Американдық жарыс шебері Мики Томпсонның өмірі мен жетістіктері

American racing driver

Michael Lee "Mickey" Thompson (December 7, 1928March 16, 1988) was an American auto racing builder and promoter. A hot rodder since his youth, Thompson increasingly pursued land speed records in his late 20s and early 30s. He achieved international fame in 1960, when he became the first American to break the 400 mph barrier, driving his Challenger 1 to a one way top speed of 406.60 mph at the Bonneville Salt Flats and surpassing John Cobb's one way world record mark of 402 mph. Thompson then turned to racing, winning many track and dragster championships. In the 1960s, he also entered cars at the Indianapolis 500. Later, he formed off road racing sanctioning bodies SCORE International and Mickey Thompson Entertainment Group (MTEG). In 1988, Thompson and his wife Trudy were gunned down at their home in Bradbury, California. The crime remained unsolved until 2007, when a former business partner was convicted of the murders.

On December 7, 1928, Thompson was born in Alhambra, California. Thompson's father was Captain Marion L. Thompson, a former police officer with Alhambra Police Department. Thompson's sister is Collene Thompson Campbell.

In his early 20s, Thompson worked as a pressman This car, the Panorama City Special, debuted at the first NHRA U. S. Nationals at the Great Bend Municipal Airport in Great Bend, Kansas, in 1955. The car ultimately ran a best speed of A change so momentous would not happen again until Don Garlits introduced the rear engined digger in 1971. Thompson also was noted for being the first manager of Lions Drag Strip in Wilmington, California, in 1955. Thompson collaborated with Fritz Voight on a 1958 twin engined dragster. This car achieved a best speed of becoming the first American to break that barrier.

In 1962, Thompson entered three John Crosthwaite designed cars in the Indianapolis 500. 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. Thompson's crew, led by Fritz Voigt, was young, smart, and hard working. Working 12 to 14 hour days, the car was designed and built in 120 days. For the race, the engine (enlarged to 4.2 L 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 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.

Thompson's promotional skills pleased the sponsors 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 diameter wheels with smaller profile racing tires, wide at the front and rear. 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 raced one of the modified 1962 cars to ninth place despite only qualifying in 31st position. Duane Carter qualified one of the roller skate cars 15th, but was only placed 23rd after an engine failure on the 100th lap. The small tire sizes and low car weights caused complaints among the old hands and owners, so for future races, cars were restricted to minimum tire sizes and minimum car weights. F1 season of 1962 Formula One World Champion Graham Hill tested one of the roller skate cars at Indianapolis in 1963, but refused to race it, citing its poor handling. The recent ruling required 15 in wheels, but the chassis was designed around smaller wheels. Thompson commented: "The car wouldn't handle", adding, "There was too much body roll due to the high center of gravity." In 1963, Thompson traveled to England, where, along with Dante Duce, he demonstrated his Ford powered Harvey Aluminum Special dragster at the Brighton Speed Trials. It was then displayed at the Racing Car Show in London in January 1964.

Thompson brought three modified 12 inch tired cars to the 1964 Indianapolis 500, but new rules required him to use 15 in tires. The Allstate sponsored team used Allstate tires and Ford engines. The chassis had to be altered to accommodate the larger Ford engines. Two of them qualified for the race. The car No. 84 began the month with Masten Gregory as the driver, but Eddie Johnson in car No. 84 qualified 24th and finished 26th. Dave MacDonald in car No. 83 qualified 14th and died in a fiery crash on the second lap.

Thompson went back to Indy in 1965, but failed to qualify for the 1965 Indianapolis 500 in an attempt with a front engined roadster. He skipped the 1966 Indianapolis 500, but tried again in 1967 and 1968, but failed to qualify either year. The 1967 attempt used a unique all wheel drive rear engined design that steered both front and rear wheels, but Gary Congdon was unable to qualify any of the three cars.

In 1965, Thompson published Challenger: Mickey Thompson's own story of his life of Speed. In 1968 Danny Ongais and he
took three Ford Mustang Mach 1 to the Bonneville salt flats for a feature in Hot Rod magazine, in the process setting 295 speed and endurance records over a series of 500 mile and 24 hour courses. Together with John Buttera and Pat Foster, developed a Ford Mustang Mach 1 Funny Car with a dragster like chassis. Driven by Ongais, the car won the 1969 NHRA Spring Nationals at Dallas and the NHRA U. S. Nationals. In his career, Thompson raced vehicles from stock cars to off road, 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. With his wife Trudy he 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 to major metropolitan stadiums and arenas.

On March 16, 1988, Thompson and his wife Trudy were murdered by two hooded gunmen outside their home in Bradbury, California. On January 4, 2007, the jury found Goodwin guilty of two counts of murder in the death of Thompson and his wife. Goodwin was sentenced to two consecutive life without parole terms. A subsequent motion for a new trial was denied. The two men who murdered the Thompsons have not been located. TV coverage, and its fictionalization through the television program CSI, were cited by the defense team during the murder trial as having created a "folklore" around the case, preventing a fair trial.

Taylor, Thom. "Beauty Beyond the Twilight Zone" in Hot Rod, April 2017, pp. 30–43.