Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving

Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving

Founded	1968
Headquarters	Chandler, Arizona
Key people	Bob Bondurant, Pat Bondurant
Website

The Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving was an American performance driving school located in Chandler, Arizona at the Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park. ^[1]

At the time of its founding, the school was the largest purpose-built driving school in the world. 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. ^[2] Bob Bondurant's copyrighted Bondurant Method taught competition driving, police pursuit driving, evasive driving for chauffeurs and bodyguards, stunt driving, and other courses. ^{[3] [4]}

The school graduated over 500,000 drivers since its opening in 1968. Many NASCAR drivers were trained at Bondurant's school for road course training, along with many celebrity actors for driving scenes, including Paul Newman and Robert Wagner for the movie "Winning".^{[ citation needed ]}

History

The school was founded in 1968 by World Champion and ten-time hall of fame inductee Bob Bondurant, and was located at the Orange County International Raceway. Bondurant initially approached Porsche for funding and support, but his request was turned down due to the uncertainty of the endeaver. Bob then approached Datsun, which agreed to support his plans. The starting lineup of cars included Datsun 240Zs, 510s, ^[5] 2000 convertibles, a Lola T70 Can-Am car, and a Formula Vee. By 1970, the school relocated to the nearby Ontario Motor Speedway. Noting how the school increased Datsun's profile, Porsche began supplying Bondurant with Porsche 911s and Porsche 914s. In 1973, with the school gaining popularity, Bondurant moved the operation to a track of his own, Sears Point International Raceway (now Infineon Raceway) near Sonoma, CA.

In 1976, the president of Ford Motor Company convinced Bondurant to abandon Datsun's backing and work with Ford, with whom he had won the World Championship during his racing years. Ford offered Bondurant a full sponsorship of cars, parts, and marketing until 2003.

In 1989, Bondurant was invited to Firebird Raceway (now known as Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park) in Chandler, AZ to consider an offer which promised the chance to build the world's first purpose-built driver training facility. ^[6] However, land limitations only allowed a downsized version of his dream training facility. ^[2]

In late 2018, citing financial troubles and infrastructural damage, the school and company were forced into Chapter 11 protection. As a result, the school’s assets were sold off in 2019.^{[ citation needed ]}

References

1. "America at 100 Miles per Hour". Best Life. V (1). Emmaus, PA: Rodale: 91. February 2008. Retrieved 2011-11-03.
2. "Bondurant – History". Bob Bondurant Driving School. Retrieved 27 April 2012.
3. Solheim, Mark L. (October 2003). "My Need for Speed". Kiplinger's Personal Finance. 57 (10). Washington, DC: Kiplinger Washington Editors Inc. ISSN   1528-9729 . Retrieved 2011-11-03.
4. Mello, Tara Baukus (2007). Stunt Driving. Race Car Legends. New York: Chelsea House. pp. 21–25. ISBN   978-1-4381-2282-3 . Retrieved 2011-11-03.
5. "The Bondurant Datsun Roadster Years". Datsun.org. Retrieved 27 April 2012.
6. "Last Year Firebird Raceway and the Arizona NHRA Nationals; In 2014 it's Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park". Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park. February 17, 2014. Archived from the original on August 19, 2014. Retrieved 2014-09-11.

External links

• Bondurant Racing School