The legacy of the legendary Mickey Thompson will be immortalized as the company is inducted into the 2017 Dry Lakes Racing Hall of Fame as Manufacturer of the Year during the annual ‘Gas Up’ – a public event honoring distinguished contributors involved with Land Speed Racing on the dry lakes of Bonneville and El Mirage.

Representatives from Mickey Thompson Tire & Wheels will gather with a prestigious crowd of deserving inductees and guests as they join the ranks of those who shared the company’s founder’s passion for record-breaking speed and technological innovation.

Landspeed racing runs deep in Mickey Thompson Tires & Wheels’ heritage. After all, Mickey Thompson was named “The Fastest American on Earth” when he broke the 400-mph barrier at the salt flats in Bonneville, Utah in 1960 on low section tires he had built with partner Gene McMannis.

At the time, automotive development was way ahead of tire development. Gene and Mickey were among the first to look at the configuration, design and shape of tires to match the demands of increasing speeds. Tires of the day had about a 37-degree bias body ply angle. At 90 mph, a standing wave was visible on a test machine, and the faster it went, the bigger the wave. So, Gene and Mickey started experimenting with crown angle, tread thickness and deflections at increasing speeds.

Lower angles were needed for the Bonneville run, so Gene measured the wave of the tire at different speeds and charted how much tread thickness was available. It was determined that Mickey’s tires needed exactly 20/1000-of-an-inch of rubber to travel to 500 mph. The reason: energy becomes heat, and heat destroys tread. Land speed racers can’t have a half-inch of tire deflection, as with normal highway tires, when they’re traveling at such speeds.

The next area of focus was the tube. The centrifugal force at high speeds let the tire tube stretch and end up in the crown of the tire. The extra weight caused the tire to break. The issue was corrected with a tubeless design.

Racing tires at the time were big and made of rayon. The cords came loose at high speeds, so a tire change had to be made on every run. In response, Gene and Mickey fashioned a low section tire, mainly by hand. Seeking a flattop design, the only equipment available necessitated an old-fashioned, core-built method.

The core was solid metal in the shape of what would be the airspace in the final tire. It was secured on a wheel drum and assembled piece by piece. Then the tire was built, the pieces removed, and the process repeated for the next tire. The tires were cured using old-fashioned airbags (a heavy walled inner tube with a heavy base to form the beads in the mold), which went into a vertical pot heater.

The new design was vindicated that day in front of the international press when Mickey broke Englishman John Cobb’s previous record of 394.2 mph with a blistering run of 406.6 mph in the Challenger 1, becoming the fastest man on earth.

Gene and Mickey went into business together in 1963—Gene with a couple of tire patents, Mickey with a warehouse of racing knowledge. They committed to a philosophy of fixing every problem and leaving nothing to chance, and the company quickly earned a reputation for quality that remains its cornerstone today.

As proof, just last year Mickey’s son Danny rolled onto the salt in Challenger 2 featuring the company’s EXTREME tires. His 406.7-mph pass proved that not only do talent and courage run in the family, but also the company’s commitment to extreme fitment specialty tires and wheels lives on.

“It’s an honor to accept this induction to the Dry Lakes Racing Hall of Fame,” stated Ken Warner, Vice President of Marketing for Mickey Thompson Tires & Wheels. “Much of our founder’s legacy was built solidly upon the sands of Bonneville and El Mirage, and it’s an honor for every one of us that works every day to extend his legacy to be recognized in such an important and meaningful way.”

The Dry Lakes Racing Hall of Fame is held annually at the Mendenhall Museum, an over 50-year-old private collection located in California’s beautiful Santa Ynez Valley, featuring the West Coast’s largest petroliana collections including gasoline pumps, globes, and porcelain gas, oil and road signs, alongside an impressive assortment of race cars, license plates and racing memorabilia and antiques.