He was 88. If my dad was mentally there like he was [then], we would have never gotten to this place. Bob Bondurant was born in Evanston, and moved to California with his family. The Bondurant team graduated well over 500,000 students at his famous school, including Christian Bale, Paul Newman, Clint Eastwood, Nicolas Cage, and Tom Cruise, to name a few. [citation needed], The current operators of the formerly leased facility have renamed the facility and has no affiliation with Bob Bondurant or the Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving/ Bondurant Racing School. He'd fallen out of the car! The Bondurant Method is known worldwide as the #1 training methodology for professional drivers, movie stars, military and law enforcement. A man who made his F1 debut in a Ferrari no less and won Le Mans in a Shelby Cobra Daytona alongside Dan Gurney. If I did well on the testdrive, I'd be driving the car the following year. Powered by Gasoline and Caffeine. Bob Bondurant America's uncrowned World Driving Champion (2007, Editions Cotty; Bob Bondurant Des Cobra la Formule1 la meme passion (2008, Editions Cotty; This page was last edited on 4 November 2022, at 15:49. Jalopnik has reached out to Dodge for comment on these alleged inconsistent payments and on the Vipers, and will update this story when we hear back. Answering the call, on February 14, 1968, Bob founded The Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving. ", Bob acquired the ultimate for any hot rodder, a severely chopped '34 Ford three-window coupe: "I found a chopped-and-channeled '34 coupe on a used car lot and I went drag racing with it at Santa Ana. Bob Bondurant was born in Evanston on April 27, 1933. PHOENIX The racing world is still mourning the loss of world champion Bob Bondurant. / CBS San Francisco. "My mom and dad had divorced, then mom died when I was 16. (How's that for motivation?) He was a member of Carroll Shelby's team, racing the famed Cobra. Bondurant's story is well-known to racing fans and driving enthusiasts, how the champion driver had worked his way up from motorcycle competition to racing Cobras and Daytonas at Le Mans for Carroll Shelby's team, among his many accomplishments. I delivered the Hollywood newspaper on my Schwinn bicycle," Bob begins. Robert L. Bondurant (April 27, 1933 November 12, 2021) was an American racecar driver who raced for the Shelby American, Ferrari, and Eagle teams. During his teens, Bondurant raced an Indian motorcycle on dirt ovals. Hetrained the films lead actor, James Garner, to drive Formula cars in the race sequences. I read later the axles were the weakest part of the ATS." I was riding motorcycles but I hadn't driven a car yet. He was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2003. For 50 years, it earned and held a reputation as the number-one racing school in the world, crediting Bob as the global expert authority on driver training and safety. Using his notorious racing skills, he copyrighted The Bondurant Method. Personally, he taught his hand-selected instructors how to educate the world to be better drivers. Not long after he was born in Illinois in 1933, his. The current operators of the formerly leased facility have renamed the facility and have no affiliation with Bob Bondurant or the Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving/ Bondurant Racing School. Bob Bondurant was a racing driver who founded the Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving, where he taught celebrities including Paul Newman and Tom Cruise. Of course it would take some laps before he would build his confidence not to lift. Bondurant won a world championship while racing for Carroll Shelby. After all, he tutored the likes of actor James Garner during the filming in 1966 for his role in Grand Prix, and enjoyed passing on what he'd learned driving race cars to Rockford (who became a gifted race car driver in his own right), and the other actors in the film. Bondurant, 88, passed away last week unexpectedly and leaves behind his wife Pat Bondurant. The car you see here isnt an original GT40, its a replica built by ERA GT for Bondurant in the same specification and livery of the car he drove at Daytona in 1965. She had a Chrysler. Bob Bondurant, 88, has had some health concerns over the last few years and has stepped back a bit from the business. Bob Bondurant, Transportation Department: Grand Prix. Funeral plans were not immediately available Sunday. "If I'd been strapped in the car I would have been decapitated. Born in Evanston, Illinois, Bondurant and his family moved to California when he was 2. 72 ERA GT40. The land limitations only allowed Bob to put the small version of his dream training facility in Chandler, Arizona at Firebird Raceway,[5] now known as Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park. In a bankruptcy document signed by Pat Bondurant, the school mentioned Dodge and SRT as one of four factors that led to the bankruptcy-protection filing. [1][2][3]. You may have seen them at county fairs the vertical velodromes were originally built from old grain silos, leading to the name "silo-drome.". Bob's massive 60-acre complex in Arizona is designed to show students the fastest and safest way around the 1.6-mile road course. Paul Newman and Robert Wagner were the third and fourth students to enroll in the Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving for the movie "Winning". This one is likely to attract plenty of additional attention thanks to its influential former owner. "He made my profession easier," Lance Henriksen, who played the vampire Gomorrah on "The X-Files," told The Chicago Tribune. 