By alley - Aug 24, 2015, 11:15 AM ET

Thompson LSR: The Final Stretch

The RACER team has supported Danny Thompson and his Challenger 2 project since since he first shared his dream with us in the late 1990s. We applaud his courage and commitment to achieving the lofty goal set for this car by his late father Mickey 47 years ago. We believe in Danny and in the heroic quest he has undertaken. We are impressed by his pure racing spirit that represents the soul of our sport.

We also see the original spirit of American racing in Danny and his family, wherein resourcefulness, ingenuity and determination make the impossible possible and in doing so, inspires the best in all of us.

The reality is that Danny, his wife Valerie and son Travis have stretched themselves beyond the bounds of reason to make this project happen. Today, as this amazing machine from the era of the Space Race is about to finally make its run for the world land speed record for wheel driven vehicles, the funding has been nearly exhausted due to numerous delays caused by weather and the ever-changing condition of the Bonneville salt flats. Now more than ever, Danny Thompson and the Challenger 2 effort needs sponsorship as well as brand and technical alliances to complete this long and heroic journey into the record books to earn an enduring place in the history of global motorsports. If you have interest in learning more about how you can support this remarkable endeavor contact Travis Thompson:

travis@thompsonlsr.com

We hope you enjoy Part 1 of Danny Thompson's 3-part update of the Challenger 2 project so far.

-Paul Pfanner, Founder and President of Racer Media & Marketing Inc.

I've been rebuilding the Challenger 2 for over ﬁve years. The car's story goes back much further, though. When pen ﬁrst touched paper on the project, it was 1968, man had not yet set foot on the moon, and I was 18 years old. My dad's crew of hot rod wizards (LEFT) teamed up with Ford's Kar Kraft group and together they built something exceptional. Then things went wrong. The course ﬂooded, the sponsors bailed, and the miraculous machine they'd made sat idle for decades.

The world has changed a lot since then, but the dream is still the same. Build the world's fastest hot rod. Not a jet on wheels. No turbines, no batteries. Do it with piston power. The same technology that propels the other billion or so cars on the road today. After you ﬁnish building it, drive it fast. How fast? Faster than anyone else has ever gone before. It's easy to explain. It's better that way.

Of course, easy to explain does not mean easy to do. My team and I spent three long years grinding on it before we got a chance to hear the engines run. We ﬁne tuned it for another year before I got to strap myself in and see whether or not the damn thing even worked. I'll save you the suspense. It did. We went 419mph, and we're geared up to go faster. Unfortunately, things are going wrong again.

Just like 47 years ago, the salt course at Bonneville where we run the car is either ﬂooded or unusable. This kind of thing happens from time to time, but it's hit us for two years in a row, and the future isn't looking much better. At this point, we've had to miss six consecutive events. That's an expensive proposition in any form of racing, and our car is pricier than most.

That's the other problem. Funding. I've thrown everything I have at this thing and I plan on continuing to do so until the job is done. We will run and we will bring home the record. That's all there is to it. We do however need a partner. An individual or an organization than understands the inherent value of supporting American racing and fulﬁlling the mandate of history.

This project has been chugging along for nearly 50 years. We're in the last stretch. The car is completely built, ﬁne-tuned, and faster than hell. We've got the ﬁnish line in sight, and the only thing we need to cross it is a little bit more time. Do you want to help? Do you know someone that can? Reach out to us via the contact links below and come along for the ride of your life.

-Danny Thompson

For more images, news updates and historical anecdotes about the project, and to see how you can help Danny and his team finish their mission, visit http://thompsonlsr.com.