He won his class at Le Mans and has been inducted into ten motorsports halls of fame. 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. Bob Bondurant, 88, has had some health concerns over the last few years and has stepped back a bit from the business. ", When Bob was 18 he started racing motorcycles at Carrell and Culver City Speedways: "In those days you didn't have brakes; you went faster without brakes on the bikes. He said she appeared to avoid such language for a few weeks but made another remark after attending President Donald Trumps 2017 inauguration. Now thats doing your business in luxury. From the professional race track to the big screen, Bob Bondurant, for more than 50 years, has trained anyone with a driver's license and a set of keys to handle any vehicle at extremely high speeds by combining the oft-chased union of precision, safety and self-confidence. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed in any form without prior authorization. Bob later had a '40 Ford he drag raced at Santa Ana, but Bob, ever the hot rodder, was ready to slow down the pace a bit with one cool street cruiser, a tail-draggin' '41 Ford custom. What a career. 2023 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. Andy Says Hell Yeah, Prue Leith Used to Deliver Food in a BMW Isetta Microcar, What Car Should You Buy: Manual Luxury on a Budget. The allegations revolve around Pat Bondurant, the schools president of eight years, CEO since 2017 and wife of founder Bob Bondurant. We cherish his memories and will forever remember him and his . Temperature-controlledHook up to both your hot and cold water so you can control the temperature plus it comes with a heated seat. Not all of the alleged remarks were in relation to the school, though. He was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2003. 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. He won his class at Le Mans and has been inducted into ten motorsports halls of fame. While driving a McLaren at Watkins Glen, the car's steering arm fails at around 150 mph, which . In response to the claims that employees feared they wouldnt get paid without Jason Bondurant or Arvizu, Shaffer told ClassicCars.com Journal Bondurant never missed or were late on a payroll, citing school records. For 50 years, the Bondurant Racing Schoo l was a place where car enthusiasts and regular drivers could satisfy their need for speed on a closed track. I said, I know you signed the petition, please do not leave because of me, he recalled telling employees. The first was becoming a world champion driver. Its sad.. The first was becoming a World Champion driver. When Bob wasnt using the car on track it was stabled in the Bondurant Museum, where it was seen by countless thousands of visitors over the years. The original was made from a lighter gauge mild steel. Pat and Bob Bondurant intend to reopen their school under an all-new ownership and management structure, at an exciting new location, and are currently negotiating opportunities to purchase the Bondurant Trademark License Rights. Twice, Bob was badly injured, not from driver error, but from mechanical failure. He drove for Carroll Shelby and teamed with Dan Gurney. [citation needed], Within 5 months, enough financial and infrastructural damage had taken place to force the legendary racing school into Chapter 11 protection. I stayed for two hours telling everyone Lets leave these cars locked up, make sure the buildings and gates are secure. He also said Bob Bondurant, 85, isnt in the physical and mental shape at his age to comprehend whats allegedly going on at the school or stand up to Pat Bondurant, who Jason Bondurant said is 63 years old. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. The Bondurant Racing School was founded in 1968 and . They gave me the signal to pull in and I decided to take one more lap.". We had a meeting with Peyton Cramer and he wanted to go to Le Mans in 1967 and I said we gotta get one of the new L88s." She said, 'You can't do that.' Bondurant is survived by his wife, Pat, who is president and CEO of the Bondurant Racing School. "I didn't think about the accident until we were doing the cool-off lap at the end of the race," he recalled. Were working through the proper legal channels to make the best choices for the long-term health and success of the school. April 10, 2022 | Fort Lauderdale, FL | Friend. I said, 'OK if you let me ride your Harley', there was a vacant lot and we made an oval out of it which had some jumps. In 1965 Bondurant won the FIA Manufacturers' World Championship for Shelby American and Ford, winning seven out of ten races against the class dominating Ferrari 250 GTOs in Europe. The veteran F1 guys were spinning out; Bob being a newcomer to F1, but a seasoned dirt-tracker, weathered the storm, so to speak. This is Bob Bondurant at Riverside Raceway with the Shelby GT350 Mustang prototype for testing in 1965. He was 88. The Bondurant edition Shelby 289 FIA Cobra roadster in fiberglass will start at US$149,995.00 and the aluminum version will begin at $249,995. "He made my profession easier," Lance Henriksen, who played the vampire Gomorrah on "The X-Files," told The Chicago Tribune. "Bachtold built a special motor and said, 'Why don't you take that little motor out of your bike and put this one in'? This comes under the heading of "this stuff doesn't happen today!" He was one of a handful of Americans to compete in the Formula 1 Grand Prix series, and also raced at Le Mans. He bought a British two-seater Morgan Plus 4 with four cylinders that put out 68 hp and raced it for a year, graduating to a Triumph TR2 with a