The man known as the “Flying Dentist,” Dr. Dick Thompson, has died of natural causes at the age of 94. Thompson didn’t begin racing until he was in his 30s, but despite a lack of formal training or mechanical background, he was a natural who competed for nearly 20 years, driving primarily Corvettes, but also a variety of other cars including Maseratis, Jaguars, Cobras, GT40s, Mustangs and the Howmet Turbine for entrants such as Briggs Cunningham, Grady Davis, Carroll Shelby and John Wyer.
Along the way he collected a remarkable seven SCCA National Championships, five of them in Corvettes, one in a Porsche 356 and one in an Austin-Healey. Thompson’s work with the early Corvettes—his five Vette National Championships came in four different classes—helped Chevrolet’s engineers apply the lessons learned from racing to their road-going models to make a better car.
Despite his passion for speed on the edge of control, Thompson is remembered as a kind and gentle man both on and off the track. To his wife, family and his many friends in the sport, Vintage Racecar offers its sincerest sympathies.
