Racing Legacy and Land Speed Records with Danny Thompson in Episode 284

In this episode of Conversations with Big Rich, we dive into the fascinating world of motorsports with Danny Thompson, son of the legendary Mickey Thompson. Danny shares his storied journey from racing quarter midgets at the age of nine to breaking land speed records at Bonneville. As a pillar of the off-road racing community, Danny offers a unique perspective on the evolution of the sport and the legacy of his father, Mickey Thompson.

·       Danny's early years in racing and the influence of his father, Mickey Thompson.

·       Mickey Thompson's contributions to off-road racing and the foundation of SCORE.

·       The evolution of stadium truck racing and bringing the excitement of off-road racing to the fans.

·       Danny's journey to breaking the land speed record at Bonneville Salt Flats.

·       The technical and personal challenges of racing at such high speeds.

·       Reflections on the Thompson family legacy and its impact on modern motorsports.

Tune in to hear more incredible stories from legends in the off-road industry and visit our website for past episodes. 

Transcript

[00:00:05.100] - 

Welcome to Conversations with Big Rich. This is an interview-style podcast. Those interviewed are all involved in the off-road industry. Being involved, like all of my guests are, is a lifestyle, not just a job. I talk to past, present, and future legends, as well as business owners, employees, media, and land use warriors, men and women who have found their way into this exciting and addictive lifestyle we call off-road. We discuss their personal history, struggles, successes, and reboots. We dive into what drives them to stay active and off-road. We all hope to shed some light on how to find a path into this world that we live and love and call off-road.

[00:00:46.460] - 

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[00:01:12.780] - Big Rich Klein

Today's guest is Danny Thompson, the son of Mickey Thompson. Danny started racing quarter midgets at the age of nine, moved on to motocross, then Formula Atlantic cars, then on to sprint cars and stadium trucks. He also holds the world record for speed, driving a piston-powered vehicle. That's 448 miles an hour in the Challenger 2. We'll talk about Danny's life, and of course, his dad, Mickey. Hello, Danny Thompson. It's so good to have you on the podcast. It was a pleasure meeting you the other night, and I'm looking forward to finding out your history and the history of your family. This will be an exciting one. I'm looking forward to this.

[00:01:58.480] - Danny Thompson

Well, good morning, and thanks very much. I'll at least try to remember most all of it. I'm getting to be old now, so I remember stuff so well. But yeah, we've had a big history with the family all through off-road racing and road racing and Indianapolis stuff and ending up with Bonneville stuff. So, yeah, my pleasure to be here.

[00:02:20.560] - Big Rich Klein

Okay. Well, let's start with your beginning of your history, and that would be, where were you born and raised?

[00:02:29.240] - Danny Thompson

Born and Well, born in Montebello, California, raised in Elmani. And from Elmani, we went from there up to rolling Hills.

[00:02:38.980] - Big Rich Klein

Okay. And your parents, especially your dad, was quite famous, and that's Mickey Thompson, an American racer. But your mom and dad met while racing. Is that correct?

[00:02:56.820] - Danny Thompson

Well, my mom and dad, in 1947, I guess, met racing down Pacific Coast Highway in street cars. Illegal racing, I'm here to say, but that's how they met. And the fun fact about that is that my mom beat my dad that day.

[00:03:19.320] - Big Rich Klein

That's awesome. Then later on, you were born the next year in '48. How about that?

[00:03:28.200] - Danny Thompson

Yeah, '49, actually. October '49. It's pretty cool when you think back that far and how it all developed and how careers developed and how my dad developed and what he did. It's pretty cool to represent the family like that.

[00:03:50.320] - Big Rich Klein

Racing was just part of your life growing up, I take it. I mean, it was just an everyday thing?

[00:03:59.320] - Danny Thompson

It's That's basically all I ever knew. I started racing when I was nine years old with quarter midgets and stuff. But then shortly after that, by the time I was 10, my dad forbade me for racing. I wasn't allowed. I was around it every day, all the time, but I wasn't allowed to drive myself so I could work in the industry and stuff. But he forbade me to drive one. Certainly when I was young, when he could control me.

[00:04:28.220] - Big Rich Klein

So was that a safety issue?

[00:04:32.200] - Danny Thompson

Yeah, it was. We were at Lion's Dragstrip, and I've told this story many times, but we were at Lion's Dragstrip. My dad built Lion's Dragstrip, I think in 19... Gosh, if I get there, I'm so bad on yours. 1954, I think it opened. He built that place and built it up to be one of the best drag strips that there are ever, really. They called it the Beach or Lion's Drag Strip, Lion's Association. During his tender there, he built a quarter midget track, and that's what I was racing on. That particular night, somebody got hurt in my event or my heat race or Maine or whatever it was. Somebody ran over and told my dad that I had been hurt My dad came running over from the dragster side to where the quart of midget races were. It wasn't me. I was fortunate enough to have won that night. I was sitting there with a trophy girl, I'm nine years old, but it freaked my dad out so much. He said, That's it. He sold my quart of midget on the spot and said, You'll never race again. And I didn't until I was 18 and left the house.

[00:05:39.520] - Danny Thompson

It was a definite rocky start.

[00:05:44.760] - Big Rich Klein

Wow. Okay. Yeah, to be able to be racing at that age and then being told you can't race anymore. So at that 18 age is when you got into motocross and Formula Atlantic, is that correct?

[00:06:00.700] - Danny Thompson

Motocross first, and I did that. I lived up in Mountain and raced up there and all over, actually, we raced a lot. Then later, it turned into... I went back to work for my dad, and I did the off-road deal. That's actually during the time when my dad started scoring. I did that a lot. Then Atlantic Cars later, Atlantic Cars, Formula, Which Atlantic... Formula Atlantic is the same as Formula 2 in Europe. And then Formula 3, which would be like Super Vs, and did a lot of that. And then race sprint cars. So yeah, I had an array of different things I did there.

[00:06:47.360] - Big Rich Klein

And your dad was known, especially to begin with, as a drag racer, and then got into off-road racing after the drag racing, or did he both at the same time?