blazing 90 horses stock. "It wouldn't idle under 70 mph. He offered Bob a full Ford sponsorship of cars, parts, and marketing until 2003. Racer Media & Marketing, Inc., 17030 Red Hill Avenue, Irvine, CA 92614, 949.417.6700 'You qualified Expert, you were the quickest.' We damn near blew him off the box but he gives us this great big French salute. [1] In 1968, it was originally located at Orange County International Raceway in California, later moving to Ontario Motor Speedway in 1970, and to Sears Point International Raceway in 1973. The only thing wrong with it was the head and manifold were off. As Bob went through the corner the rear axle broke sending him off the course backward and down a ravine. Bob was a special man who radiated his love for God and his beautiful wife Pat. I was taking my buddy around the track and said, 'This is really great isn't it?' 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. By the time he was 18; he was racing an Indian Scout motorcycle, and moved to sports cars in 1956 at the wheel of a Morgan. This entire matter has broken Bobs heart. Me and my buddies drove all over in that thing. If you put it that way, I have to race. It could happen again, if it did and the results were worse, how would he make a living, Bob wondered? 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. He is survived by his wife Pat. They might all wish to tip their hats to the founder, Robert Lewis Bondurant, who died Nov. 12 in Paradise Valley, Ariz., at the age of 88. No cause of death was released. We used to go to my aunt's house for Christmas dinner and my cousin had a big four-door Jag Mark VII. 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. He didn't answer. Powered by Gasoline and Caffeine. Bob was told that the high-speed corner, Curve Grande, was taken flat-out. He was 88. He was thrown out of the car. Bob's father owned a car dealership that sold fast cars in nearby Chicago; very fast carsCords to be exact. I am leaving because I have to take a stand. Bondurant once said, My life has been lived in two halves. On Twitter, his family wrote that he "passed away in his sleep after a short illness." Bondurant won a world championship while racing for Carroll Shelby. For the 1964 FIA season after finishing 2nd in GT at Sebring, Bondurant was in Europe racing the new 289 FIA Cobras at the Targa Florio, Spa, and Nurburgring. The 88-year-old is among a handful of Americans who have competed in Formula 1, in NASCAR, in CanAm and at Le Mans, where he won driving for Carroll Shelby while sharing the ride with Dan Gurney in. 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. Bob Bondurant stepped back from the school's daily operations because he wanted to do "the fun stuff" later in life, Jason Bondurant said. "I even tried selling insurance once, but that was boring. Ask any race car driver and they will tell you, on the edge, exceeding the limits, is where harmony is found. [4], Bondurant was inducted in the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2003. He was 88. The walkout, he claimed, included all of the employees at work that day26 including the night shift. At the L.A. Times Grand Prix in October 1962, Bondurant drove Washburn's new 1963 Corvette Z06 Stingray. He was going to a motorcycle shop in Glendale where Don Bachtold workedhe was a top motorcycle mechanic. Bob says, "Look for the burning Ferraris.". ", Bob knew the circuit well, having raced Le Mans in 1964, winning the GT Class in a Ford Daytona Coupe with Dan Gurney. Bondurant won a world championship while racing for Carroll Shelby. 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,. Our. Historically, courage changes everything. Doctors told him he would likely never walk again, but through courage and hard work he overcame his injuries. 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. In 1967, a fateful race at Watkins Glen changed his entire career, and the Bondurant School was born. 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. Bondurant was born in Evanston, Illinois. Bondurant was one of two drivers (alongside Graham Hill) to help extricate Jackie Stewart from his fuel-leaking wrecked car during the 1966 Belgian Grand Prix, the incident that led to Stewart's crusade for motor racing safety. 'Do you have a license?' [5] Bob Bondurant's copyrighted method taught competition driving, police pursuit driving, evasive driving for chauffeurs and bodyguards, stunt driving, and other courses.[6][7]. His legacy will remain with us forever. Graham Hill won the event in a BRM. He said you buy the crank and I'll put the motor back together, and for every race you win I won't charge you. 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. How many sharing the road with Bob that day did double takes to make sure they saw what they thought they saw? Bob's father owned a car dealership that sold fast cars in nearby Chicago; very fast carsCords to be exact. [6], A statement on his death reads, in part, "Bondurant is the only American to bring home the World Championship trophy back to the U.S. while racing for Carroll Shelby. Bob should be an inspiration to anyone who has a dream he followed his. He raced mostly in the USA but also spent one full season in the Formula One World Championship in 1966. 