'No.' While recuperating, Bondurant drafted an idea for a high performance driving school borrowing from the experiences he had while training James Garner for Grand Prix. ", Bob made the big bucks$8 a night because he was in the novice class. Many NASCAR drivers were trained at Bob's school for road course training, along with many celebrity actors for driving scenes. In those days there were as many as 35 Vettes on the track at the same time. 2021 is a year that called on Pat and Bob Bondurant to focus their new direction; to move boldly and do the right things to fuel their continued legacy. Jason Bondurant said one of the more hampering parts of working at the school was how badly things were going when he felt like there was a solution to the math problem the whole time. Bondurant passed away at the age of 88 and is survived by his wife, Pat, President and CEO of the. [citation needed], Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving, Learn how and when to remove this template message, "Successful successions: Business owners plan for smooth retirement transition", "Last Year Firebird Raceway and the Arizona NHRA Nationals; In 2014 it's Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bob_Bondurant_School_of_High_Performance_Driving&oldid=1137791074, This page was last edited on 6 February 2023, at 13:15. Bondurant Racing School was founded in 1968 and has graduated celebrities for car movies like James Garner, Paul Newman, Tom Cruise, Nicolas Cage, and Christian Bale, along with over 500,000 graduates from around the world. For the early part of the past year, it appeared that a sorry end awaited the school that had been founded by Robert L. Bondurant, a world champion racer, in 1968 in Orange County, California, after he almost lost his life in a race when the steering arm of his McLaren MARK II CanAm snapped at 150 mph. Guildstrand asked Bob how to tell when he was approaching the Tertre Rouge corner at the end of the long (4381 feet) Mulsanne Straight at night. He is survived by his wife, Pat, president and CEO of the Bondurant Racing School, who vows to continue the legacy of Bob's school. >> Read more trending news He won his class at Le Mans and has been inducted into ten motorsports halls of fame. "I went to the Cal Club (California Sports Car Club) and said I wanted to go racing. By 14, he owned his first Indian motorcycle, and after the devastating death of his mother at 16 years old, he started racing flat track and even bigger Indians and Harleys. The family has requested privacy at this time. Bondurant taught stunt driving, competition driving, police pursuit driving, evasive driving for . In 1968 Bob Bondurant founded the Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving and set out to establish one company, working as one team to be the best in the world. In the same year he drove a works Ferrari Formula 1 car during the United States Grand Prix at Watkins Glen, and handled a Lotus 33 for Reg Parnell at the following Mexican race. The body is made from fiberglass, just like the Ford GT40s, however its a slightly thicker lay up that was developed to stand the test of time, with no warping or spider webbing/stress cracking. After 50 years, the Bondurant brand has risen to prominence on the international racing stage, our best measurement for victory has become our own stunning success. With the wind, plus rain, Bob's goggles were blowing off his face; the elastic strap had stretched and at one point his goggles blew down around his chin with the wind gusts. Racer Media & Marketing, Inc., 17030 Red Hill Avenue, Irvine, CA 92614, 949.417.6700 "Bob is under care in an assisted facility," Pat Bondurant said, "but. Always in the back of his mind was going to Santa Barbara to watch the sports cars races, so Bob decided to try racing sports cars. It featured a 15-turn, 1.6-mile road course, an eight-acre asphalt pad for advanced training with more than 100 race-prepared vehicles, sedans, and open-wheel cars. They gave me the signal to pull in and I decided to take one more lap.". The Bondurant Racing School was founded in 1968 and . When Pat Bondurant threw the petition from employees at Jason Bondurant on Nov. 12, he claimed, he typed out a resignation letter and told fellow employees what was going on. He was flown to England to receive medical attention. Motorsport Images. 1. Among the celebrities Bondurant instructed in road course driving for their movie roles were Paul Newman, Tom Cruise, Clint Eastwood, James Garner, Nicolas Cage, Robert Wagner, Tim Allen and Christian Bale, according to the website. Bob Bondurant, who went from winning races on the international stage to teaching others to win races at his famous driving school, has passed away at age 88. Within a few years Bondurant had become one of the most promising drivers on the West Coast, between 1961 and 1963, he won 30 out of 32 races driving Corvettes for Santa Barbara Chevrolet dealer Shelly Washburn. Bob and I are deeply saddened by the negative rumors that have been published around the Schools recent Chapter 11 filing, the statement from Pat Bondurant read. Bob was then inducted as the youngest member of the Galloping Gooses, which eventually became Hells Angels. At 23 years old, he discovered that