[00:07:01.760] - Danny Thompson

No, no, way after. So my dad started basically at the dry lakes up to Delmarage, and from there to Bonneville, and from Bonneville to drag racing. And from drag racing, boat racing, Indianapolis, built some cars for Indianapolis in '62. He built a car that Dan Gurnie drove for him at the Speedway. And then off-road racing came after all of that. So I think because there were so many restrictions, like racing at Indianapolis and stuff, and my dad was so inventive and came up with so many new things, and they kept restricting him at Indianapolis. He would come up with a new tire combination, and they would make it be illegal or come up with a lightweight car, and they put a weight limit on it. Then funny cars, the drag racing where he saw an opportunity to represent the different factories where you could bring money in. Instead of, Dragsters and rails were really nice, but there wasn't much room for identity and stuff. Then funny cars, he came up with a bunch of new innovations there, and you could represent a Mustang or a Camaro or something like that. But off-road racing came after all of that stuff.

[00:08:26.700] - Danny Thompson

The reason that was, is those limitations that were put on him at Indianapolis, all that stuff. My dad saw an opportunity in off-road racing where you could stretch your imagination again, especially in class one and stuff. So, yeah, I can't remember what year. I think the first year I went down to Baja would have been, I went down with my dad and he was driving for Bill Strapp, and I'm pretty sure that was 1968.

[00:08:55.400] - Big Rich Klein

Okay, 1968. And the You went down there at '68, that would have put you at about 19, 20 years old. Yes. Did you go down and just help your dad race, or did Were you a participant?

[00:09:19.280] - Danny Thompson

No, I went down and hung out with the Straub guys, and my dad was driving. Danny and Gius and my dad were driving a pickup truck. I guess that would have been Class 8, but it only had a six-cylinder in it. So they were driving for a strop on that six-cylinder. And my dad got so mad because they were roaring down by Sanquitine and the road down there, it was graded all through there, but it was so rough. And my dad, he said him and Danny were flying down there. And they were, you see, he didn't think anybody could pass them as fast as they were going. And pretty soon these four guys in this old Chevrolet beat up thing with no shocks on it, hardly. He knew like that, passed him going down the street away in San Jose. He decided it was time to build his own truck, and he put a V8 in that baby.

[00:10:13.560] - Big Rich Klein

And then history was history was written after that.

[00:10:16.680] - Danny Thompson

History was written after that. We started racing trucks first. My dad raced a meant, I think next, and they built a buggy. Actually, Gil George built a buggy for him with a Wampus Skitty front-end on it, which was the A-arm front and had a Ford four-cylinder motor in it, I think. But anyway, that was all the start that really stirred my dad up. He liked the whole deal down there, like Mexico and that stuff. So yeah, that was the start of something big. And shortly after that's when my dad started SCOR, because I think if I remember the story right, Nora wasn't invited back down there. And Anyway, so then there wasn't going to be any off-road racing down there. So that's when my dad decided to start SCOR.

[00:11:07.280] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, I think the story went with Nora is that Ed Perlman started it, and Then some Mexican nationals took it over, basically took it away from him. Then SCOR came about because what was going on was not... I guess it wasn't being run right or something. I don't know what all the backstory is. And then your dad started scoring.

[00:11:39.600] - Danny Thompson

Yeah, and nobody really know how to run anything at that time, especially down there with the Mexican contingent. They had never put a race on or anything. But anyway, yeah, my dad went in there. He got in with him and Nico Saad became very good friends. And then Nico Saad had the right political connections to talk to the right people. And we got in there. But I remember when my dad came in to the shop and said, We're going to start an off-road organization and we're going to promote races down in Baja. I chuckled to myself. Yeah, sure. Sure you're going to do that. That next day, we're starting to write rule books and put stuff together for the first race. It was interesting. Being around my dad, it was like being in a hurricane the whole because the wheels never slowed down in his brain and things were happening all the time, and reinventing this or coming up with a new situation for that. So that whole score deal, watching it develop from writing rulebooks and trying to figure out classes and then all the courses. That's where I became really involved because I, once again, wasn't allowed to race while I was still under his tutelage, I guess.

[00:12:57.980] - Danny Thompson

And so I laid all the courses out and became very familiar with Baha by doing that.

[00:13:05.380] - Big Rich Klein

What was it like down there at that time dealing with the farmers and the Hitos and the communities down there? Was it pretty easy?

[00:13:23.240] - Danny Thompson

Yeah, it was pretty easy. You had to be tight with the Hitos, though, because they had all the control over down there. But I mean, back then we would race, we would go right by some Mexican property. We'd go right by their front door. I mean, if they walked out their front door, they would get run over. And so it was very primitive then The roads didn't go. I think when we first started down there, the roads didn't go much past. Oh, now I'm so bad on names anymore. But about 10 miles outside, was it Madero? 10 miles outside of Encinada, 15 miles outside of Encinada is where the asphalt ended. And so, yeah, things were different, but dealing with the people, the people were always so awesome down there. I didn't speak much Spanish at all. I did later. I learned because you were down there, they didn't speak hardly in English at that time. It was a great learning curve. Then I worked a lot with the tourist department and usually had one of those guys with me that could translate and everything when we would go in and talk to the different farmers.

[00:14:33.340] - Danny Thompson

Then maybe we put up a new gate or help them move a fence or something like that. We would get out of their front door, their front yard, and move things around to make it more convenient. You started with those relationships down there, but the people were always so genuine. It was just absolutely a pleasure to be around them down there.

[00:14:54.860] - Big Rich Klein

The race course, I imagine, went by the, like you said, so close to the house because the roads just interconnected the houses.

[00:15:04.220] - Danny Thompson

Yeah, that was the road. It was so fun because a lot of the stuff, especially when we started getting more entries and everything, and you were running so close to those people's house, my dad I'd go down there in a truck, in some a pre-runter to mark the course. My dad would go down in his airplane, and then we would communicate back and forth. To get around a certain farm or a certain area that might become a problem or try to it could be manageable for everybody, my dad be flying over and he would tell me, Turn left there from the air, and I'd be on the ground. Then I would make some mark so I could go back and remember. We went all the way around all these places. We opened up the summit. The summit had not been gone over in 20 or 30 years. And it took me... Well, we flew it in the airplane, and then I finally couldn't get over. So Then I went around to the other side where the summit comes back down on the San Felipe side and marked what we were going to do from there.