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. "Bob Bondurant has had a worldwide impact on the motorsports industry, and his legacy will live on eternally as the Bondurant Racing School moves forward into the future," Phoenix Raceway President Julie Giese said in a statement. There's a definite correlation between Dan Gurney's budding start and Bob's. He was 88. (But this was Formula 1, it's supposed to rain, be windy, and cold.). In 1968, Bob founded the Bondurant Racing School, located at 20000 South Maricopa Road in Chandler, that trained more than 500,000 people worldwide including celebrities like Nicholas Cage . We barely got the spare parts in the truck. Bob then approached Datsun, which immediately agreed to support his plans. Robert L. Bondurant (April 27, 1933 - November 12, 2021) was an American racecar driver who raced for the Shelby American, Ferrari, and Eagle teams. [1][2][3]. Others followed suit, which forced the brief closure. America's iconic World Champion Bob Bondurant has passed away in Paradise Valley, Arizona. PARADISE VALLEY, Ariz. Bob Bondurant, a champion race car driver who later opened a driving school in 1968 and taught several top actors, died Friday. Answering the call, on February 14, 1968, Bob founded The Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving. "It had Edelbrock heads and intake manifold, plus a light flywheel; it was a sleeper. Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. No one from the school, including Bob Bondurant himself, have issued a comment beyond the statement. Between 1961 and 1963, he won 30 out of 32 races in Washburn's Corvettes. (How's that for motivation?) It was boring because you'd run down the dragstripthat part was great, but then it took a half-hour before you got to do it again.". As funds dwindled leading up to the bankruptcy, the schools former financial controller Lavida Arvizu, who also walked out, said employees didnt trust they would get paid without herself or Jason Bondurant around to make sure it happened. Since then, the school has taught the copyrighted "Bondurant Method" with its lineup of instructors. 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. 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 had it running in two days. He also said Bob Bondurant, 85, isn't in the. In Bob's case, not wearing a belt saved his life. Bob won 18 out of 20 races in 1959 in the '57, which smartly won Bob the "B" Production Championship and "Best Corvette Driver of the Year" in 1959. The pair went against Pat Bondurants wishes, informed employees and walked off the job. From the age of 23 to 34, Bob became one of the most iconic race car drivers in the world. Robert L. Bondurant (April 27, 1933 November 12, 2021) was an American racecar driver who raced for the Shelby American, Ferrari, and Eagle teams. When the Ferrari, This is the Tommykaira ZZ, its an unusual sports car that became a legend in 1999 due to its inclusion in the wildly popular, This 1984Rover Vitesse SD1 TWR Group A specification touring car was painstakingly rebuilt, at a six figure cost, to resurrect the mightyTWR/010 SD1 which, The Jaguar E-Type was released in 1961, its good looks andremarkable performance won it fans aroundthe world, famouslyincluding Enzo Ferrariwho is said to have, The Iso Rivolta IR 300 GT is a little known but superb Grand Touring car, perhaps one of the greatest of the 1960s all, The traditional Silodrome was a carnival sideshow attraction also called the Wall of Death." Bondurant was a driving instructor to actors James Garner, Paul Newman, Clint Eastwood, Robert Wagner, Tim Allen, Tom Cruise, and Nicolas Cage. Bondurant returned to race a Can-Am car at Watkins Glen a year after his crash. As a result, the schools assets, not the Bondurant name, were sold off in 2019. This racing school is still going strong today and you can enroll for training here. [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. November 14, 2021 9:30 AM, By RACER Staff | Pat Bondurant secured a 51-percent stake in the school in 2010, about two months after she married Bob Bondurant, their son told Jalopnik. There are those who have always followed and tried to duplicate, but they can only attempt to copy where we have been Bob Bondurant, Bondurant School, Industry, Race highlights of 2023 MX-5 Cup Round 2 at Daytona International Speedway, Garage 56 coach role more about give and take for Jordan Taylor, RACER's 2023 IndyCar season preview: Dale Coyne Racing. Bondurant had four NASCAR starts, all at Riverside International Raceway, with his highest finish of 18th in 1981. 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. Bob's father bounced back, becoming a surgical instrument sale representative once in California. I talked my mom into letting me get a Whizzer motor bike. Bob happened on a used car lot where Don was working. This as around the time he caught the attention of Carroll Shelby, who was looking to hire the best drivers he could find for his new Ford Cobra team. Badly injured in a 1967 crash at the racetrack in Watkins Glen, New York, Bondurant drafted an idea for a high-performance driving school while recuperating. My life has been lived in two halves. 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. Bondurant taught stunt driving, competition driving, police pursuit driving, evasive driving for chauffeurs and bodyguards, plus other skills, according to the website. I checked the board to see where I qualified; I wasn't on the Novice board. 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. A buddy had a car so we towed it with a rope around a corner to my house and the rear wheels came off. When he took the petition to Pat Bondurant, he told Jalopnik, she threw it at him and said, Fuck you. She did not respond to the individual allegations here or on ClassicCars.com Journal, with a representative for the school instead sending a statement similar to the one given to that outlet. November 14, 2021 9:30 AM ET. She said to me that we should stop hiring people from Chandler or Gilbert, Arvizu wrote. ClassicCars.com posted a picture of a note taped to the school's door indicating the closure. "Then I thought, 'Wow, those trees are pretty tall!'". 