Mickey Thompson - In His Own Words
Scheduled for release in December 2019, this book, by the late motorsports writer (and former drag racer) Tom Madigan, offers a now-impossible (Thompson and his wife were murdered in 1988) first-person telling of the legendary racer and motorsport impresario’s high-speed life.
The chapters rocket the reader from Mickey’s earliest days through the height of his competition exploits on drag strips, at Bonneville, the Indy 500, Baja, and more!
The pages are complemented by some two hundred (200) rare images culled from family archives, the NHRA museum, and the collections of friends and fellow racers.
The chapters rocket the reader from Mickey’s earliest days through the height of his competition exploits on drag strips, at Bonneville, the Indy 500, Baja, and more!
The pages are complemented by some two hundred (200) rare images culled from family archives, the NHRA museum, and the collections of friends and fellow racers.
In the early 1970s, Madigan and Thompson embarked on a project to write the latter’s autobiography. After two years, extensive interviews, and a near-finished manuscript, the enterprise fell apart for several reasons. Type-written sheets were boxed, stored, and mostly forgotten, sitting in a desk drawer, not seeing the light of day until Madigan brought it to publishers Motorbooks in 2018.
‘Mickey Thompson’ features a new foreword by SoCal Speed Shop founder Alx Xydias and epilogue about Mickey Thompson’s son Danny, who returned to Bonneville Challenger II to claim one record that eluded his father – Danny’s son, Travis Thompson, wrote this:
Like nearly every accomplishment made throughout his life, Marion Lee “Mickey” Thompson faced every challenge without fear and with very little compromise. This book is no exception. Mickey Thompson: The Untold Story of the Original Speed King is an amazing biographical artifact that follows in the spirit of the Thompson legacy.
About the Author
Tom Madigan, an award-winning automotive author and journalist who documented more than 50 years of automobile racing, died peacefully in his Sonora, California, home, March 28. He was 80 years old.
Madigan spent the past 50 years in the midst of the high-performance automotive culture. He was the 2005 winner of the Motor Press Guild’s coveted Dean Batchelor Award for his book, Edelbrock: Made in the USA, the story of the famous Edelbrock family, Vic Sr. and Vic Jr., and their high-performance business.
Madigan was also the owner/driver of a fuel dragster in the ’60s before joining Argus Publishing Co. in 1967, where he quickly became the editor of Motorcade magazine. Later in his Argus career, he became the feature editor for Popular Hot Rodding magazine, and then the editor of Off-Road magazine. After nine years, Madigan left Argus to start his own company, Tom Madigan Productions. His client list soon included Petersen Publishing Co., and he provided articles for Hot Rod, Motor Trend and Car Craft, and also wrote many Petersen “one-shot” publications.
Madigan created the Concours Automotive Video Series and wrote many of the episodes featuring Tony Nancy. He also teamed with Dave Marcus to produce a NASCAR episode for the TV program, “Those Who Dare.”
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