[00:16:08.600] - Danny Thompson

But then I went back and it was so cool because it wasn't Trinidad, but I can't remember the name of the town. I hired, I think it was 15 guys to come and help me open that road up. We didn't have tractors or anything, pics and shovels, and 15 guys and me. I think we spent almost week and a half up there moving rocks. Then I would get back and I would drive up and we get to another place and we'd move rocks and we'd do this. Then finally, we opened it up. That was definitely a way that we could open a lot more territory and get down to the other side without having to go down through Trinidad and then along what was the route there. I can't remember what that number is now, the route one or something. But anyway, we could get around there and go across the dry on the back side and come back into San Felipe from that direction. I didn't speak in English, and I had 15 guys basically working for me. It was a treat, a real treat.

[00:17:16.560] - Big Rich Klein

Wow. Sounds like an adventure.

[00:17:19.040] - Danny Thompson

It was.

[00:17:20.340] - Big Rich Klein

Pretty wild, especially being in your teenage years and running a road building crew in a foreign country. That's pretty awesome.

[00:17:33.120] - Danny Thompson

Yeah. I was into my 20s. I was into my 20s and stuff I did because it was a bit after the Strock days and that stuff. The score was pretty well established and everything by then. But yeah, as much as I can remember.

[00:17:49.080] - Big Rich Klein

When did you get a chance to race that race?

[00:17:56.820] - Danny Thompson

I was racing with my dad at the same time in those races, so he was promoting it and racing it, too. But I could only co-drive. I was an observer and a map reader. I made extensive maps way back then, rolling maps. So we put a speed telemonometer cable that went from the left front spendle of the car up to a little device that we made to roll a map. So the thing had a... Let's see. So if I remember right, it's about six-inch wide paper. It had those little holes on the side of it, like graft paper, right? And those holes had little sprocks, almost like an old movie projector, and that would move the map. And that was, according to off in the left front spendle, We clocked all the distances in to make the map be accurate mile to mile. And so spend a lot of time trying to do that math deal. And then anyway, I would go down pre-running, but somebody and they would drive and I would on this rolling map, I would make all the notes and everything, right turn, left turn, blind hill, left turn, 15 miles an hour, right turn, 50 miles an hour, asphalt crossing, tree on the right, all these different things.

[00:19:19.340] - Danny Thompson

And then once I got the map all made, then I would go back and do it again and correct everything. Then my dad had come because he didn't have time to do all that. He was running a store and some other businesses, so he didn't have time to be as much time to spend down there as I did. And then he would come along and then I would read the map to him. Right-hand turn 15, Blind Hill 30, all this stuff. And then he would run it and then he would correct the speeds. And I would mark out the speeds and remake it. But anyway, they were pretty. It's almost like GPS is now, but it was all me reading the map while it was rolling and trying to keep the miles straight and the turns straight because you sure didn't want to tell him it was a 50-mile-an-hour left-hand turn when it was actually a 12-mile-an-hour right-hand turn. Because he would go according to what I've told him. So yeah, it was in doing that and making those maps. And so I spent so much time down there between laying the courses out and making the maps.

[00:20:26.220] - Danny Thompson

I mean, I think I had 60,000 miles down there. You so, so, so long ago. But everything's changed once again. And then things would change all the time. It would rain and it would open up a wash or close up a wash. And then you always knew by doing the maps and also laying all the courses out, I knew who knew all the shortcuts, right? Parnelly was really good. Johnny Johnson. Johnny Johnson was probably the best at short cutting down there at the time. Sometimes when there'd be a shortcut, I would find their shortcut just by reading tire tracks and paying attention. Then I'd write a note and leave it on there. I'm watching you on the shortcut. It was such fun times.

[00:21:15.640] - Big Rich Klein

I remember, I'm an off-road event promoter, mainly rock crawls, but I did some four-wheel drive, what we call rock racing events under the name Dirtriate. And whenever I'd find a short course after pre-running, because we'd open up the course for pre-running, and typically our courses were less than 10 miles. We did a lot of private property across the United States. And so I'd rerun again after their pre-running, and I'd find where the shortcuts were, and we'd tape them off, drop a tree, do what we needed to do to block those off to keep guys on the on the right track, which you could do on a much shorter race course. But I remember putting photographers going, okay, I want you to stand here, and if anybody goes this way, I want you to call it in. And then at the driver's meeting, I would say, okay, I found these shortcuts, don't take them. I'm going to have somebody there, that thing. I even told them I was putting GoPros up into the trees. Nobody believed it. Yeah.

[00:22:31.600] - Danny Thompson

Yeah, it's funny how you work all that stuff out. And at that point in Baja, they were point to point races. So you had checkpoints, but you could pretty much go any way you wanted to go at first between those checkpoints. So you could find a beach route that was shorter or something like that. And all that developed into, like you say, what you did there, more and more control, trying to keep everybody. And that was once again, going back to the Hito, when you You didn't have permission to run through that shortcut area. So you had to keep those people happy, or they wouldn't let you come back.

[00:23:09.640] - Big Rich Klein

Right. And a lot of it comes to safety. We all know that the people that live in Mexico, in Baja, that's a road to them. I mean, that's their normal transportation road. And even during a race, we'll find You come across people going down the road in their pickup truck with fruit or whatever in it. And you try to eliminate that on those race days. But if you have a well-marked course and the natives down there know it, and the racers know it, there's less likely of an incident happening.

[00:23:52.640] - Danny Thompson

Yes, very true. And that's if the natives didn't change your markers and stuff to get you off of your area, and then you got lost. Which used to happen a lot. That was before they were building their booby traps and stuff. It was their area, and we were invading it. It was so important to be good to the people down there because that's their everyday life. Like you said, maybe they're hauling fruit or something. They're hauling water over to where they were. They were some of the most inventive people I've ever seen down there when you didn't have... I had a flat tire, and I was a long, long way from getting somewhere, and I was basically stuck. I I can't go any farther. I'm going, What am I going to do here? And some natives came along, and it was like, he didn't speak English, I didn't speak Spanish. And it was like, what are we going to do? So he starts helping me. So he starts taking sand, and he's put it in in my tire, because the tire is off the rim, or what half is off the rim. And he's filling my tire full of sand.

