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The SHELBY AMERICAN
350 Fall 2015
DR. RICHARD K. THOMPSON
September 14, 2014
Dick Thompson, known as “The
Flying Dentist,” was one of the earliest
serious sports car racers in this coun-
try. His first race was the inaugural 12-
Hours of Sebring in 1952. He and a
friend drove his MGTD from Washing-
ton D.C., finished eighth overall in the
race and then drove it back home. He
continued racing until retiring in 1968
and in those 16 years he won nine
SCCA
National
Championships.
Thompson, a fourth generation Wash-
ington D.C. resident, was a dentist in
the Navy during WWII and then joined
his father’s practice when he returned
to civilian life. He took a liking to sports
cars and began driving in competition
in the early 1950s.
In those days, sports car racing
was like a large fraternity where every-
one got to know everyone else as their
paths crossed continually. While SCCA
national and regional races were
shorter sprints, usually only a half-
hour in length, the longer events like
Sebring, Daytona, Bridgehampton and
Watkins Glen (not to mention races in
Europe) required at least two drivers.
Experienced drivers like Thompson
who may not have had a car for a spe-
cific race found no problem getting a
ride with someone who did.
Thompson was probably best known
for driving Corvettes, which accounted for
five of his national championships (1956,
1957, 1960, 1961 and 1962). In 1957 John
Fitch invited him to join the GM team at
Sebring where he finished second in class.
He became one of Briggs Cunningham’s
drivers in Lister Jaguars, Corvettes and
Maseratis. Gulf sponsored its first GT40 in
1965 and Thompson was asked to drive it.
He also drove the Essex Wire 427 Cobra in
a few USRRC events. When Ford needed a
dozen drivers in 1966 for their GT40 ar-
mada at LeMans, Thompson was one of
those tapped to drive a MK II. He also
raced a 1965 Mustang notchback in the
first Trans-Am event. Shelby put him on
the Cobra Team in 1965 and he drove a
Daytona Coupe at LeMans. In 1967 he was
one of Shelby’s Trans-Am drivers.
He also drove a Gulf Mirage in five
European races. He said his race in the
rain in 1967 at Spa in Belgium, when he
was slipping, sliding and hydroplaning
all over the track, contributed to his de-
cision to retire two years later when he
was 49. His final drive at LeMans was
in 1968 at the wheel of the Howmet TX
turbine.
Thompson was inducted into the
Corvette Hall of Fame in 2000 and in
the LeMans Drivers Hall of Fame in
2007. On occasion he was invited to
drive in vintage races, in cars he had
originally raced.
Automotive writer/photographer
Art Evans said of Thompson, “
Al-
though he always exhibited skill,
courage and stamina, he was known as
a consummate gentleman both on and
off the track. He raced just for the joy
of it
.” He was retired, living in Florida
when he died of pneumonia at 94.