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. PARADISE VALLEY, Ariz. - Champion Race Car Driver Bob Bondurant died in Paradise Valley on Nov. 12 at the age of 88. He'd fallen out of the car! Bob is living a hot rodder's fantasy; he can race anytime he damn-well pleases and the only red lights in his mirrors are the cop cars on the track taking his Law Enforcement training class. If my dad was mentally there like he was [then], we would have never gotten to this place. He was one of a handful of Americans to compete in the Formula 1 Grand Prix series, and also raced at Le Mans. Our goal is always to be better than we were before because looking forward doesn't just happen on race day; it happens every day.". His legacy will remain with us forever. 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. 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. 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. Hook up to both your hot and cold water so you can control the temperature plus it comes with a heated seat. "If I'd been strapped in the car I would have been decapitated. Bob Bondurant was born in Evanston on April 27, 1933. One little Gendarme (French police officer) was standing on a box directing cars at this traffic circle and saw us coming right at him in a cloud of dust you can imagine the noise. 2021-2022 Bondurant Racing School. Bondurant enjoyed this experience and it led to him starting the Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving, over the years that followed he would train a slew of other celebrities, some of whom went on to become championship-winning racing drivers in their own right. The original was made from a lighter gauge mild steel. In the June 1969 run of the grueling offroad Baja 500 race, Bondurant with co-driver Tony Murphy took first place in the passenger car class driving an SC/Rambler for James Garner's "American International Racers" team that was sponsored by American Motors Corporation (AMC). Me and my buddies drove all over in that thing. 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.. When Bob stepped up to the Big Bore crowd and purchased a '57 Vette with a fuel-injected, 190hp, 283 ci that had been successfully raced by Arcadia resident Jerry Austin, that's when his racing career took off. Not long after he was born in Illinois in 1933, his. That was the beginning of the Nov. 12 walkout, Jason Bondurant said. 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. Everyone who walked through the Bondurant doors was taught the copyrighted Bondurant Method, developed by the most respected Racing School in the world. Bob Bondurant was one of the most successful American racing drivers of his era, he also coached a slew of celebrities in the finer points of race car driving including James Garner, Paul Newman, Clint Eastwood, Tim Allen, Tom Cruise, and Nicolas Cage. Of course it would take some laps before he would build his confidence not to lift. 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. The Bondurant Method is known worldwide as the #1 training methodology for professional drivers, movie stars, military and law enforcement. 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. Bob must've pinched himself: it was one thing to cruise the streets in his hot rod, but in a Formula 1 Ferrari! He was flown to England to receive medical attention. 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. 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. My life has been lived in two halves. Some of the best Corvette racing duels were between him and David McDonald on the West Coast during the early 1960s. 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. His school has had over 500,000 graduates, it said. Bob formulated a plan to open a high-performance driving school. I had it running in two days. I said where am I? Bob Bondurant is an American former racing driver and a founder of the famous Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving.. 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. The Bondurant Racing School has helped over 500,000 students graduate from its high-performance driving course. [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]. ", Guildstrand and Bob decided to fill the Corvette's tank with essence (fuel) and drive it to Le Mans. Bondurant passed away at the age of 88 and is survived by his wife, Pat, President and CEO of the. "Bachtold built a special motor and said, 'Why don't you take that little motor out of your bike and put this one in'? "My mom and dad had divorced, then mom died when I was 16. According to his family and the Bondurant Racing School website, Bondurant died Friday in the Phoenix suburb of Paradise Valley. "It had Edelbrock heads and intake manifold, plus a light flywheel; it was a sleeper. If youre not here, we know that were even more screwed, so we are leaving.. [] Bob Bondurant, 1933-2021 RACER Advertisements [], [] and driving school founder Bob Bondurant died Friday in Paradise Valley, Arizona, at the age of 88, Racer has [], [] Bob Bondurant, iconic racer and performance driving mogul, passed away Friday in Paradise Valley, AZ. 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. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed, First published on November 14, 2021 / 2:02 PM. [5] Bob Bondurant's copyrighted method taught competition driving . Formula 1 came to the United States on a course steeped with racing history dating back to 1956: Watkins Glen. This comes under the heading of "this stuff doesn't happen today!" They gave me the signal to pull in and I decided to take one more lap.". "We moved near Pasadena to La Caada by the Angeles Crest Highway. I was taking my buddy around the track and said, 'This is really great isn't it?' This is an ERA GT that was built for Bob Bondurant, it was driven by the famed American racing driver a number of times and kept in his private collection. I delivered the Hollywood newspaper on my Schwinn bicycle," Bob begins. If were going to leave, lets leave the right way and not be spiteful, he said. 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. 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. [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. Your use of this website constitutes acceptance of our Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions. 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. He kept racing, too. 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. Bob raced motorcycles on a regular basis, but he didn't want to be on a first-name basic with his orthopedic surgeon like many he raced against. Porsche, after witnessing how the school increased Datsun's profile, supplied Bondurant with Porsche 911s and Porsche 914s. This week's reunion will be calmer, just a few minutes quietly recalling the life-changing event as . Bondurant also raced in Formula 1 for Ferrari before moving to Can-Am with Peter Revson in the Lola T70 Mark II. (Update: A Fiat Chrysler spokesperson said that due to the ongoing litigation, the company cannot comment on the claims in the bankruptcy documents.). [4], Bondurant was inducted in the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2003. Twice, Bob was badly injured, not from driver error, but from mechanical failure. 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. We started winning races. [2] In 1990 a purpose-built training facility was opened in Chandler, Arizona. When the transporter to take Bob's car to the circuit didn't arrive, it was decided that Bob should drive the Ferrari to the track. PHOENIX The racing world is still mourning the loss of world champion Bob Bondurant. Bob's father owned a car dealership that sold fast cars in nearby Chicago; very fast carsCords to be exact. "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. 69-year-old suffers stroke in his N.C. home; Realtor showing house leaves him there. "I decided that when I went to Europe, I was somehow going to get a testdrive in a Formula 1 car. Do you wear belts or not? 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. The pair went against Pat Bondurants wishes, informed employees and walked off the job. At 62, Bob grabbed a Third place podium finish at Road Atlanta in a Saleen Mustang in 1995. All Rights Reserved. Still, more significantly, he won his last race in this very car at Pomona Raceway at the age of 79 and frequently tracked the car at his world-famous Bob Bondurant School of High Performance driving track. Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving. By the mid-1950s he was racing on four wheels in a British Morgan before switching to a Corvette and winning theWest Coast B Production Championship, taking victory in 18 out of 20 races. 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