Marion Lee “Mickey” Thompson (December 7, 1928 - March 16, 1988) was an American off-road racing 
legend. He won many championships as a racer, and later formed sanctioning bodies SCORE International and Mickey Thompson Entertainment Group (MTEG). He also raced in dragsters and land speed record automobiles.
Thompson was born in Alhambra, California. He was known universally as “Mickey.” In his early twenties, he worked for the Los Angeles Times newspaper while becoming involved in the new sport of drag racing. 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. Thompson also was noted for being the first manager of Lions Drag Strip near Long Beach, California in 1955.
In 1960, at the Bonneville Salt Flats, Thompson achieved international fame when he became the first American to break the 400mph barrier hitting 406.60 mph surpassing John Cobb’s one-way Land speed record of 402mph. 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. 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, and his vehicle went on to win the 1969 NHRA Spring Nationals and NHRA Nationals for driver Danny Ongais. 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 competitors.
Thompson founded SCORE International in 1973, a sanctioning body to oversee off-road racing across North America. He and his wife Trudy formed the “Mickey Thompson Entertainment Group” (MTEG) which ran an indoor motocross and off-road vehicle racing show and competition that brought the sport from the back-country terrain to stadiums in the heavily populated metropolitan areas.
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