The Mickey Thompson Entertainment Group (MTEG) was a sanctioning body for an American

short course off-road racing Short course off-road racing is a form of auto racing involving the racing of modified vehicles on a dirt road closed course of a short length (tens of kilometers / miles or less). It is distinct from long course desert racing such as the Baja 10 ...

series that took place inside stadiums. Some events were televised, including on TNN and

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). Th ...

History

Mickey Thompson Michael Lee "Mickey" Thompson (December 7, 1928March 16, 1988) was an American auto racing builder and promoter. A hot rodder since his youth, Thompson increasingly pursued land speed records in his late 20s and early 30s.

raced desert trucks in the

SCORE International SCORE International (Southern California Off Road Enthusiasts) is an off-road racing sanctioning body in the sport of desert racing. Founded by Mickey Thompson in 1973, SCORE International was purchased from Sal Fish in late 2012. and is run b ...

series. Thompson said that he was seen "by nothing but cactus and jackrabbits." He reasoned that he needed to bring the excitement of desert racing to a wider audience. The body and series were established by Thompson in 1979. The first event was held in the

Los Angeles Coliseum The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum (also known as the L.A. Coliseum) is a multi-purpose stadium in the Exposition Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. Conceived as a hallmark of civic pride, the Coliseum was commissioned in 1921 as a me ...

. The body also sanctioned motorcycle races called Supercross. The stadium series survived Thompson's 1988 murder. The body went bankrupt in 1996. The concept of stadium off-road racing was revived with the creation of the

Stadium Super Trucks The Stadium Super Trucks (SST), formerly known as Speed Energy Formula Off-Road, is an American short course off-road racing series created by off-road racer and former IndyCar and NASCAR driver Robby Gordon in 2013. Sanctioned by the United State ...

in 2013 by former series champion

Robby Gordon Robert Wesley Gordon (born January 2, 1969) is an American auto racing driver. He has raced in NASCAR, CART, the IndyCar Series, the Trans-Am Series, IMSA, IROC and the Dakar Rally. He is active in top-tier off road motorsports such as BITD, N ...

Vehicle classes

* Grand National Sport Trucks * Super 1600s *

Sport Utility Vehicles A sport utility vehicle (SUV) is a car classification that combines elements of road-going passenger cars with features from off-road vehicles, such as raised ground clearance and four-wheel drive. There is no commonly agreed-upon definitio ...

(also known as Ultrastock) * Superlites * Ultracross * All Terrain Vehicles

Grand National Sport Trucks champions

* 1983 –

Ivan Stewart Ivan "Ironman" Stewart (born June 4, 1945) is an American professional off road racing driver. Racing career In 1973, Stewart was scheduled to co-drive (navigate) in the Ensenada 300 in a Class 1-2 dune buggy. His driver broke his leg, so Ste ...

* 1984 – Ivan Stewart * 1985 –

Roger Mears __NOTOC__ Roger Mears (born April 24, 1947 in Wichita, Kansas) is a former off-road driver who also drove in the USAC and CART Championship Car series. He raced in the 1978–1984 seasons, with 31 combined career starts, and started in the 1982 ...

* 1986 –

Steve Millen Steve Millen (born 17 February 1953) is a retired New Zealand IMSA race car driver. In the 1970s and 1980s, Millen raced in hillclimbing and Formula Ford before doing stadium off-road racing in the United States in the Mickey Thompson Enterta ...

* 1987 – Jeff Huber * 1988 – Steve Millen * 1989 –

* 1990 – Ivan Stewart * 1991 –

Walker Evans Walker Evans (November 3, 1903 – April 10, 1975) was an American photographer and photojournalist best known for his work for the Farm Security Administration (FSA) documenting the effects of the Great Depression. Much of Evans' work from ...

* 1992 –

Rod Millen Rodney K. "Rod" Millen (born 22 March 1951) is a New Zealand racing driver, vehicle designer, and business owner. He has competed in numerous genres of motorsports, including rally racing, off-road racing, hillclimbing, drifting, and super touri ...

* 1993 – Rod Millen * 1994 – Rod Millen

Other notable drivers

* Evan Evans – stadium series *

Jimmie Johnson Jimmie Kenneth Johnson (born September 17, 1975) is an American professional auto racing driver. A seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion, he competes part-time in the series driving for Petty GMS Motorsports. Johnson's seven Cup championships, ...

– stadium series *

Rob MacCachren Rob MacCachren (born March 24, 1965) is an American off-road racer from Las Vegas, Nevada. MacCachren won over 200 off-road races including five editions of the Baja 1000. He raced the Mickey Thompson Stadium Series early in his career and w ...

– stadium series *

Casey Mears Casey James Mears (born March 12, 1978) is an American professional off-road and stock car racing driver. He has raced in IndyCar, NASCAR's three national series including 15 seasons in the Cup Series, SCORE International, and the Stadium Super ...

– stadium series *

Jerry Whelchel Jerry may refer to: Animals * Jerry (Grand National winner), racehorse, winner of the 1840 Grand National * Jerry (St Leger winner), racehorse, winner of 1824 St Leger Stakes Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Jerry'' (film), a 2006 Indian fil ...

– winningest driver in stadium series history

References

External links

History

Bankruptcy documents
{{Off-road racing Auto racing organizations in the United States Off-road racing series