Once a Racer, Always a Racer!

This story first appeared in the September 2023 issue of Vette Vues Magazine.

Being a World Champion in any sport typically opens all kinds of career opportunities. We see this in football, baseball, basketball, golf, and other professional sports, as well as Olympic Gold Medal winners. Many champions do extremely well with product endorsements and the opportunity to become a sportscaster. Golf Champions Arnold Palmer and Tiger Woods took their fame and created financial empires.

Two-time World Heavyweight Champion and Olympic Gold Medal winner George Foreman became a frontman for everything from mufflers to cooking grills. Terry Bradshaw became a successful sportscaster and a very funny TV personality. John Madden was a successful football coach who went on to be a colorful, entertaining sportscaster personality and the voice of the highly successful “Madden NFL” video game series.

We love our sports champions and are happy to see them continue after their sports careers are over. But Bob Bondurant didn’t go in that direction. As Bob is famously quoted, “I lived my life in two halves. The first half was becoming a world champion driver. The second was teaching the world how to become champions.” Bob may, or may not have had the chops to become a sportscaster, we’ll never know. Instructing people how to master high-speed driving was probably a lot more fun for Bob than calling races on TV. Let’s look to see how Bob Bondurant’s life unfolded and how he got into motorsports.

When it comes to race car driving, Bob Bondurant was a natural. While Bob became famous in the late ’50s in the Southern California sports car racing scene driving Corvettes, the racing bug got him while dirt track racing motorcycles in Indiana in the early ’50s. Millions flocked to California in the post-war years when California was “the place to be!”

By 1956, Bob went from motorcycle racing to sports car racing with a British Morgan+4 sports car. After the Corvette Class win at the 12 Hours of Sebring in 1956 (remember the “real McCoy” ads) proved that Chevy’s new sports car could be a competitive race car, Bob made the switch to Corvette. It was Corvette, combined with his natural flair for driving, that put Bob on the West Coast map when he won the West Coast B/Production Championship, winning 18 out of 20 races!

The racing couldn’t have been more exciting. “Drifting” is very popular today, but it caught on in the late 50s when the young lions; Bob Bondurant, Dave MacDonald, Dick Guldstrand, Bill Krause, Ken Miles, Roger Penske, Jim Hall, Dan Gurney, Chuck Daigh, Parnelli Jones, and many others thrilled spectators with their “tail out” driving style. Most of the drivers were “For Hire,” and some, such as Dave McDonald, scored sponsorships (McDonald with Don Steves Chevrolet) and Bondurant with Shelby) Washburn Chevrolet. Bob continued his winning ways with Washburn’s race-prepared 1959 “614” Corvette.

While all this fun was happening in California, Zora Arkus-Duntov, the “Godfather of Performance Corvettes was watching from Detroit. Privateers were successfully using Duntov and Mauri Rose’s RPO “Racer Kit” Chevrolet-engineered racing parts available from any Chevrolet Parts Department. In 1961, when McDonald and his racing partner Jim Simpson were building a Max Balchowsky purpose-built tube frame Corvette, Duntov personally visited McDonald at his home to see what the guys were up to.

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In mid-1962, the ’63 Sting Ray was ready for production, and Duntov and his team were working on the Z06 option for the new Fuelie Sting Ray. Four new ’63 Z06 Corvettes were made available to select California racers to race at the 1962 L.A. Grand Prix race in October 1962. Mickey Thompson was the official “King of Speed” thanks to his success with the four-engine, 406.60-mph “Challenger-II” Land Speed Record car. Duntov chose Thompson, as well as Dave McDonald, Jerry Grant, and Bob Bondurant, to get the first Z06 Corvettes.

Thompson’s Z06 was flown to his California Shop while McDonald, Grant, and Bondurant were flown to St. Louis, where they took delivery of the Z06s. The drive back to California was to break in the engines. Sherry McDonald reported that in the Nevada Desert, she hit 145 mph while Dave was yelling, “Go faster! Go faster!”

The racers had around two weeks to race-prepare their cars. (I know, hard to believe!) The dark horse was the untested Shelby Cobra. As the race unfolded, three of the four Z06 Corvettes dropped out. When Shelby’s Cobra broke, Mickey Thompson’s Z06 took the win. Thompson crowed about how the Corvette was an engineering masterpiece for winning the first time out, but it was obvious. Even the mighty Z06 would be playing catch-up with the lightweight Cobras.

