Danny Thompson

By Gregg Leary
[Category: Auto Racing]]

Wrote Foreword for Erik Arneson’s “Mickey Thompson: The Fast Life and Tragic Death of a Racing Legens”

“When you’re young, your parents rarely seem even remotely extraordinary. I grew up thinking everyone’s dad was a race car driver.”

When Mickey would call Danny at the race shop he would ask, “What are you doing?” Danny’s response, “Working my ass off.”

“I thought it was impossible for him to die. He was immortal.”

Danny was born AFTER his mom finished doing a valve job on one of Mickey’s engines…cleaned the grease from under her nails…and went to the hospital to have Danny.

Danny’s Racing Resume

Raced quarter midgets at a track Mickey built for the kids at Lions Dragstrip and won a track championship.

After a child was injured, Mickey took Danny out of the car and forbid him to race.

Mickey and Danny did the 65 mile Catalina Ski Race…Danny skied the race in shark infested waters and finished 4th out of 100 entrants in 1965.

Danny raced motocross after high school and won his first 18 events.

Mickey drove and Danny navigated at Baja and other off-road races. At Baja after an epic battle with Parnelli Jones Mickey came up with the idea of bringing this great racing to the crowds…SCORE and stadium racing

Danny designed the off-road course at Riverside. “After just a few years we were outdrawing NASCAR at Riverside…60,000 fans.” Danny made his solo debut there in 1975.

1978: MTEG was created to “create a more compact and manageable event.” in stadiums.

Danny was racing Formula Atlantics and won an SCCA Regional Championship. Mickey asked him to race in the MTEG series. “Was he doing it to keep me off the open-wheel path? I think he had a real problem with the idea of me eventually racing at Indy after Dave MacDonald’s death.” Danny raced in MTEG for almost a decade.

Shortly before Mickey’s death he asked Danny to drive the “Flying Needle Autolite Special” in a LSR attempt at Bonneville.