[00:25:07.880] - Danny Thompson

And I'm going, I'm starting to get mad. I'm thinking, I don't know, maybe this has got a purpose. So I let it all go. And then, so filled as much as he could with sand, and then pop, and then rotate it, put some more sand in, rotate it, put some more sand in, and pop the bee dressed away on. And so basically, I had a flat-through tire. I could only run 10 miles an hour, but I still go until I got to the next place where I get my tire filled because it was filled with sand.

[00:25:35.180] - Big Rich Klein

Right. So what he did is basically just made a solid tire.

[00:25:38.900] - Danny Thompson

Made a solid tire. I'll tell you one of the biggest lessons I have learned down there. When I was stuck in a water crossing because I got back and I roared across that. I was going to go 50 miles an hour across this thing and come out the other side. Well, I got 50 miles an hour to the middle, and then I'm stuck. I got pulled out by two horses. They had hooked long ropes up, the larianets on there, and pulled me back out of the deal. What I learned from them and what I finally figured out they were telling me is never drive into something you can't back out of. You think about that and you think, what does that really mean? It's like, if you drove to the middle and you didn't think you're going to make any farther, you could back out to the other side. Even now today, when I get in a situation like that, I still keep that same philosophy that one of those natives taught me down there. So pretty interesting. They're a group of people down there, and they don't know any different because that's the way they live their whole life.

[00:26:52.360] - Big Rich Klein

Right. Yeah. They've had to be inventive and figure things out. When they their whole life and probably spend less money than what a race car that drives by their house costs for one race.

[00:27:08.420] - Danny Thompson

Yeah. And they couldn't call a Triple A to come get them.

[00:27:12.600] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, for sure. The whole stadium truck thing really intrigued me that your dad coming up with that concept of the idea of taking the racing to the fans and being able to set people in the seats and then race around them. Do you remember that development of that and how that came about?

[00:27:41.320] - Danny Thompson

Oh, absolutely. I've told this story before of course, so stop me if it's boring. But we were racing, I think it was the 500. Parnelly and my dad were rivals for whatever reason, I think, because they both came from out of the industry and they both had A lot of success in anything. Anyway, my dad and Parnelly somehow made a bet who was going to get to San Quatine first. And we started in Encinada and we raced on the highway to San Quatine. So we started that race in a Class 8 truck with four drag race slicks for tires. So gumball tires, right? And we hooked them up down there. My dad was on it and I was reading the map. And if the map said 50 an hour left. I was telling him 60 miles an hour left. I told him 60, he went 70. And it was just... He was spot on. And I mean, sideways down through before San Tomas and all those switchbacks and all that stuff. I mean, it was it was marvelous. Anyway, we got there. We changed four tires, took the drag tires off and put four dirt tires on and left before Parnelly caught us.

[00:28:56.660] - Danny Thompson

And I think Parnelly started maybe five minutes behind us or somewhere in there. Anyway, we got there before. So we had a great pit crew, John Kennedy, who was an off-road guy then, and Steve Ibert. Anyway, all people that came over and did these pit stops and practice and practice Anyway, so we're going down and now we're going down and Parnilli hasn't caught us, so I'm pretty happy. And like I said, I'm co-riding, my dad's driving, and we start down into El Rosario, and down that steep canyon, and narrow, and all of a sudden, bam, Parnelly hits us from the back, right? And I'm going, Oh, man. And my dad says, Turn around, turn around, see where he is. Well, I got my seatbelts on. I can't turn around too far. And I said, I can't see. I can't see. He's, Take your seatbelts off. I got my shoulder harness and my lap belt off and I'm turning it up, and I'm doing the play by play commentation like it's a broadcast. I'm saying, he's on the right, he's on the left. Parnelly's coming out, bam, hits us again. And my dad's He's not letting Parnale in my head, it don't matter what's going to happen.

[00:30:03.600] - Danny Thompson

And Parnale went, boom, boom. And then I said, he's upside down, he's upside down, he's sliding on his side. And Parnale is on his side, banging off a rock. And all of a sudden, he hits our leather rock and it puts him back on four wheels and he smokes by us and he's gone. He's gone, right? And me telling my dad what was happening, all that stuff, my dad driving his ass off trying to keep Parnelly back. But then now my dad and Like I said, I've told this story before. So now my dad, he's driving terrible. He's hitting stuff. He's running off the road. And that's a funny statement, running off the road when you are off. But missing turns and all that stuff. Come on, what Come on, get it together here. What's going on? And then he starts telling me, he says, People have to see this. He says, People have to see what just happened. He says, Nobody can see this out here. Jackrabbits and the Snakes and nobody else. And it's like, We got to bring this inside. People have got to see this. Well, I think a month and a half later, two months later, we were at Riverside for the first off-road race at Riverside.

[00:31:09.500] - Danny Thompson

So people could see it. And this was a precursor to stadium. But Riverside was the first one, and Riverside, I can remember my dad up there having a driver's meeting, and my dad telling everybody, I mean, it was Walker and Ivan and the mirrors and all that stuff back there, we'll be able to fill these stands people would come watch you. And I think that first year, we had probably 3,000 people or something out there. And everybody's going, yeah, sure, Mickey, this is going to be a big success. But Riverside turned into one of the most unique events ever. And heck, that started another whole cottage industry, the back East guys and all that stuff. But anyway, we went from Riverside. We end up having more people come out there than a Nascar race or the Formula One races they had there back in those days. So it became so popular. People would come four or five days early just to get a parking spot, get in line to get a parking spot to watch our Riverside. But anyway, that developed into stadium racing. But now you can sit there and you could have a soda and a hot dog and a beer and watch a race and get up and go to the bathroom, a nice restroom, clean, come back, watch some more races.

[00:32:27.540] - Danny Thompson

I think stadium racing, we had 18 races in a three-hour period. So that all started that. But that once again goes back to my dad and his inventive mind and what can you do to make this be better or another business or whatever. It was to watch that evolution from desert racing to short course racing to stadium racing. It was amazing. Of course, I'm biased because it was my dad. But what he did and what he did for the industry, I mean, score is a pretty big deal nowadays.

