Land speed record: 406.6mph pass, 1st to break 400mph barrier. Challenger II, naturally-aspirated, piston-powered, wheel-driven

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Danny Thompson, son of American racing legend Mickey Thompson, has set a land speed record at age 66. And it was a long time coming.

1960 -
In 1960, Mickey hit Utah’s Bonneville Salt Flats in a streamlined car called Challenger that was built to set a land-speed record. And it did. Sort of.
He made a single 406.6 mph pass, becoming the first American to break the 400 mph barrier. However, official speed records require two consecutive runs, one in each direction, and mechanical issues prevent him from making the second attempt.

1968 –
Mickey returned in 1968 with a new car dubbed Challenger 2, but the event was cancelled due to bad weather and the car was eventually mothballed as he focused on other racing and business pursuits.

1988 –
But about twenty years later, the bug bit again, and he and Danny hatched a plan to update the car and go for a record again, this time in the Southern California Timing Association’s naturally-aspirated, piston-powered, wheel-driven class. Tragically, before they could, Mickey and his wife were gunned down in what authorities later discovered was a hit put on Thompson by a former business associate, and the dream died with them in 1988.

2014 -
At least it seemed like it did. A few years ago, Danny decided to finish the family business once and for all. So he dug the car out of storage, put in a pair of nitro-burning Hemi V8 engines with a total of 4,000 horsepower and an all-wheel-drive system, and went back to Bonneville Speed Week in 2014.

2015 -
After nearly crashing when the fire suppression system went off as he pulled the chutes at the end of a 390 mph run, he followed with a blistering 419 mph pass the next day. Unfortunately, Thompson history repeated itself when a busted clutch kept him from making the required second run, and the event was cancelled in 2015 due to poor surface conditions.

2016 -
This year, everything went off without a hitch, and on Saturday, Aug 13th, Danny put in a problem-free 411.191 mph run, setting him up to break the record on Sunday. He did just that, crossing the timing lights at 402.348 mph to give him an average speed of 406.7 mph, clobbering the current class record of 392.5 mph.

But while the 406.7 mph result seems a fitting tribute to his dad’s 406.6 mph, Danny’s not done yet. His son Travis tells Fox News that he’ll be back in September to go for the international FIA class record of 414 mph, with an eye on the overall wheel-driven mark of 439 mph.

Danny Thompson, son of the legendary Mickey Thompson, set a new land speed record for a piston-powered vehicle in the “Challenger 2” streamliner during Speed Week at the Bonneville Salt Flats.

Challenger II was originally constructed by Danny’s father Mickey Thompson in 1968. Decades later Danny brought the car out of retirement determined to show the world that his father’s original creation was indeed a world class land speed record contender.

The son of slain racing legend Mickey Thompson, the famed "Speed King" of the 1960s, wrote his family name into racing's record books with two runs over 400 mph at Speed Week.

On the 50th anniversary of his father's original 406mph run, Danny removed the Challenger 2 from storage and brought it to his Huntington Beach shop. Untouched for more than 40 years, he began the extensive process of restoring, retrofitting, and updating the vehicle. Danny wants to lay his father's business to rest. For him, that means using the Challenger 2, a vehicle that hasn't run since 1968, to break a world land speed record.

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Photo courtesy SCTA and Landspeed Events