HOLLAND, Pa. – After a strong season in 600cc micro sprints, Mike Thompson will transition to focus exclusively on a 360 sprint car program next year.
The third generation, 16-year-old driver completed his fourth year in micro sprints this year and won 14 features at four different speedways. All told, he had a total of 27 podium finishes on the season.
His speed and consistency bagged him a track championship at Greenwood Valley Action Track and landed him on top of the Area Auto Racing News Northeast Feature Winners list for 600 micros.
Thompson also topped the Specialty Rigging Race Chasing Points Series in 2020, had the most 600 wins at Linda’s Speedway, and was the leading feature winner in the nation in Hyper Chassis.
He ran four events in 2020 with the Rapid Tire USAC East Coast Sprint Car Series and garnered top-12 finishes in each of those events.
For 2021, the Thompson Motorsports team plan to run the full schedule in both the winged Capitol Renegade United Racing Club, as well as the non-winged Rapid Tire USAC East Coast Sprint Car Series.
As both organizations schedules are yet to be finalized, it’s unclear if the team will have any conflicting dates, but they are hoping to be able to run complete schedules with both groups.
The experience gained by running a handful of wingless 360 shows over the last two seasons has the team excited to run the full USAC East Coast schedule.
The team is equally excited for Thompson to make his winged sprint car debut with URC. Although he has not yet turned a lap in a winged sprint car, much of Thompson’s success in 600 Micro Sprints has come with a wing, and his driving style is well suited to winged racing.
The Thompson family racing story shares in much of the rich history of URC. Thompson’s father Len spent the majority of his driving career racing 410 sprint cars but did make a handful of URC starts in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s.
Additionally, Thompson’s grandfather Bruce was a URC competitor for 10 seasons in the 1980’s and 1990’s and owns four career URC feature wins.
His grandmother Bev was also a URC competitor in the early 1990’s and was one of URC’s first female drivers. Bruce Thompson served on the URC board of directors for several years and also served as club president for a time, while Bev Thompson served as a URC media member and columnist for several seasons.