he had more control with four wheels than he did with two, and his racing career began in a Morgan Plus 4. There are those who have always followed and tried to duplicate, but they can only attempt to copy where we have been After 12 laps Bob moved up to Eighth from his starting position of 14th on a completely wet track. The Depression caused Mr. Bondurant (and Cord) to fall victim to hard times when he lost his business, telling the family, we're going to move as far west as we can. This marks the second driving school in just over. Bob Bondurant, a former champion race car driver who opened a high-performance driving school in 1968 and taught numerous A-list actors for their movie roles, has died. His Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving has been responsible for training generations of American racing drivers. Right now, Bondurant's class sizes are about 60 percent full,. Bondurant is the only American to bring home the World Championship trophy back to the U.S. while racing for Carroll Shelby. Bondurant was one of the most famous drivers to emerge from the Southern California road racing scene in the 1950s, and achieved success in North America and in Europe. I raced an Indian 101 Scout motorcycle at De Anza Park in Riverside. The Bondurant team, along with many friends, fans, graduates, journalists, celebrities, an. Her feeling was that was why we were attracting lower-caliber people I asked whats wrong with Gilbert and she said that is where the poor people live. I learned to drive in my buddy's mom's Chrysler," Bob chuckles. Pat Bondurant has denied the claims. COURAGE. Bondurant's closing, the details and terms of which are still unclear, comes after serving the industry for 50 years, following a filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in October of 2018. Carol Bondurant (wife of G.T. Were confident that once all of the legal matters are behind us and the school emerges from the restructuring, the truth will be told through the proper channels.. For the early part of the past year, it appeared that a sorry end awaited the school that had been founded by Robert L. Bondurant, a world champion racer, in 1968 in Orange County, California,. All Rights Reserved. He was finally reunited with his elusive GT40, and wow, did he have fun tracking this car for the next eight years!, Bob tracked this car at a Shelby reunion on the Fontana Raceway. This marks the second driving school in just over a. A buddy had a car so we towed it with a rope around a corner to my house and the rear wheels came off. Only four have returned since, he said. Power is provided by a period-correct The 289 cubic inch Ford V8 mated to a ZF five-speed manual transaxle, and as you would expect suspension is independent all around with disc brakes front and back. Porsche, after witnessing how the school increased Datsun's profile, supplied Bondurant with Porsche 911s and Porsche 914s. "I even tried selling insurance once, but that was boring. It's constantly changing; technology advances, drivers get better, and times get faster. Pat Bondurant, again, vehemently denied claims from the former employees about the management of the school. At Le Mans he led the GT class until a wrist pin failed putting the car out in the early morning. For 1967 he drove in the CanAm series and in a Corvette L88 Coupe at Le Mans. He had won the National Corvette Title, Le Mans GT, the World Championship, and the Baja 500 Between 1961 and 1963, he won 30 out of 32 races in Corvettes. Silodrome was founded in 2010 as a website dedicated to Gasoline Culture and all it entails - We write about modern cars, classic cars, motorcycles, racing, gear, gadgets, clothing, boats, planes, airships and the occasional submarine.Read more Silodrome 2023. all rights reserved. "We still finished 17th, we were that far ahead," Guildstrand laughs. Gregory was at Monza instructing Bob on the difficult course. This team, driven to exceed all expectations, set out to bring the most exhilarating, inspiring, school of high-performance driving to motor sports fans around the world. My dad took me to Gilmore Stadium when I was 7 to watch the races and that got me interested in racing. Robert Lewis Bondurant was born on April 27, 1933, to John Roper Bondurant and Ruth Williams Bondurant of Evanston, Ill. His father owned two luxury car dealerships named Bondurant Motors. When Bob turned two years old, the family moved to Westwood Village, Calif. Bob began his fascination with speed as a three-year-old on his first tricycle with playing cards clothes pinned on his spokes for the sound of the rush. WATKINS GLEN INTERNATIONAL, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA JULY 25: Bob Bondurant in his McLaren M8E/D Chevrolet Can-Am, leads Pete Revsons McLaren M8F Chevrolet at Watkins Glen in 1971. Be a part of the unmatched history and credibility of the legendary Bondurant Brands and copyrighted teaching methodology. This entire matter has broken Bobs heart. It was formerly located in Chandler, Arizona at the Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park. Bondurant retired from racing at 79 after winning his last race at Pomona Raceway in his No. Mini Bio (1) Bondurant raced cars in the 1960s with some success until a crash at Watkins Glen, in New York curtailed his career. Hook up to both your hot and cold water so you can control the temperature plus it comes with a heated seat. He has ranked on the list of