[00:33:06.400] - Big Rich Klein

Absolutely. Absolutely.

[00:33:09.060] - Danny Thompson

And watching him start that and being part of that, I mean, I was a tech inspector, I think the first three years. I was a mapmaker and a tech inspector, and whatever need did they get done. We made boxes for all the checkpoints, where it had a stop sign and cones and all that stuff, and pounding those with a saw saw and wood up and screw and hinges on boxes to put stop signs in, whatever you needed to man that checkpoint. It's pretty cool when you think about... You go back and you think about the evolution of how all that worked. We had no idea what we were doing down there.

[00:33:53.460] - Big Rich Klein

Well, no, because you guys were the first ones. I mean, you built it from the ground up.

[00:33:59.040] - Danny Thompson

Yeah, it was pretty darn cool.

[00:34:03.720] - Big Rich Klein

When was that first... When the stadium trucks got started? About when the time frame on that?

[00:34:09.920] - Danny Thompson

I think stadium started in... I think our first race at the LA Coliseum was 1979. And in fact, I won the Friday night single seat class, which transferred me with the fast guys for Saturday night. And there is this guy named that came out of off-road racing that ended up doing pretty well by the name of Rick Mears that won that night. Well, Rick had won the Indianapolis 500, I think two or three weeks before that. So that brought a lot of credibility and a lot more eyes on stadium racing. So I think to regress a little bit there. Before we actually went to the big stadiums, we went to LA Fairgrounds, Pomona, and raced around their horse racetrack and put jumps and everything in there. And then we raced at the Orange Show, which is a little stadium, a little maybe three-eights mile in San Bernardino. And then that's where my dad started with the steel jumps, where you couldn't bring dirt in. But the other Colosseos was the first race. Here's a pretty good story, too. And these two actually correlate with each other. So when we went to Riverside the first time after that race with Parnelly in the desert, it was my dad going down there.

[00:35:33.740] - Danny Thompson

And so he's talking to Les Richter, who was a famous football player from the LA Rams that was managing Riverside Raceway and later became the vice president of NASCAR and stuff like that. Anyway, he's telling Les Richter, he says, this is what I want to do. I want to build a course in here with jumps and all that. And then I want to run that and work. And so we're driving in the car and we're driving up the road course. And my dad's in his Osmobile, torunado So front wheel drive, but it was a special torundado that he was building for Osmobile itself, and it had four wheel steering, which he put in there to do something. So my dad's looking up as we're driving up the road course, and he says, And I want to run along that ridge, which later became Thompson's Ridge, but it was full of ice plant and everything. And Les Richter tells my dad, he goes, Well, Mickey said, you could never get a car to stand to hold on to the side of that ridge. And that's all my dad needed. That was waving the red flag in front of a bull.

[00:36:36.160] - Danny Thompson

And up on the side of that bank, and I don't know if you're familiar with it, but it's relatively steep. And we're up on the side with all that ice plant. My dad in his old mobile, Tornado, and that baby's hanging on with that four wheel steer. And we roar down that thing and come back down onto the, whatever, quarter mile later, half mile later, come back down onto the track. And Les Richter is looking at my dad like, you crazy bastard, what are you doing here? And he looks at my dad and he looks where we just came from. He goes, well, Mickey says, you got yourself a race. And that's how it ended up. And it was just like, just little things like that. I I didn't think he thought of running up the side of that bank. It was steep. But that Thomson's Ridge for the Riverside thing, that was one of the most unique things about that thing. And I end up, I think the first two years, I think I built the course, and the year was really long. I mean, it was up to five miles long. It went all through the back, and I buried telephone poles and dug holes and ditches that you ran into and all this stuff.

[00:37:40.420] - Danny Thompson

And then my dad says, It's too long and we can't put any spectators back there. And that's why, because there's no bleachers or anything. He says, that's why we're doing this is to bring people in that can watch it. And so then it got shorter. So I think I did it the first year, year and a half. And then Walker came in and Walker started building the course, too, with me. Then eventually, just Walker did it, I think. I can't remember the years, but then Walker did it, maybe one or two years. Then nick Dan came in and did the course. But in the course, the course got more mature and more audience friendly and less driver friendly, but a better show. So pretty soon there was no ice plan on the side of that bank.

[00:38:26.200] - Big Rich Klein

Right. That's what That revolutionized off-road racing. Absolutely. And other motor sports that can relate to that, everything from Monster Truck to what Ravi has done with his trucks. It's just like what we do with our Rock Crawling series that I put on is that I make make sure that the spectators can see almost all the show from one location. It's just a set of obstacles, but instead of being spread out all over hell's half creation, you put them close together.

[00:39:19.840] - Danny Thompson

Yeah. You got to have the people, you got to have the eyes on the sport, and that way more people talk about it, you get more publicity, more people want to write about it, more people want to do it, it becomes more competitive. Yeah, it's, you know. I mean, you do it. As a promoter, you have to come up with those things to make it survive.

[00:39:39.140] - Big Rich Klein

Correct. Yep.

[00:39:40.300] - Danny Thompson

Or pretty soon you're sitting in the bleachers.

[00:39:42.760] - Big Rich Klein

So did he sell SCOR, or was it just somebody was running it for him?

[00:39:49.940] - Danny Thompson

No, he ran it. No, he ran it and everything. And I can remember the first time Sal came out, my dad had him out at Riverside, and I was right in. So many of these adventures, I was in the back seat. And I was in the back seat when they started it out there with Les Richter. And I was in the back seat and maybe like, I don't know if my dad was trying to talk Sal into it to come run it and eventually buy it. My dad sold it to Sal. But I remember the first time out there, and Sal was an executive at Hot Rod magazine. So he came from getting his fingernails done to doing courses in Baja. So I think it was a root awakening for Sal at first. And I can remember first time my dad told me, take Sal so we can learn how to map a course. And I slept on the ground all the time back then. It got to be dark and digging my sleeping bag out to sleep on the ground, and Sal's going, Where's the hotel? I said, Oh, it's a long way away.

