The first run finished with a speed of 174 mph, one mph short of the required 175 to move from the Bonneville short course to the long course. In addition, the car lost head gaskets, so the team was forced to switch to Plan B.

A Christmas Card from Mickey Thompson recounting their Bonneville exploits with the Mustangs. (SPEED)

“Originally, we weren’t going to bring a spare engine, but I am a big believer in you can never have too many spare parts, so we took a spare engine out of the Talladega car that Bill Elliott had tried to set a record with earlier in the year,” Danny said. “It only made 800 horsepower and we lost a second day at the Salt changing engines. We changed the engine and it wouldn’t run and it wouldn’t run and it wouldn’t run … we got back up to the starting line, waited in line for four hours and blap, blap, blap, blap blap … it still wouldn’t run, so I shut it off after the first mile.

“We made one more run and it did the same thing,” Danny added. “So, we’re back in the pits trying to figure it out on the computer -- changing this, richening this, leaning that, putting more spark in it, putting less spark in it, ramping the fuel this way, ramping the fuel that way -- and it went from running bad to not even starting. We had a film crew there filming everything and finally Brent sent the film crew home. We were down to the last run of the day and with an hour and 15 minutes before the deadline to run, we finally figured something out, but now the pressure was on me because the only run I’d made in the car was at 174 mph. Now, I’ve got to go 255 without any other passes.”

That’s when Danny called on some divine intervention.

“I looked up at my Dad and said ‘OK,’ ” Danny said. “I gassed it and we went 254.8 on a 254.6 record and I was talking to Dad the whole way. They told us we couldn’t run again after 12 o’clock and when we left the line it was 12:02. The place was wound up, the cones were being picked up, the portable outhouses were on their way off the Salt and we’re headed right back up to the line, coming back with a 10-mph headwind … we set the official record, but as usual, my Dad made me work my ass off.”

While thrilled to experience Bonneville, a place that elevated his father onto the national scene nearly 50 years ago, behind the wheel of a record-setting ride, the younger Thompson still has his eyes set on loftier goals.

“This is all for the big car,” Danny said, referring to a desire to bring his Dad’s 1968 Autolite Special, a two-engine streamliner dubbed “the flying needle,” back to Bonneville for a run at 500 mph. “Brent and I will bring a Mustang back next year and go for 300 mph, but I’ve always got one eye on the streamliner.”

Mickey’s effort to run the car never came to fruition as salt conditions never allowed for a full pass in ’68. The father-son resurrection of the project began in the late ’80s, but ended tragically when Mickey, and his wife, Trudy, were gunned down in their California driveway -- a murder mystery that drew national attention for decades until former business partner Mike Goodwin was jailed and convicted of two counts of first-degree murder.

“This is all for the streamliner,” Danny said. “It’s something that my dad wanted to do and my dad and I wanted to do, so that makes it really important to me. My wife, Valerie, has been so understanding for years and I’ve told her that I’m done after the streamliner. I told her we’ll finally relax as soon as I finish this last piece of business for my Dad.”

(Erik Arneson is the author of “Mickey Thompson – The Fast Life and Tragic Death of a Racing Legend,” available on SPEEDtv.com).