Johnny Thomson

Interesting facts

All of Johnny Thomson's World Championship starts came at the Indianapolis 500 - he entered eight times between 1953 and 1960, and never raced a European Formula One Grand Prix. His best result was third place at the 1959 Indy 500, the same year he also took pole position for the race. Before focusing on Indy, he made his name in smaller open-wheel machinery: he won the 1952 AAA Eastern midget championship and, with eight victories, the 1954 AAA Eastern sprint car championship. For these achievements he was inducted into the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame in 1996 and the National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame in 1997. On 24 September 1960, during a USAC sprint car race at the Allentown Fairgrounds in Pennsylvania, his car flipped, tore through the backstretch fence and crashed into the infield - pinned beneath the wreck, Thomson died hours later in hospital at age 38, leaving behind a wife and four sons. Johnny Thomson raced in Formula 1 from 1953 to 1960, across 8 seasons as an American driver. He scored a total of 10 championship points over his career.