[00:40:53.720] - Danny Thompson

We're not going to make it there tonight. He was like, Oh. It was pretty funny. So that was pretty raw at first, but he came around quickly. And of course, he did a great job with score. But yeah, so he bought it. I think he had bought a certain portion of it or percentage of it, whatever. And then when my dad passed, then they bought rest of it from the estate. But yeah, that was the start of something. I mean, back then it was, I keep saying back then, I Because that's when I was so involved. I did rerun. I went with a guy named Reid Rutherford, and I think, what year was that? Anyway, it must have been maybe 10 years ago or something. And it was the first time I'd been to Baja in, I think it was 27 years or something. Wow. I hadn't been down there because I went different directions when I went road racing. Then I worked for Danny and guys on the Indianapolis team for a number of years, and we did all the Indy car races and all the IMSA races. So I would be at Indianapolis at the end of May, and then two weeks later, I'd be in LaMont for the 24 hour.

[00:42:12.240] - Danny Thompson

And I worked as a as a mechanic/fabricator for that team for a number of years. So I'd gotten away from the off-road deal because my goal was always to run Indianapolis. I wanted to drive Indianapolis. Anything I could do to get myself closer to there, that's when... Because I was a fabricator for my dad, building the trucks and stuff. But then when I left my dad's, I went to work for Indianapolis car teams, so I could learn how to build tubs and all that stuff. Just so I could keep So I could try to get to Indianapolis, but that never worked out.

[00:42:50.520] - Big Rich Klein

I would imagine, like everybody else in the industry and around the industry, and then you being so close because being a family member, When your dad's partner arranged the hit, that was pretty devastating. Everybody was just absolutely shocked. I mean, it At first, nobody knew what caused it. People had ideas, of course. Can we talk about your feelings at that point?

[00:43:27.640] - Danny Thompson

Not really. I don't know. I just I just to soon avoid that. But the guy was a rotten bastard, a rotten cheat, and he didn't have the balls to kill my dad himself. So he hired people to do it. And that was during the stadium truck days because I was driving for a Chevrolet. In fact, at the table that we were sitting at the other day for Walker's celebration of life that you were at also, Herb Fischer was sitting right next to me to the right. And he was the guy at General Motors. He was head of all... Well, he was head of, I think, international motor sports for General Motors. So I was driving for Herb. I had my own team, of course, but I think I drove for them for seven or eight years or something. So we were racing at the time when my dad got killed. And it was upsetting and, yeah, terribly upsetting. But anyway, then I think then I left Chevrolet. Basically, I got replaced because I wasn't doing a good enough job. And they replaced me with these two kids that came out all right, Ricky Johnson and Jimmy Johnson.

[00:44:37.220] - Danny Thompson

Anyway, I started promoting, but when I went in to promote, the business was already... I had people in there running it because I wanted to race. I didn't want to be a promoter. I went from signing an autograph of being a race car driver to a slimy promoter in one day.

[00:44:56.800] - Big Rich Klein

And having to write the checks.

[00:44:59.160] - Danny Thompson

Yeah. Yeah, so by that time, MTEG was already too far to save. I should have stepped in earlier and trying to save it. But like we said, had family running it, and they buried it. That's the way it was. So anyway, it all went away.

[00:45:17.300] - Big Rich Klein

And then when that happened, your next step, was it straight into top speed racing?

[00:45:28.020] - Danny Thompson

No, it was When that happened, financially it crippled us. So we moved out of state up to Colorado and lived up there just being a fabricator. My wife, Valerie and I raced our son Travis up there in Colorado in a little different environment and basically started over from nothing. Then that led into... Instead of going to races every weekend, I was going to all speech tournaments and soccer games and whatever it took to help Valarie raise our son. But then I think it was when my son left and went to school, out of country to school, it was like, okay, here I am and I'm doing construction, metal construction, fireplaces and stainless steel countertops and copper and copper hoods and all that stuff. And it was, well, I think I'll go to Bonneville and watch and went up there and drove for got to drive that year for a guy named Don Ferguson. But the car was, they had already set the record they were going to do. So they just let me in as a token ride just to, well, what do you think of this? And then that relit another flame. And then I think I was back a few years later, driving the pumpkin seed, which was a car that my dad drove in the '60s.

[00:47:06.440] - Danny Thompson

Anyway, I donated that car to somebody and they rebuilt it. And so I ended up getting in the 200 miles an and so now that flame was burning hot. And then from there, I think I went to work for... I went to drive for a guy named Brent Hyke, who was a farmer out in Oklahoma and drove a Ford Mustang up there. And we set some records with it, which was pretty nice. But learned also that after having a career of driving a lot of different vehicles, I mean, a lot of different from dirt to road racing and all sorts of stuff, motorcycles and going to Bonneville and thinking, well, this isn't any problem because you're just going to go straight. Well, 262 miles an hour and a Mustang and going through the four mile mark, the thing flew. It went 25 feet straight up in the air, flew 1100 feet through the air, rolled seven times, and went through the five mile timing mark at 246 miles an hour upside down.

[00:48:17.560] - Big Rich Klein

Holy mac.

[00:48:18.700] - Danny Thompson

It's like, oh, boy. So basically, what the moral to that story is, is I thought I knew a lot about driving because of so many different facets, and I didn't know anything. I mean, it was everything that I learned for going to Bonneville, throw it out the window. Start over with a fresh attitude. So then I came back, I think, what was it? It was a few years after that. And that's when we had Challenger 2 or the Otlite Special that my dad built in 1968 for Ford. And they ran it, they tested it, and they went pretty good. And I think they went like, 365 miles an hour, and they got all ready to go for the final runs for Ford. And that would be October of '68, and it rained. And so they didn't get to run. They were going to come back the following year in '69. And that's the year that basically General Motors, Chrysler, Ford, they all said, win on Sunday, sell on Monday, win out the record. Went out the record, went out the door. And the beam counter has said, racing doesn't help our program. So they all basically stepped out of racing.

