Danny Thompson And Challenger II Zoom Past The 400 MPH Barrier!

It took a few weeks longer than he’d originally planned after Speed Week was washed out last month, but Danny Thompson and the ThompsonLSR crew finally got their legendary Challenger II streamliner onto the salt flats of Bonneville this week, and wasted little time in making a bit of history.

With the annual Mike Cook’s Shootout just around the corner from Speed Week, many of the top challengers in the land speed record game turned their attention this five-day event to bust into the record books, and Thompson and company were among those to get an early start with some testing runs down the fabled salt flats.

The Challenger II, once piloted on this very piece of Utah land more than four decades ago by Thompson’s father, Mickey, had its legs stretched for the entire length of the course for the first time since 1968 on Sunday, recording a pass-through of 390 miles per hour — just a few ticks shy of the AA/Fuel Streamliner class record. with that run, considering their final “test run”, the team was able to confirm that the dry block engines could withstand the five-mile jaunt down the salt.

On Monday, Thompson’s team turned up the wick in some improved salt conditions and knocked down the 400 mile per hour barrier by a bunch, averaging 419 miles per hour and 424 and change at the exit. With that run, Thompson officially qualified for the class record, but still had to back it up with another run on Tuesday. If successful, he’d officially go in the record books, and have his name placed in the 400 mile per hour club.

But perhaps just as importantly, Thompson’s average and exit speed surpassed that of his fathers’ from 1968, which stood at 406.

Unfortunately, bad news struck this morning in the follow-up attempt, as one of the clutches in the car failed at around 6,000 RPM on what was, according to Thompson, the best run the car has made to that point yet, effectively ending the team’s shot at the record — for now, anyway.

Said the team in a statement: We’re very disappointed, but not discouraged. This would have been the car’s third full run ever, so it’s still early days. We haven’t had any major issues up to this point, which is sort of a miracle in this sport.

Nevertheless, the ThompsonLSR gang is full-speed ahead with their record attempt and plans to be a part of the Cook’s Shootout when it goes down. And we’ll watching intently along with the rest of the and speed community, as the Challenger II inches closer to the 500 mile per hour mark.