I’ve been face first in some Mickey Thompson books lately that’s why I was feeling compelled to share this short video made by SCORE that talks about Mickey Thompson and how he grabbed the desert racing situation by the ears and went at it full force decades ago. Thompson is obviously the most legendary hot rodder/high performance mover and shaker of the second half of the 20the century and his influence was felt in every form of organized racing this country has to offer.
Thompson formed SCORE, hired Sal Fish to run the thing and went racing in his own sanctioning body. One of the reasons he founded the thing (outside of the fact he was a shrewd business guy and saw the dollar signs) was to continue having racing in Mexico which he saw as being threatened. The dude loved it and he certainly saved the situation with his actions.
In the video, Danny Thompson tells a fantastic story of he and his and his dad running hard against Parnelli Jones back in those glory days and if you read into the story it is the moment when the idea of short course off road racing was born in Thompson’s head. Jones had something spectacular happen to him that no one else saw but Thompson intrinsically knew that people would be entertained to no end watching these trucks smash, bash, and fly their way around a closed course much as they did in the open desert.
When you combine the stories with the fantastic old still photos and stock video in this film you have yourself a little pocket masterpiece. Without Mickey Thompson there would be no 48th SCORE Baja 1000 where some of the best racers in the world will be competing this weekend. There would be a lot less cool stuff without the hard nosed, hard driving, and unflappable force of nature known as Mickey Thompson. This is well worth the watch.