[00:49:37.820] - Danny Thompson

So that car set for the next 20 something years and never got run again. Meantime, then I was going through my different Bonneville stages and I had that car at my shop in Colorado. Anyway, we put it all back together and started running it. I think it took It took a lot more years than I thought. I mean, that whole program lasted from 2010 until 2018. So basically eight years in there to get it already. But anyway, it was pretty good. So I had a new attitude on how to drive Bonneville and what I had to do. And the car went out and it did good. So we went. But nevertheless, it's still you have your issues. For instance, the very first time we ran the car at El Mirage just for a shakedown run, I think around 186 miles an hour or something up there. And then to Bonneville in 2014, and our first full five mile run, we went 392 miles an hour on a 394 mile an hour record. Now, the fast that I've been up to that point was 262 when I crashed that Mustang, or when it flew. Once again, going back to, I thought I knew something about aerodynamics, and I did not.

[00:50:58.840] - Danny Thompson

That's why it flew. But anyway, then so go and... I'm rambling. I'm sorry.

[00:51:04.180] - Big Rich Klein

No, no, you're doing great.

[00:51:06.200] - Danny Thompson

But so 392 miles an hour, pull the parachutes. And now, because it's hard enough to go that fast, but it's equally as hard to get stopped. So anyway, I pull the parachute, and all of a sudden, I can't see anything. I mean, I have liquid running all over me. Well, they're dry block motors. They're their A fuel motor, so we don't run any water in them. We cool them with massive amounts of nitrum, that thing, right? And so I can't see. And I'm going basically 400 miles an hour, and I can't see anything. And I'm going, Oh, my God, what's happening here? So it's the first time I'd been that fast now. So I opened my visor up and the fire bottles had gone off. When the parachutes hit, it hit so hard and it fired the fire bottles off. So I opened my visor up and the fire bottles were right straight in my eyes. So now I'm probably only going maybe 300 or something. I don't know. But anyway, I can't see anything. But anyway, we got off the end and we survived. We didn't crash and turned around the next morning and went 419 miles an hour.

[00:52:14.000] - Danny Thompson

So it was quite a trip. But here's something about Bonneville people don't don't realize. Well, first off, it's flat. It's off road racing. There's no road out there. It's off road. And it It's flat. You can actually see the curvature of the Earth when you stand out there in the middle, but it is not smooth at all. It is incredibly rough, especially we only have a four inch wide tire and it's got 100 pounds air pressure in it. The initial spring rate is so dramatic. The thing just... It's like trying to drive a beach ball. But anyway, it's so much fun, and it's just another facet of motorsports where you go in and you realize how hard it really is. It's not easy to go straight and stop, like I said. I don't know. Bonnevilla, it's been an absolute thrill, a thrill for me. And we were fortunate to take a car that was... When we went in 2018, we went 446 miles an hour on our down run. That's the other thing that people might not know about Bonnevilla, is you have to get a record, you have to do it twice. You have to take a run, and then if you qualify over an existing record, then you have to do a backup run the next morning.

[00:53:36.220] - Danny Thompson

And then you take those two times and divide them in two. Add them together and divide them in two, and that's what your top speed is, average for the two runs. So getting through there and doing that. So we ran 4: 46 on the down run and on the return run the next day, we ran 450 miles an hour. And so that combined speed was 4: 48 to get that record. So basically, to put it into perspective, you're going two and a half football fields every second. That puts it into a little bit of perspective. So, and you got to stop. And like I said, that stopping is hard.

[00:54:23.880] - Big Rich Klein

So the wheels or tires are at that speed, are you running solid?

[00:54:32.220] - Danny Thompson

No, they're pneumatic with 100 pounds of air in them.

[00:54:36.500] - Big Rich Klein

Okay. I caught you saying that, but was it at higher speeds that they're going to a solid steel wheel?

[00:54:48.460] - Danny Thompson

No. The jet cars run a solid aluminum wheel. But one of the hardest things to run or to do at Bonneville is to make traction. So I equate Bonneville to like running on snow in the wintertime. That's how slippery it can be. So you can't run a solid tire because there's no thread. Well, there's no thread on them anyway, but a solid tire, it won't make traction. Plus, they're illegal to run in a non-jet type of deal. You can run them on the front. You can run them on the front as steers if you want, but they don't encourage that at all either, because it marks up the salt. And when it puts groups in there. And then you figure you put a groove in there with that solid wheel, and then you got a guy on a motorcycle trying to go 250 miles an hour in the next lap behind you. He doesn't want to fall in one of those groups. Right.

[00:55:44.740] - Big Rich Klein

Makes sense. Okay. And the program for speed, is that over now? You're done with speed? The need for speed is lessened at all?

[00:56:02.800] - Danny Thompson

No, it just keeps increasing with age. The years go up in the... Well, we ran two weeks ago, so this is what? This is the end of August right now. We ran at the first of August, so three weeks ago. And we had one... Now my car I sold in 2019. We had that. We occurred a lot of bills and stuff with it. So anyway, we sold that car in 2019, and I'm driving for a guy named Don Ferguson now, who got a long history of Bonneville with his family. I think his dad was still first up there, like in the 1950s, early '50s, and that was even a few years before my dad had gone up there. So anyway, I'm driving Dawn's car, and last week we were quite fortunate. So I hold the AA fuel stream mining record, which is anything over 500 cubic And with Challenger 2, we had two 500 cubic inch engines in there. So we had a thousand cubic inches on nitromethane. And so we got that record in double A. And then in 2021, driving Dawn Ferguson streamliner, which is very similar looking to mine. We went 385, excuse me, 385 and set a, bumped the record up from, I think it was 349.

[00:57:26.730] - Danny Thompson

We bumped it to 385. And then we bumped it to 385. And then We were up there the last few years and having total failures, blowing everything up that we could find to blow up and engines and dry shafts and everything. So we didn't have much success. And then we went back again this year and with two engines. So we went back with a C motor, and that record was 335. And we bumped that C record from 335 to 370. And then we switched. Then we put a bigger motor and a motor. And that record was, I think 379. And we bumped that record to 406. And then to top off the weekend, they have Hot Rod magazine has been giving away a trophy every year since 1949 to the fastest car at that event. And that's the fastest exit speed, the fastest time of all. And we were fortunate enough to get that record, not a record, but that trophy at 421 miles an hour. So this year we had, I would call it the perfect the perfect year. But every time you think you got a handle on Bonneville, she just she whips you.

