Few companies can claim to have racing and competition running so deeply through their veins as Mickey Thompson Performance Tires & Wheels. From dragstrips to deserts Mickey Thompson tires have been winning for 50 years.
Mickey Thompson Tires has been
winning on track and off-road since 1963
The very first tires Mickey Thompson produced were exclusively for Indy 500 racers. These tires were unique in being the first wide-width, low profile tires to race at Indy, and this innovation began a long list of Mickey Thompson ‘firsts’.
Mickey Thompson Innovations On and Off-Track
Of the many Mickey Thompson firsts since the company’s founding in 1963, here are half a dozen:
- First S/S road legal ‘cheater slicks’ – 1966
- First tall light truck tires – 1973
- First tires with treads wrapping over the sidewalls – 1977
- First on/off road truck hybrid tires designed to be quiet on highway – 1987
- First 17” DOT approved off-road racing tires – 1994
- First DOT approved off-road tires with directional sidebiters – 2009
As well as firsts, Mickey Thompson’s tires have garnered many ‘world’s fastest’ accolades, including:
- World’s fastest DOT approved tire – 1996
- World’s fastest DOT approved motorcycle tire – 2000
- World’s fastest DOT approved drag radial – 2003
- World’s fastest DOT approved drag radial – 2012
Winning on Dragstrip, Salt, Sand and Dirt
The Baja Claw TTC was the first
tire to feature directional sidebiters
Mickey Thompson won on just about every surface he competed on. A drag racing champion in the 1950s, Thompson went on to be the first American to break the 400mph barrier in 1960 at the hallowed Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah. That mission accomplished he then “set more speed and endurance records than any other man in automotive history” [Wikipedia].
By the 1970s Thompson developed a passion for the loose stuff, especially the Baja 1000 desert race, which he duly won in a record-setting time and using Mickey Thompson tires. Naturally.
Winners in Competition, Winners on the RoadThompson took everything he learned from his competition successes and put it into the DOT approved tire ranges his eponymous company was producing. This is a process the company still practices today, so you can buy and use the same Mickey Thompson tires as pros like Lucas Off Road Racing Series star Brian Deegan rely on. If you’re looking for off-road tires there’s no better seal of approval than the name Mickey Thompson on the side
By John Bone
Lucas Off-Road Racing Series
superstar Brian Deegan races on
Mickey Thompson tires
Posted on September 4th, 2013