As Bob went through the corner the rear axle broke sending him off the course backward and down a ravine. You're right, that's "tea bagger" stuff but wait! Bob's father owned a car dealership that sold fast cars in nearby Chicago; very fast carsCords to be exact. This week's reunion will be calmer, just a few minutes quietly recalling the life-changing event as . 69-year-old suffers stroke in his N.C. home; Realtor showing house leaves him there. It's either me or the motorcycle.' He was 88. Bob Bondurant, champion driver and founder of the Bondurant Racing School, passed away Friday in Paradise Valley, Arizona, at the age of 88. "Bachtold built a special motor and said, 'Why don't you take that little motor out of your bike and put this one in'? The school did not directly respond to this claim. The Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving was the largest purpose-built driving school in the world. 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. 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 Bondurant, champion driver and founder of the Bondurant Racing School, passed away Friday in Paradise Valley, Arizona, at the age of 88. [3][4], The Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving was the largest purpose-built driving school in the world. 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. Man died Wednesday. Bob Bondurant was born in Evanston, and moved to California with his family. "Bob is under care in an assisted facility," Pat Bondurant said, "but. I stayed for two hours telling everyone Lets leave these cars locked up, make sure the buildings and gates are secure. 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. We may earn a commission from links on this page. If I did well on the testdrive, I'd be driving the car the following year. Bondurant, a member of 10 racing Hall of Fame classes, founded the driving school in 1968. After the fabled school was purchased in $1.7 million May 2019 out of bankruptcy from the legendary Bob Bondurant and his family by Stig Investments. Tim Rose, the former general manager of the school, also told the abovestory to Jalopnik. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed in any form without prior authorization. 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.". November 14, 2021 9:30 AM ET. She changed the subject. []. I lived in Bishop about a year. Im telling you, I know this wouldve never happened.. 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. [citation needed], The famous Bondurant name has never been bought or sold. []. Motorsport Images. My dad took me to Gilmore Stadium when I was 7 to watch the races and that got me interested in racing. If youd like to read more about it or cast a bid you can visit the listing here. A buddy had a car so we towed it with a rope around a corner to my house and the rear wheels came off. Jason Bondurant told the journal that working at the school truly was a very hostile, horrible environment.. Were working through the proper legal channels to make the best choices for the long-term health and success of the school. 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. 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. Bondurant won a world championship while racing for Carroll Shelby. "He made my profession easier," Lance Henriksen, who played the vampire Gomorrah on "The X-Files," told The Chicago Tribune. He also worked trained actors for race-car movies such as the 1966 "Grand Prix . 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. Twice, Bob was badly injured, not from driver error, but from mechanical failure. 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 also said Bob Bondurant, 85, isn't in the. He was 88. The allegations revolve around Pat Bondurant, the schools president of eight years, CEO since 2017 and wife of founder Bob Bondurant. Friday, November 12, 2021, the world lost an iconic American racing hero, Bob Bondurant. This marks the second driving school in just over. This marks the second driving school in just over a. Now thats doing your business in luxury. Bob was racing at Riverside Raceway when the crank broke in the Vette. This one is likely to attract plenty of additional attention thanks to its influential former owner. Bob Bondurant has had a worldwide impact on the motorsports industry, and his legacy will live on as the Bondurant Racing School moves forward into the future. 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. 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. Bob Bondurant, the racer and racing school owner/instructor. [4], Bondurant was inducted in the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2003. No cause of death was released. All Rights Reserved. The Depression caused Mr.. 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. "The whole difference was the crowds who gathered around the Corvette with Dana Chevrolet on the door at the races and who sold cars. Please check your entries and try again. That's how I learned to ride motorcycles," Bob laughs. At age 8, his father introduced him to racing by taking him to Thursday night midget races. Copyright 2021 Associated Press. There were no driving schools then," Bob laughs. Ask any race car driver and they will tell you, on the edge, exceeding the limits, is where harmony is found. I checked the board to see where I qualified; I wasn't on the Novice board. Here are allegations of more general derogatory comments, via the ClassicCars.com Journal report: Two years ago, on the advice of an external human relations company, Jason Bondurant said he sent his mother home for two weeks after a worker overheard her making racist comments. Privacy Policy - Terms of Service - Contact Us, Sculpture: An Original Ferrari Testarossa Side Mirror, A Rare Tommykaira ZZ: The Japanese Sports Car Made Famous By Gran Turismo, Theres A Rover Vitesse SD1 TWR Group A Spec Touring Car For Sale, The Most Beautiful Car Ever Made A Jaguar E-Type Project Car, For Sale: An Italian Corvette The Iso Rivolta IR 300, An Original 1980s Sega Super Hang-On Arcade Machine. Bondurant taught stunt driving, competition driving, police pursuit driving, evasive driving for . 