[00:58:36.940] - Danny Thompson

So now let me go back a couple of times just to put something else on the Bonneville there. So we ran in 2014, and that's when we first ran no records or anything. Then we were all ready to go back in 2015, it rained. So Bonneville, I told you how flat it was and everything. So if you picture just a dining room table and take a bottle of water and pour a whole bottle of water on a dining table that's flat, you can see how much area that water takes up. It'll cover almost that whole table, even if it's only whatever, 100,000s thick, deep or something. Well, that's what happens to Bonneville. When it rains, it can flood the place instantly. So we didn't get to run in 2015. Anyway, it was almost 500 days that we didn't get to run at Bonneville because it was flooded. So not only are you fighting all the demons that you are with engines and traction and everything else, Mother Nature has more horsepower than any of us, and she controls what happens or doesn't happen up there. And we've been sitting there on the salt, and it starts raining, and you already got all your stuff unloaded.

[00:59:47.480] - Danny Thompson

You've been through tech inspection. You're all ready to go. It starts raining, and you got to go home, and don't get to come back and run for another year. So it can be very cruel in that way. So sitting sitting for a year is hard when you've already started to hold your breath to make your first run.

[01:00:06.080] - Big Rich Klein

Right, exactly. What's on the horizon for you, Danny? Where do you see you're going to be back at Bonneville next year?

[01:00:16.380] - Danny Thompson

We are. We just, Don Ferguson, the guy I drive for, decided he wants to build a D motor now. So that's going to take... They're hemies. In fact, Don, he cast his own box and everything. So when I say He does his own motors. He does the whole thing. Anyway, so to run D, we're going to have to make, I think it's a 300 cubic inch motor. So we'll have to we have to de-stroke that thing. I think the rod is going to have to be almost two inches short to do. So we're going to try a D-record. So hopefully we have the double A record with my car, A, B, and C. And then if we're fortunate enough to go up there and do well, again, maybe get the D-record. And we have we have other plans. I mean, I'm still very anxious to build another car, Trident Drive, to try to go for the ultimate speed up there. But it takes a lot of money and we're working. We're in the middle of doing a three-part television show right now. I about the whole Bonneville experience. And so everything's shot and the first episode has been roughed together.

[01:01:24.140] - Danny Thompson

I still need some voiceover and color correction and some other stuff. But that should be the There'll be three one-half hour shows. First episode, I think, should be out by maybe November or December. And hopefully that'll bring some more eyes toward Bonneville to see if we can get some more people interested and find enough funding to build another car from scratch.

[01:01:49.240] - Big Rich Klein

So do you have a working title on that show?

[01:01:54.040] - Danny Thompson

Yes. It's going to be called, I just had brain fate, Stand on the Gas.

[01:02:01.340] - Big Rich Klein

Stand on the Gas.

[01:02:02.700] - Danny Thompson

My dad's favorite scene was whenever he did anything, if you were supposed to go out and pull the weeds in the garden, let's go out there and stand on the Gas. My dad had MTEG, the Stadium Organization, Mickey Thompson Entertainment Group. My dad had the Stand on the Gas Award for the Employee of the Month or Employee of the Year. But everything was always Stand on the Gas. So that's going to That's the working title for these three shows, Stand on the Gas.

[01:02:34.300] - Big Rich Klein

Well, excellent. I encourage everybody that listens to this podcast to watch for that because I know I'm going to watch it. That's for sure.

[01:02:42.570] - Danny Thompson

Thank you. Thanks.

[01:02:44.620] - Big Rich Klein

Well, I appreciate that. Danny, I want to say thank you so much for spending this morning having this conversation and doing the podcast. I've really enjoyed your energy and your enthusiasm I knew it was going to be that way when I talked to you at that Walker's Memorial on Monday, and it was great to get an opportunity to meet you and then to have this conversation and get to know you.

[01:03:16.900] - Danny Thompson

Well, thanks very much. I wish I remembered more about the early days of the score and all that stuff. We were totally involved in that whole off-road deal. Because of my dad and stuff, there's a lot of people in a of different industries that got to have jobs for a lot of years. I'm proud of the family legacy for that and looking to see what both Sal did and what's going on with SCOR. Nowadays, and the whole off-road deal and just racing in general. I mean, I live for this stuff, man. I just dig it.

[01:03:52.860] - Big Rich Klein

Well, hopefully, maybe on November second, we have the Off-Road Motorsports Hall of Fame gala. Hopefully, you can get out to that and see how we we do things and honor everybody that has contributed to that history. It's quite the show. The gala is and would hope to see you there.

[01:04:19.100] - Danny Thompson

Yeah, I'm going to try to make... I've been a couple of times. I gave the acceptance speech when my Frank got elected. So I got up and got to talk in in front of everybody and all that stuff. But with all the people that are in there, I mean, those are names I grew up with, Walker and Parnelly and Roger Mears and the people that have gotten in there. I mean, Cal Wells. And those are just the names from my ear. I don't know a lot of the names that got in more recently for sure. But yeah, it's a proud heritage to be involved in. And yeah, I don't I think unless it's the same weekend as the work racing El Mirage on the short course on the dirt. Once again, dirt racing. We went 268 miles an hour to set a, what was it, A fuel streamliner record on the dirt at El Mirage in last May. Wow. So 268 and a mile and a third on the dirt. So So still off road racing there. Anyway, if you keep me on there, I'll keep babbling forever. So it's certainly been a pleasure. And I'll get up there in November and see who's coming in next.

[01:05:45.940] - Big Rich Klein

Excellent. All right. I appreciate this. And Danny, you have a wonderful day.

[01:05:52.660] - Danny Thompson

All right. You too. Cheers, man.

[01:05:53.900] - Big Rich Klein

Okay. Thank you. Bye-bye.

[01:05:55.420] - Danny Thompson

Bye.

[01:05:57.180] - Big Rich Klein

Well, that's another episode of Conversations with Big Rich. I'd like to thank you all for listening. If you could do us a favor and leave us a review on any podcast service that you happen to be listening on, or send us an email or a text message or a Facebook message, and let me know any ideas that you have or if there's anybody that you have that you think would be a great guest, please forward the contact information to me so that we can try to get them on. And always remember, live life to the fullest. Enjoying life is a must. Your dreams and live life with all the gusto you can. Thank you.