LSR VIDEO: Thompson breaks record for hot rods
Sunday, 14 August 2016 RACER Staff / Image by Holly Martin
Danny Thompson, the 66-year-old son of the late Mickey Thompson, has broken the current AA/FS class land speed record after a 402mph run Sunday on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Challenger II; the car was originally built by his father in 1968 and has been restored for a new run for the LSR by the younger Thompson and a small group of craftsmen.
Starting the engines:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soA-XH89lAw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5a8vwyNo5gQ
Thompson blew past the 392.503mph record set by Charlie Nearburg in the "Spirit of Rett" in 2009.
"I'm in the 400 club. I like it," Thompson told CNN.
His official average time was 406.7mph, CNN reports - slightly higher than the 406.60mph his father rain in 1960.
Thompson qualified by making a 411mph run on Saturday. The Southern California Timing Association, Speedweek’s sanctioning body, only grants two-way records; all speeds have to be achieved twice, on subsequent days with no runs in-between, in order to count.
The record was unreachable over the past two years because of bad weather. In 2014, the twin dry block nitro-fueled Hemi V8 powered, all-wheel-drive, 4000hp Challenger II qualified for the AA/Fuel Streamliner record by averaging 419mph during the final mile, but a second run to back up the record was cut short by a clutch failure, and deteriorating weather forced the cancellation of Bonneville's World Finals, ending LSR attempts for the year. Rain – or mud, specifically – wiped out the event in 2015.