly a ¼-mile straight track....
. He developed a brilliant career as both a driver and an innovative automotive technician; later as a designer, manufacturer and seller of racing and performance equipment. In addition to being a drag racing champion, Mickey Thompson set more speed and endurance records than any other man in automotive history. He is credited with designing and building the first slingshot dragster in 1954, moving the seat behind the rear axle to improve traction when the existing racing tires proved unsuitable. A change so momentous would not happened again until Don Garlits
Don Garlits
Donald Glenn "Don" Garlits is considered the father of drag racing. He is known as "Big Daddy" to drag racing fans around the world. Always a pioneer in the field of drag-racing, he, with the help of T.C...
introduced the rear-engined digger in 1971. Thompson also was noted for being the first manager of Lions Drag Strip
Lions Drag Strip
Lions Drag Strip was a US raceway in the Wilmington district of Los Angeles, California adjacent to Long Beach that existed from 1955 to 1972. The track was named after its sponsors Lions Clubs International and featured many races that were sanctioned by the American Hot Rod Association .As the...
near Long Beach, California
Long Beach, California
Long Beach is a city situated in Los Angeles County in Southern California, on the Pacific coast of the United States. The city is the 36th-largest city in the nation and the seventh-largest in California. As of 2010, its population was 462,257...
in 1955.
In 1960, at the Bonneville Salt Flats, Thompson achieved international fame when he became the first American to break the 400 mph barrier, hitting 406.60 mph and surpassing John Cobb's
John Cobb (motorist)
John Rhodes Cobb was a British racing motorist. He made money as a director of fur brokers Anning, Chadwick and Kiver and could afford to specialise in large capacity motor-racing...
one-way Land speed record
Land speed record
The land speed record is the highest speed achieved by a wheeled vehicle on land. There is no single body for validation and regulation; in practice the Category C flying start regulations are used, officiated by regional or national organizations under the auspices of the Fédération...
of 402 mph.
Indianapolis 500 1962
In 1962 Mickey Thompson entered three John Crosthwaite
John Crosthwaite
John Crosthwaite was an English race car designer and engineer, active in both the United Kingdom and the United States.John worked with Cooper Cars, Colin Chapman at Team Lotus, and Mickey Thompson as well as drivers Graham Hill, Dan Gurney, and Jackie Stewart. He designed and built cars for...
designed cars in the Indianapolis 500
Indianapolis 500
The Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, also known as the Indianapolis 500, the 500 Miles at Indianapolis, the Indy 500 or The 500, is an American automobile race, held annually, typically on the last weekend in May at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana...
Unusually they used a stock V8 Buick engine and it was in the rear unlike the front engined, race tuned, Offenhauser powered cars used by most competitors. It was the first stock engine to be raced at Indy since 1946 and was the beginning of the rear engine transformation at the Indianapolis 500. Thompson's crew led by Fritz Voigt were young, smart and hard working. Working 12-14 hour days, the car was designed and built in 120 days. For the race, the engine (enlarged to 4.2 litre capacity, the maximum allowed by the regulations for “stock block” engines) had to be detuned because they were concerned it would not last the distance. Despite being more than 70 bhp down on the other cars Dan Gurney
Dan Gurney
Daniel Sexton Gurney is an American racing driver, race car constructor, and team owner.The son of a Metropolitan Opera star, he was born in Port Jefferson, New York, but moved to California as a teenager...
qualified eighth and was in ninth place until a leaking oil seal seized the gearbox and ended his race on lap 94. He was placed 20th out of 33. The team won the Mechanical Achievement Award for original design, construction and accomplishment
Indianapolis 500 1963
Mickey was a good promoter and the sponsors were very pleased with the publicity generated that year. For the 1963 Indianapolis 500 Crosthwaite designed the innovative Harvey Aluminium Special ‘roller skate car’ with the then pioneering smaller profile (12 inch diameter) and wide racing tyres (front 7 inches and rear 9 inches wide) and wheels. Mickey Thompson took five cars to Indianapolis. Two of the previous year's design with Chevrolet V8 engines and three 'roller skate' cars. One of the new cars, the Harvey Titanium Special, featured a lightweight titanium chassis. Al Miller II raced one of the modified 1962 cars to 9th place despite only qualifying in 31st position. Duane Carter
Duane Carter
Duane Carter was an American racecar driver. He raced midget cars, sprint cars, and IndyCars. Carter was born in Fresno, California, and he died in Indianapolis, Indiana...
qualified one of the roller skate cars 15th but was only placed 23rd after an engine failure on the 100th lap. The small tyre sizes and low car weights caused complaints amongst the old hands and owners, so for future races cars were restricted to minimum tyre sizes and minimum car weight.
In 1963 Thompson traveled to England where, along with Dante Duce, he demonstrated his Top Fuel Harvey Aluminum Special dragster at the Brighton Speed Trials
Brighton Speed Trials
The Brighton Speed Trials, in full The Brighton National Speed Trials, is commonly held to be the oldest running motor race. The first race was held July 19–22, 1905 after Sir Harry Preston persuaded Brighton town council to tarmac the surface of the road adjacent to the beach between the Palace...
. His Ford-powered dragster was then displayed at the Racing Car Show in London in January 1964.
In 1965 he published "Challenger: Mickey Thompson's own story of his life of speed." In 1968, he redesigned the Funny Car
Funny Car
Funny Car is a drag racing car class. In the United States, other "professional" classes are Top Fuel, Pro Stock, and Pro Stock Motorcycle. Funny cars have forward-mounted engines and carbon fiber automotive bodies over the chassis, giving them an appearance vaguely approximating manufacturers'...