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. 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.". He kept racing, too. He called me asking, 'Do you know how to drive?' Powered by Gasoline and Caffeine. Bob's father owned a car dealership that sold fast cars in nearby Chicago; very fast carsCords to be exact. "And I liked to talk to him a lot. Something went wrong. 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 . Stroke 2023: A Change Has Come and Is Still Coming Session moderated by Bob Wachter For the non-neurologist, it may be hard to keep up with all the latest controversies, exciting advances, and paradigm shifts in the management of acute strokes. Bob Bondurant, 88, has had some health concerns over the last few years and has stepped back a bit from the business. He taught . But that was during a period when fatalities were commonplace it was a dangerous business. If you leave, youre leaving on your own. Be a part of the unmatched history and credibility of the legendary Bondurant Brands and copyrighted teaching methodology. 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. 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. 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.. Following the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake he moved the driving school to Phoenix, Arizona, where he enjoyed close ties to General Motors and Goodyear Tires. In 1967, a fateful race at Watkins Glen changed his entire career, and the Bondurant School was born. If you put it that way, I have to race. They gave me the signal to pull in and I decided to take one more lap.". As a resulting worse-case scenario, the schools assets were sold off in 2019. 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. Funeral plans were not immediately available Sunday. (How's that for motivation?) Bob Bondurant left a legacy behind, which may be counted in lives saved, trophies won, and trained racing drivers. 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,. [citation needed], Within 5 months, enough financial and infrastructural damage had taken place to force the legendary racing school into Chapter 11 protection. 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. Robert L. Bondurant (April 27, 1933 - November 12, 2021) was an American racecar driver who raced for the Shelby American, Ferrari, and Eagle teams. 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. This was said in a group of all my managers in a managers meeting: When she got back from Washington, D.C. for Trumps inauguration, she came back and said, Oh my god, when President Obama was elected all the black people must have followed him there because it was like going through Planet of the Apes, Jason Bondurant recalled. ), "We got there two days before the race and the GT 40 Ford guys opened up their great big trailers and let us use the machine shop to make stuff and weld they had a huge effort. 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 finished the Formula One season in North America in two races, driving an Eagle for Dan Gurney's Anglo American Racers. 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. After five decades of training racers of all skill levels, the Bondurant High Performance Driving School in Chandler, Arizona has new name, the Radford Racing School. Image courtesy of the Bondurant Archives. The original was made from a lighter gauge mild steel. He won his class at Le Mans and has been inducted into 10 motorsports halls of fame. 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. INSIGHT: Has Alonso finally landed on another winner? 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. He offered Bob a full Ford sponsorship of cars, parts, and marketing until 2003. According to his family and the Bondurant Racing School website, Bondurant died Friday in the Phoenix suburb of Paradise Valley. Bob formulated a plan to open a high-performance driving school. When I was handed that petition is when it really hit home to me how bad it had gotten company wide, he said. [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. 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. 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. 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. "I didn't think about the accident until we were doing the cool-off lap at the end of the race," he recalled. During the race it started to rain; it was cold with 40-mph winds. In those days there were as many as 35 Vettes on the track at the same time. November 14, 2021 / 2:02 PM Bob had trouble seeing but by turning his face into the wind, the goggles would stay pressed against his face as long as he kept one finger on them while shifting with his other hand and grabbing the steering with his knees. The 7,880-square-foot custom home of Pat and Bob Bondurant welcomes family, friends and racing associates with tinsel and gingerbread, garlands, glittering wreaths, food and festivity. After 12 laps Bob moved up to Eighth from his starting position of 14th on a completely wet track. 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. The name Bob Bondurant is synonymous with the Shelby Cobra. (Update: A Fiat Chrysler spokesperson said that due to the ongoing litigation, the company cannot comment on the claims in the bankruptcy documents.). Hetrained the films lead actor, James Garner, to drive Formula cars in the race sequences. [1][2][3]. That was the beginning of the Nov. 12 walkout, Jason Bondurant said. 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. Bob had a faster qualifying speed than Pedro Rodriguez at 1:13.0 in the 12-cylinder Ferrari. 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 . In 1963 he became a member of Carroll Shelby's Ford Cobra team, winning his first race at the Continental Divide Raceway in Colorado, followed by an overall win at the LA Times Grand Prix GT race at Riverside in October 1963. "What a great feeling," was Bob's comment on the occasion. 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. 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