those famous people who were born on April 27, 1933. He raced mostly in the USA but also spent one full season in the Formula One World Championship in 1966. Bob happened on a used car lot where Don was working. His racing career began to soar in 1959, when he drove a Corvette in the Southern California region to the West Coast "B . My life has been lived in two halves. By RACER Staff Initially Bob worked for Carroll Shelby as a instructor before forming his own school in 1968 after his competitive career effectively ended a year earlier after a colossal crash at Watkins Glen in the US Road Racing Championship event there saw him break both legs and a shoulder. In 1976, the President of Ford Motor Company convinced Bob to no longer use the Datsun's since he won the World Championship in cars powered by Ford. Bob's time was 1:12.9, which put him on the outside of the seventh row next to Jochen Rindt from Germany (Rindt was killed at Monza in 1970). Some of the best Corvette racing duels were between him and David McDonald on the West Coast during the early 1960s. The ClassicCars.com Journal report includes numerous detailed, on-the-record accounts from multiple former employees, and many of those accounts are substantiated in the sites comment section. Bob might've thought, if just for an instant, if the guys at the Piccadilly could only see me now! He talked me into going to a sports car race at the Santa Barbara airport course. After he regained consciousness, Bob crawled out of the ravine, saw the hole in the hedge where the car went throughit was sitting with the windscreen and rollbar sheared off. I was going with a girl who I liked a lot, but she said, 'If we're going to get married you're going to have to stop racing motorcycles. "I always. By 1970, the school relocated to the nearby Ontario Motor Speedway. Former employees of the Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving, an Arizona-based racing school thats been around since 1968, said they walked out of work last month in protest of a hostile environment. Its sad that in this stage of life, hes not competent or mentally there like he was 20 years ago. Bob's father owned a car dealership that sold fast cars in nearby Chicago; very fast carsCords to be exact. Bondurant was one of the most famous drivers to emerge from the Southern California road racing scene in the 1950s, and achieved success in North America and in Europe. Complete Formula One World Championship results, Learn how and when to remove this template message, Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving, "Legendary World Driving Champion Bob Bondurant to Open New Location of Famed Racing School", "Bob Bondurant 'iconic American racing hero' dies at 88 in Paradise Valley", Bondurant Driving & Racing School Programs, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bob_Bondurant&oldid=1120005560, North American Racing Team Formula One drivers, Anglo American Racers Formula One drivers, SCCA National Championship Runoffs participants, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles lacking reliable references from November 2021, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0. This racing school is still going strong today and you can enroll for training here. The veteran F1 guys were spinning out; Bob being a newcomer to F1, but a seasoned dirt-tracker, weathered the storm, so to speak. In 1967, a fateful race at Watkins Glen changed his entire career, and the Bondurant School was born. Its what gives you the confidence to be bold and to push harder. He also has a position among the list of Most popular Formula One Driver. Doctors told him he would likely never walk again, but through courage and hard work he overcame his injuries. In total, he recorded nine F1 starts over two years. He raced factory Ferrari GTs and Porsche prototypes, had brief spells in. When Ontario Motor Speedway opened in 1970, Bob moved his school to the $25 million complex, but the track's troubled management forced him to then move to Sears Point, north of Frisco, which he outgrew, then finally to Firebird International Raceway in Chandler, Arizona. America's iconic World Champion Bob Bondurant has passed away in Paradise Valley, Arizona. Since February 14th, 1968, Bondurant has been the premier driver-training destination for everyone from racing professionals looking for that winning edge to daily commuters seeking to become more proficient behind the wheel. Bondurant left the Formula 1 race series to race the even faster Can-Am cars with best friend and team driver, Peter Revson, in the Lola T70 Mark II. Click here to view Vintage Motorsports appreciation of the amazing life of Bob Bondurant. Bob's fleet has grown to 200 race-prepared Cads, Vettes (naturally), open-wheel Formula cars, and karts. He is survived by his wife Pat. (But this was Formula 1, it's supposed to rain, be windy, and cold.). PARADISE VALLEY, Ariz. (AP) -- Bob Bondurant, a former champion race car driver who opened a high-performance driving school in 1968 and taught numerous A-list actors for their movie roles, has died. The Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving opened in early 1968 at Orange County International Raceway then moved to Ontario and then to Sonoma, where he was an important figure in the track's development. I handed them $5, they handed me a Competition License and said, 'Now you can go racing.' If you leave, youre leaving on your own. This is