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. In 1966 his life would forever change the he was hired to serve as a technical consultant and driver trainer for the John Frankenheimer film Grand Prix. He put the motor back together and it ran strong. She vows to continue the legacy of the school. Bob's fleet has grown to 200 race-prepared Cads, Vettes (naturally), open-wheel Formula cars, and karts. 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. In the interim, Bob did get back on track (or the horse so to speak), knowing he had a growing business to fall back on should anything catastrophic happen again, entering a Can-Am race June 1970 driving a Chevy Lola T160. What Bob Bondurant started 22 years ago as a part-time business for a crippled race driver--a driving school at Orange County Raceway with three Datsuns and a Formula Vee--has turned into a . We may earn a commission from links on this page. I told her it didn't work. I actually live in Gilbert so I let her know. It's either me or the motorcycle.' It was in October 1965 that Bob drove a V-8powered Formula 1 Ferrari for the North American Racing Team entered by Luigi Chinetti, the U.S. Ferrari distributor. I learned to drive in my buddy's mom's Chrysler," Bob chuckles. That's how I learned to ride motorcycles," Bob laughs. According to his family and the Bondurant Racing School website, Bondurant died Friday in the Phoenix suburb of Paradise Valley. The Bondurants intend to reopen their school under an all-new ownership and management structure, at an exciting new location, and are currently entertaining investor inquiries on opportunities to purchase the Bondurant Trademark License Rights. Bondurant won 30 of 32 races in Corvettes from 1961-63, and he won the GT class at Le Mans in 1964, co-driving with fellow American Dan Gurney. 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. Bondurant sustained serious rib, leg, foot and, most seriously, back injuries in the subsequent accident in which his car flipped eight times. He ran day-to-day business at the school, and told Jalopnik over the phone that on the day of the walkout, Nov. 12, employees gave him a petition to remove Pat Bondurant from the school when he walked into work. 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. 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. [citation needed], The famous Bondurant name has never been bought or sold. The Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving, THE BOB BONDURANT SCHOOL OF HIGH PERFORMANCE DRIVING. You may have seen them at county fairs the vertical velodromes were originally built from old grain silos, leading to the name "silo-drome.". For 1967 he drove in the CanAm series and in a Corvette L88 Coupe at Le Mans. "They had a used car lot there, Don worked on the cars and I sold used Corvettes. "Bob is under care in an assisted facility," Pat Bondurant said, "but. After 12 laps Bob moved up to Eighth from his starting position of 14th on a completely wet track. He also said employees stayed around for so long despite the alleged environment because he treated them like family., When the school filed for bankruptcy on Oct. 2, a statement said it planned to stay open and emerge from this [bankruptcy] process as a stronger company.. Bob Bondurant was born in Evanston, Illinois, in 1933. 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. Your use of this website constitutes acceptance of our Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions. Everybody said, Were leaving under our own accord. A statement on his passing reads, in part, "Bondurant is the only American. 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). Bondurant also raced in Formula 1 for Ferrari before moving to Can-Am with Peter Revson in the Lola T70 Mark II. Bob had never driven a Grand Prix Ferrari at all, and now he was about to go cruising not only through town, but out through the countryside to the track in a full-blown F1 car. Bondurants ERA GT40 is now being offered for sale on Bring A Trailer, it has just ~7,000 miles on the odometer and its being sold out of Chandler, Arizona. 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. Its a car that was developed to be indistinguishable from the original, despite the fact that it has a stronger chassis, a more heavy duty body, and even optional air-conditioning. The Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving, headquartered in Chandler, Arizona, filed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition on October 2. Power is provided by a highly-tuned, period-correct Ford 289 V8 which sends power to the rear wheels via aZF five-speed manual transaxle. "What a great feeling," was Bob's comment on the occasion. 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. Bondurant also drove BRMs in five Grands Prix for Team Chamaco Collect, finishing 4th at Monaco. She had a Chrysler. Bob Bondurant 's wife, Patricia Bondurant, was serving at the school's president and CEO when the company filed for bankruptcy. But that was during a period when fatalities were commonplace it was a dangerous business. There was a lot of fiberglass flying.". It turned out to be the ATS at Monza, Italy. A dangerous business but that was during a period when fatalities were commonplace it was the head and were. Case, not from driver error, but from mechanical failure telling.. 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