I read later the axles were the weakest part of the ATS." Me and my buddies drove all over in that thing. He also said Bob Bondurant, 85, isn't in the. As a resulting worse-case scenario, the schools assets were sold off in 2019. I delivered the Hollywood newspaper on my Schwinn bicycle," Bob begins. Legendary American racing driver Bob Bondurants name will be forever linked with the Ford GT40, a car he drove at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1965, helping the team win theInternational Championship for GT Manufacturers. You may have seen them at county fairs the vertical velodromes were originally built from old grain silos, leading to the name "silo-drome.". He won his class at Le Mans and has been inducted into 10 motorsports halls of fame. Mini Bio (1) Bondurant raced cars in the 1960s with some success until a crash at Watkins Glen, in New York curtailed his career. 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. Instead of being kept at the track garages, the Ferrari F1 cars were at a Chevy dealer in town. 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. This marks the second driving school in just over a. In 1967 while driving a McLaren CanAm car at Watkins Glen, Bondurant was seriously injured in a horrific crash when the steering arm failed at 150 mph. 26. Of course since Bob was an experienced dirt racer he could have picked up a used Midget or Sprinter and gone that route. The starting lineup of cars included Datsun 240Zs, 510s,[8] 2000 convertibles, a Lola T70 Can-Am car, and a Formula Vee. Bondurant also drove BRMs in five Grands Prix for Team Chamaco Collect, finishing 4th at Monaco. Jason Bondurant said the alleged petition, to the left, was signed by 22 of the schools 33 employees, and that eight more would have signed but had not been into work for their shift yet. His mothers death left him inconsolable, which is where the seed of his fearlessness was realized. 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. He won his class at Le Mans and has been inducted into ten motorsports halls of fame. 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. While recuperating from a race car crash, he came up with the idea of a high-performance driving school. He is survived by his wife, Pat, president and CEO of the Bondurant Racing School, who vows to continue the legacy of Bobs school. I bought it for $40. Bondurant passed away at the age of 88 and is survived by his wife, Pat, President and CEO of the. In less than a years time, enough financial and infrastructural damage had taken place to force the legendary racing school into Chapter 11 protection. Bob Bondurant 's wife, Patricia Bondurant, was serving at the school's president and CEO when the company filed for bankruptcy. Bondurant passed away at the age of 88 and is survived by his wife, Pat, President and CEO of the. He talked me into going to a sports car race at the Santa Barbara airport course. I paid for it with my paper route money. Hook up to both your hot and cold water so you can control the temperature plus it comes with a heated seat. 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. He was one of a handful of Americans to compete in the Formula 1 Grand Prix series, and also raced at Le Mans. INSIGHT: Has Alonso finally landed on another winner? Gregory was at Monza instructing Bob on the difficult course. I took his Jag up the mountain roadit handled really well, much better than my Ford. In late 2018, Pat and Bob Bondurant found themselves embroiled in an unfortunate and unforeseen family business situation where they were victimized as a result of a power struggle and attempted character assaults perpetrated by certain close family members looking to take over the company. A roadster set up to HTTP FIA specifications and for track use only starts at $289,995. Your use of this website constitutes acceptance of our Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions. "And I liked to talk to him a lot. It was really cool because I could do wheelies with it. Bob Bondurant is a member of 10 Racing Hall of Fames and founded the famous driving school in 1968, teaching with his copyrighted Bondurant Method. We used to go to my aunt's house for Christmas dinner and my cousin had a big four-door Jag Mark VII. The Depression caused Mr.. 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. 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. What a career. 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. No one from the school, including Bob Bondurant himself, have issued a comment beyond the statement. PHOENIX The racing world is still mourning the loss of world champion Bob Bondurant. Bob Bondurant, a former champion race car driver who opened a high-performance driving school in Orange County in 1968 and taught numerous A-list actors how to drive fast for their movie roles,. [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]. 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). 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. 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 planned to give Pat Bondurant the ultimatum that day before he even knew about the petition, which he learned of when he walked in that morning, he said. 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. Bondurant is the only American to bring home the World Championship trophy back to the U.S. while racing for Carroll Shelby. He is survived by his wife Pat. 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. SAI teammates Dave MacDonald and Bob Bondurant co-drive Shelby Cobra Roadster CSX2136 - jointly entered by Steve McQueen & Carroll Shelby - to a 1st in GT & . Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. 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. 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). Tim Rose, the former general manager of the school, also told the abovestory to Jalopnik. Bob Bondurant, the racer and racing school owner/instructor. Bondurant relocated the driving school to Phoenix following the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake in California. 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. "I went to the Cal Club (California Sports Car Club) and said I wanted to go racing. Bob's father owned a car dealership that sold fast cars in nearby Chicago; very fast carsCords to be exact. [citation needed], The famous Bondurant name has never been bought or sold. 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. All Rights Reserved. [citation needed], Within 5 months, enough financial and infrastructural damage had taken place to force the legendary racing school into Chapter 11 protection. Graham Hill won the event in a BRM. Some of the best Corvette racing duels were between him and David McDonald on the West Coast during the early 1960s. I raced that bike for a long time.". The school did not directly respond to this claim. 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, 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. []. [5], Bondurant died in Paradise Valley, Arizona, on November 12, 2021, at the age of 88. You're right, that's "tea bagger" stuff but wait! Bob says, "Look for the burning Ferraris.". [1][2][3]. 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. 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 . He finished the Formula One season in North America in two races, driving an Eagle for Dan Gurney's Anglo American Racers. At age 8, his father introduced him to racing by taking him to Thursday night midget races. Twice, Bob was badly injured, not from driver error, but from mechanical failure. He is survived by his wife, Pat. 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. Formula 1 came to the United States on a course steeped with racing history dating back to 1956: Watkins Glen. / CBS San Francisco. He put the motor back together and it ran strong. 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