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Bondurant and McDonald both caught the eye of Shelby and were hired to drive the faster, more competitive Cobras for Shelby’s new Ford Cobra Racing Team. McDonald was still a “Corvette guy” and used to drive his Sting Ray to work at Shelby’s shop, for which Carroll instructed him to stop parking his Corvette in front of the shop because Ford executives regularly visited. But by the time Bob was hired by Shelby, he had won 30 out of 32 races from 1961 to 1963 with his Washburn “614” Corvettes.

Bob won his first race for the Cobra Team at the Continental Divide Raceway in Colorado. He went on to take the overall win at the 1963 L.A. Times Grand Prix in October 1963 at Riverside Raceway and took a class 2^nd place win at the 1964 12 Hours of Sebring. In 1964. Bondurant and Shelby marched on with their new 289 FIA Cobra at Targa Florio, Spa, and Nurburgring. But Bob’s big win for 1964 was at the 1964 24 Hours of Le Mans, co-driving with Dan Gurney behind the wheel of the Peter Brock-designed Daytona Coupe.

Bondurant and Shelby were unstoppable from the time Bob signed on with Shelby until Watkins Glen in 1967. In 1965 Bondurant and Shelby won the FIA Manufacturers Championship for Shelby and Ford, taking seven out of ten wins, crushing the Ferrari 250 GTOs in the process.

Even though Bondurant McDonald were Shelby team drivers, both drivers occasionally drove for other teams. McDonald was offered a seat in Mickey Thompson’s ill-fated Sears Allstate Indy car that took his life at the 1964 Indy 500. Bondurant drove a Formula 1 Ferrari at the United States Grand Prix at Watkins Glen and drove a Lotus 33 at the 1965 Mexican Grand Prix.

Bondurant continued his winning ways in a variety of cars, but it was a “side job” in 1966 that would shape the second half of his life. Filmmaker John Frankenheimer hired Bob to train actor James Garner how to be a race car driver for his new racing movie, “Grand Prix”. Garner already liked fast, powerful cars and was so taken with race car driving he later formed “American International Racers” (A.I.R.) and raced at Sebring, Daytona, Le Mans, and even Baja. This side job had the seed of what would become Bondurant’s next phase of life.

Bob’s racing continued in 1967 when he co-drove a 1967 L88 Corvette with Dick Guldstrand at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The car dropped out after fifteen hours due to a broken wrist-pin. The new Canadian-American “Can-Am” series featured cars that were nearly unlimited, brutally fast, and exciting. Bruce McLaren’s cars were dependable race cars, powered by 430 cubic-inch, all-aluminum big-block Can-Am Chevy engines.

Racing at Watkins Glen a few weeks after Le Mans, the steering arm of his McLaren broke at 150 mph, causing the car to flip eight times! His injuries were so extensive, doctors told Bob he might never walk again. Bob suffered a broken back, foot, leg, and several ribs. While recuperating by his swimming pool, Bob started thinking about his future and his “consulting” gig with James Garner in 1966.

Like Roger Penske and Carroll Shelby, Bob parlayed his name and driving success into a viable business. The following year, in 1968, Bob opened the Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving at Orange County International Raceway. But unlike Shelby and Penske, Bob did not hang up his helmet and continued driving while running his driving school.

Over many decades, Bob and his team of qualified race car driving instructors trained thousands of men and women how to be race car drivers. Some of Bob’s celebrity students included Paul Newman and Robert Wagner (for their film “Winning”), Tom Cruise (“Days of Thunder”), Christian Bale (Ford v Ferrari), Clint Eastwood, Tim Allen, Nicolas Cage, and many others.

The Bob Bondurant School of High-Performance Driving had four locations during its years in business. Orange County International Raceway was the school’s first home. Then Bondurant moved his operation to Ontario Motor Speedway, and eventually to Sonoma Raceway, located at Sears Point, California. The 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake literally “shook up” Bondurant, causing him to move his enterprise to Phoenix, Arizona.

As a genuine “tough guy”, Bob couldn’t stay out of the driver’s seat. Driving for his former student, James Garner, Bob co-drove with Tony Murphy in the brutal 1969 Baja 500 race. Garner had already raced a team of ’68 L88 Corvettes and scored a sponsorship deal the American Motors. Garner’s American International Racers (A.I.R.) entered a heavily modified 1969 SC/Rambler.

