Thompson set the LSR last month at Bonneville at Bonneville’s speed week. Photos from thompsonlsr.com

On September 16, 2016, Danny Thompson was set to be the first out on the course at 7:30 A.M. Bonneville time, for the first attempt at a new land speed record. During the run, the car experienced a problem that damaged some of the body panels and halting the record attempt.

Danny Thompson is reportedly alright, the car was being retrieved and evaluated as this story was being written.

The Thompson LSR team is coming off of a very successful Bonneville Speed Week where the Thompson LSR team set a new AA/FS class speed record at 406.7 mph in the refurbished Challenger 2 streamliner with Mickey Thompson’s son, Danny Thompson, at the wheel.

Danny and the crew continued on with the quest by entering Mike Cook’s Land Speed Shootout, an FIA sanctioned long course event. With three extra miles over last month’s SCTA meet, the Thompson Crew felt they could bump the record to over 414 mph.

The Cook’s Shootout is a private meet focused on maintaining a top notch course, with a limited number of participants. Stay tuned for more information as the story develops.

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Update From Danny Thompson’s Facebook page:

“Damage, unfortunately, appears to be extensive. We’re still investigating what actually happened, but near term repairs are unrealistic. We won’t be making any more runs at Cook’s. According to our GPS data, we were going 413mph at around the 4.6 mile mark when the accident occurred.”

Very sad news from the Thompsonslr team. All of us at Rod Authority are glad that Danny Thompson is alright, but we are deeply saddened that the team will be unable to continue their quest to push the land speed record over 414 mph.