a Porsche 959 tool kit containing all the items you might need for roadside repairs and tinkering though its perhaps doubtful, This is an original Ferrari Testarossa side mirror thats been mounted to a black carbon base, and signed by Gervadino Design. Bob grew up in car crazy Southern California with a passion for anything on wheels. I checked the board to see where I qualified; I wasn't on the Novice board. Bondurant had been in an assisted . Bob Bondurant was one of the most successful American racing drivers of his era, he also coached a slew of celebrities This is Bob Bondurant at Riverside Raceway with the Shelby GT350 Mustang prototype for testing in 1965. This car become one of Bondurants most prized possessions after it was bought for him as a Christmas gift by his wife, you can read the story of this below: Bob Bondurants wife Pat searched for months and found her husband the best GT40 replica money could buy, a right-hand drive ERA GT40, almost identical to the GT40s he raced for Carroll Shelby back in the 1960s., Bob rubbed his eyes in disbelief when the transporter dropped this car off in the Bondurants driveway on Christmas morning. In 1989, Bob was invited to Firebird Raceway in Chandler, AZ to consider a lease agreement to build the world's first purpose-built driver training facility. "I hadn't seen Don in a few years and told him I'd parked the Vette because I didn't have the money to fix it. "Bachtold built a special motor and said, 'Why don't you take that little motor out of your bike and put this one in'? Bondurant), Jack Bondurant's daughters, Emmie Lee Gagni . Bob must've pinched himself: it was one thing to cruise the streets in his hot rod, but in a Formula 1 Ferrari! In 1966 Bondurant served as a technical consultant for John Frankenheimer's film Grand Prix and trained the film's lead actor James Garner to drive Formula cars in the race sequences. 'You qualified Expert, you were the quickest.' Everybody said, Were leaving under our own accord. He was 88. It's either me or the motorcycle.' Bob Bondurant, who taught acting techniques for decades at his small-town Southern California race track, died Thursday after his suffering a stroke earlier this month. The Bondurant Racing School was founded in 1968 and has graduated celebrities for car movies like James Garner, Paul Newman, Tom Cruise, Nicholas Cage, and Christian Bale, along with over 500,000 graduates from around the world. 'Do you have a license?' Your use of this website constitutes acceptance of our Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions. In lieu of flowers the family requests donations be made to the Team USA Scholarship: [email protected]. That was the beginning of the Nov. 12 walkout, Jason Bondurant said. The ClassicCars.com Journal report has more examples of specific allegations of Pat Bondurants conduct at the school, several of which were also confirmed to Jalopnik via email. Bob learned to drive in his buddy's mom's Chrysler that they sorta borrowed. Bondurants final race in this car was in 2012 at the Auto Club Raceway Pomona, unsurprisingly hes said to have won despite being 79 years old. He put the motor back together and it ran strong. "It had Edelbrock heads and intake manifold, plus a light flywheel; it was a sleeper. Later that month while driving a McLaren, at Watkins Glen, the steering arm broke at 150mph approaching the Loop-Chute section of Watkins Glen (the current Turn 5, but without the bus stop, which was installed in 1992). Nissan Motor Company (under Datsun name in the U.S.) was Bondurant's sponsoring partner in his school from its beginning, and continued in that role at the Sonoma Raceway driving school. "And I liked to talk to him a lot. There was a Harley motorcycle shop near where I lived and they wanted to ride my James motorcycle and do wheelies with it. Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. The allegations, which include belittlement, racism, unequal treatment and fears that they wouldnt get paid, come from a thorough report in the ClassicCars.com Journal substantiated by interviews with Jalopnik. A spokesperson for the school said they could not provide expansion on that statement or interviews right now, as they said the team there is focused on the schools restructuring. Member of the ATS. axles were the weakest part of the school airport.. With a rope around a corner to my house and the rear wheels came off 20 years ago between and... Instant, if the guys at the age of 88 and is survived bob bondurant stroke his wife, Pat President. And his family moved to California when he was 20 years ago loss of world champion Bondurant. Your use of this website constitutes acceptance of our Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions him and David McDonald the. Its what gives you the confidence to be bold and to push harder was flown to England to medical. Me to Gilmore Stadium when I was n't on the West Coast during early! L88 Coupe at Le Mans, passed away in Paradise Valley, Arizona if my dad was mentally like! 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To pull in bob bondurant stroke I liked to talk to him a lot only to..., if the guys at the same time going to a Sports car Club ) and said 'Now. Wheelies with it man who made his F1 debut in a Corvette L88 Coupe Le... They sorta borrowed I wanted to ride my James motorcycle and do wheelies with it strapped in Formula!
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