Considering the extent of his injuries from his crash in 1967, Bob’s class win at Baja is nothing less than astonishing. The Baja win would be his last “behind the wheel” hurrah. By 1981, Bob had four NASCAR driving stints at Riverside International Raceway, with a best finish in 18^th place. After hanging up his helmet, Bob put his full focus on his driving school.

We all love a happy-ending story, but that was not to be for the Bondurant Driving School. According to Forbes Magazine, the Bondurant High-Performance Driving School was forced into bankruptcy in 2018. The Chapter 11 papers indicated $3.5 million in debt. Essentially, Bob and his wife Pat lost control of the business.

Pat reported that the trouble started when she allowed her adult son and his wife into the business. The Bondurant family sold the business to a group of investors that promised to return the school to its former glory.

In 2019, the school was renamed “Radford Racing School”, after the London coach-building company, Harold Radford & Co. Limited, which specialized in extreme luxury cars. By 2020, Bob was 85 years old and Pat was 65 years old. Because of Bob’s age, he was pressured to come up with a “succession plan” for the business. Bob was the kind of guy who would not go off into the sunset in his golf cart in The Villages in Florida, but he was being pushed to his limit. According to Bob’s wife, Pat, they were presented with false financial records that made the case for a $7,000,000 sale.

The Radford Racing School is still in business, offering the same kinds of driving instructions Bondurant offered for everything from teen driving instruction to race car driving training. However, “all things Bob Bondurant” has been completely scrubbed from the school. The hostile take cover from within the Bondurant family was a very messy turn of events in Bob’s final years. On November 12, 2021, at the age of 88, Bob Bondurant passed.

In the June 2023 issue of Vette Vues, we told you about Kelly Meiste’s 2004 Bob Bondurant Corvette he bought at the January 2023 Mecum Kissimmee auction. The car has numerous unique features that provide hints into Bondurant when he was still teaching at the age of 71.

The “01” designation tells us that the 2004 LS1 Corvette Coupe was Bob’s personal trainer Corvette. C5 fans will immediately notice that the car has Z06 rear brake scoops. Hmmm… If you look closer, you’ll see that the car is sporting factory-optional lightweight magnesium wheels and performance Baer racing calipers with slotted rotors. Kelly pointed out another interesting artifact. On the driver’s side footwell, the carpeting just below the accelerator pedal is completely worn through to the floor. So, what’s going on here?

While Bob may have lost his competitive edge, he still knew how to toss a Corvette through the curves at speed. The high-performance Baer Brakes enabled Bob to brake harder, later in a curve. The functional C5 Z06 rear brake scoops helped keep the brakes from overheating. The lightweight magnesium wheels helped reduce the car’s unsprung weight. The hole in the carpeting tells us that Bob did a lot of fast, hard, heel-and-toe downshifting.

Note that Bob’s Corvette was not a Z06. That’s because the purpose of the training wasn’t about powering around the track. The purpose of the car’s setup was to demonstrate the capability of an almost stock ’04 Corvette. We’re certain that many an unsuspecting student got a white-knuckle ride when Bob showed them just how far he could take the Corvette.

Once a racer, always a racer. Fabulous Restorations owner George Haddad shared a story that most likely fits Bob Bondurant. After George finished his Owens-Corning L88 Corvette Re-Creation, with help from Jerry Thompson, the man who engineered the racing setup of the original O-C car, George related the following story. “When Jerry finally got to drive my Re-Creation, I was in the passenger seat, watching Jerry put his safety harness on. When he was strapped in, I saw his face change as he put a hard grip on the steering wheel. He was putting on his “War Face” as the old racer in him came out. Suddenly, he was 25 again and ready for battle.”

I can’t help but wonder if Bob Bondurant did the same thing. Or, perhaps his expression was more like, “Let me show you what this Corvette can do!” – Scott

PS – Check out the story about Kelly Meistey’s 2004 Corvette that was Bob Bondurant’s “personal” trainer Corvette at his driving school. This is the first Corvette Kelly ever owned! Talk about being “all-in”! CLICK HERE!

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Check out our Corvette art and swag in our Etsy store, HERE!

This story first appeared in the September 2023 issue of Vette Vues Magazine.