, and his vehicle went on to win the 1969 NHRA Spring Nationals and NHRA Nationals for driver Danny Ongais
Danny Ongais
Danny Ongais is a former racecar driver from the United States.He is the only native Hawaiian to compete at the Indianapolis 500...
. In his long career, Thompson raced everything from stock cars to off-road vehicles and engineered numerous competition engines. He went into the performance aftermarket business in the early 1960s and then, in 1963 he created "Mickey Thompson Performance Tires" that developed special tires for racing including for Indianapolis 500
Indianapolis 500
The Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, also known as the Indianapolis 500, the 500 Miles at Indianapolis, the Indy 500 or The 500, is an American automobile race, held annually, typically on the last weekend in May at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana...
competitors.
Thompson founded SCORE International
SCORE International
SCORE International is an off-road sanctioning body in the sport of desert racing and is famous for its flagship event, the Baja 1000 as well as the Baja 500 and San Felipe 250. SCORE races are held in United States and Mexico...
in 1973, a sanctioning body to oversee off-road racing
Off-road racing
Off-road racing is a format of racing where various classes of specially modified vehicles compete in races through off-road environments.-North America:...
across North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
. He and his wife Trudy formed the "Mickey Thompson Entertainment Group
Mickey Thompson Entertainment Group
The Mickey Thompson Entertainment Group was a sanctioning body for an American off-road racing series that took place inside stadiums. Some events were televised, including on TNN and ESPN. -History:...
" (MTEG) which ran an indoor motocross and off-road vehicle racing show and competition that brought the sport from the back-country terrain to stadium
Stadium
A modern stadium is a place or venue for outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage either partly or completely surrounded by a structure designed to allow spectators to stand or sit and view the event.)Pausanias noted that for about half a century the only event...
s in the heavily populated metropolitan areas.
Murder, investigation, and associated trials
Bradbury, California
Bradbury is a small, affluent city in the San Gabriel Valley region of Los Angeles County, California, United States. It is located in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains below Angeles National Forest. Bradbury is bordered by the city of Monrovia to the west, and Duarte to the south and...
in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains
San Gabriel Mountains
The San Gabriel Mountains Range is located in northern Los Angeles County and western San Bernardino County, California, United States. The mountain range lies between the Los Angeles Basin and the Mojave Desert, with Interstate 5 to the west and Interstate 15 to the east...
.
On the morning of the murder two gunmen waited outside of the Thompson home for Mickey and Trudy to leave for the day - Mickey opened the garage door for Trudy to pull out in her vehicle, and as he headed for his own vehicle to pull out of the garage the gunmen attacked, shooting and wounding Mickey and then dragging him out into the driveway, and then one of the gunmen went after Trudy as she was driving down the driveway in her vehicle and shot and killed her. The gunman then came back up the driveway where the other gunman was watching over Mickey and shot Mickey in the head, killing him.
The gunmen then made their escape on the bicycles that they had ridden to the Thompson residence.
Mickey, his wife and his pets are interred in the Rose Hills Memorial Park, in Whittier, California
Whittier, California
Whittier is a city in Los Angeles County, California about southeast of Los Angeles. The city had a population of 85,331 at the 2010 census, up from 83,680 as of the 2000 census, and encompasses 14.7 square miles . Like nearby Montebello, the city constitutes part of the Gateway Cities...
.
An intense police investigation led nowhere until thirteen years after their deaths, when former business partner Michael Frank Goodwin was charged in Orange County, California
Orange County, California
Orange County is a county in the U.S. state of California. Its county seat is Santa Ana. As of the 2010 census, its population was 3,010,232, up from 2,846,293 at the 2000 census, making it the third most populous county in California, behind Los Angeles County and San Diego County...
with the murders. However, that case was overturned on jurisdictional grounds by the California District Court of Appeal. On June 8, 2004, Goodwin was formally charged in Pasadena
Pasadena, California
Pasadena is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Although famous for hosting the annual Rose Bowl football game and Tournament of Roses Parade, Pasadena is the home to many scientific and cultural institutions, including the California Institute of Technology , the Jet...
in Los Angeles County. In October 2006, a Pasadena Superior Court judge ordered Goodwin to stand trial for the murders.
On January 4, 2007 a jury found Michael Goodwin guilty of two counts of murder in the death of Mickey Thompson and his wife. Goodwin was sentenced to two consecutive life-without-parole terms for the murders of Thompson and his wife. The judge also denied Goodwin's motion for a new trial.
The murder investigation was the subject of the April 28, 2007 episode of the CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
television program 48 Hours Mystery.
The murder investigation was also the subject of an episode of NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
's Unsolved Mysteries
Unsolved Mysteries
Unsolved Mysteries is an American television program, hosted by Robert Stack, from 1987 until 2002, and later by Dennis Farina, starting in 2008...
and TruTV's Murder by the Book.
A local band in Rhode Island, That'll Learn Ya, wrote a song about the incident, titled "Murder of the Speed King".
The CSI
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation is an American crime drama television series, which premiered on CBS on October 6, 2000. The show was created by Anthony E. Zuiker and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer...
episode "Early Rollout" was based on this murder case.
Awards
- In 1990, Mickey Thompson was elected posthumously to the International Motorsports Hall of FameInternational Motorsports Hall of FameThe International Motorsports Hall of Fame is a Hall of Fame dedicated to enshrining those who have contributed the most to auto racing either as a driver, owner, developer or engineer...
. - On the National Hot Rod Association Top 50 Drivers, 1951–2000, Mickey Thompson was ranked No. 11.
- Inducted posthumously to the Automotive Hall of Fame in 2009.