Bob Bondurant

Robert "Bob" Bondurant (born April 27, 1933 in Evanston, Illinois) is an American former racecar driver who raced for the Shelby American, Ferrari and Eagle teams.

Bob Bondurant
Bondurant in 2012
Born (1933-04-27) April 27, 1933
Evanston, Illinois
Formula One World Championship career
Nationality American
Active years1965–1966
TeamsNorth American Racing Team, Reg Parnell Racing, non-works BRM, Eagle
Entries9
Championships0
Wins0
Podiums0
Career points3
Pole positions0
Fastest laps0
First entry1965 United States Grand Prix
Last entry1966 Mexican Grand Prix

Career

During his teens, Bondurant raced an Indian motorcycle on dirt ovals. In 1956 he switched to sports car racing with a Morgan and started to attract attention when he won the West Coast "B" production Championship, in a Chevrolet Corvette winning 18 out of 20 races.

Santa Barbara Chevrolet dealer Shelly Washburn hired Bondurant in 1961 to drive his #614 1959 Corvette. Some of the best Corvette racing duels were between him and David McDonald on the West Coast during the early 1960s. At the L.A. Times Grand Prix in October 1962, Bondurant drove Washburn's new 1963 Corvette Z06 Stingray. Between 1961 and 1963, he won 30 out of 32 races in Washburn's Corvettes.

The Shelby Daytona Coupé driven by Bondurant and Jochen Neerpasch at the 1965 Nürburgring 1000 km

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. For the 1964 FIA season after finishing 2nd in GT at Sebring, Bondurant was in Europe racing the new 289 FIA Cobras at the Targa Florio, Spa and Nurburgring. His best-known victory was winning the GT class at Le Mans 24 Hours in 1964 in Shelby's new Cobra Daytona Coupe with Dan Gurney co-driving. In 1965 Bondurant won the FIA Manufacturers' World Championship for Shelby American and Ford, winning seven out of ten races against the class dominating Ferrari 250 GTOs in Europe. In the same year he drove a works Ferrari Formula 1 car during the United States Grand Prix at Watkins Glen, and handled a Lotus 33 for Reg Parnell at the following Mexican race.

In 1966 Bondurant served as a technical consultant for John Frankenheimer's film Grand Prix and trained the film's lead actor James Garner to drive Formula cars in the race sequences. Bondurant was one of two drivers (alongside Graham Hill) to help extricate Jackie Stewart from his fuel-leaking wrecked car during the 1966 Belgian Grand Prix, the incident that led to Stewart's crusade for motor racing safety. Bondurant also drove BRMs in five Grands Prix for Team Chamaco Collect, finishing 4th at Monaco. He finished the Formula One season in North America in two races, driving an Eagle for Dan Gurney's Anglo American Racers.

For 1967 he drove in the CanAm series and in a Corvette L88 Coupe at Le Mans, and led the GT class until a wrist pin failed putting the car out in the early morning. Later that month while driving a McLaren, at Watkins Glen, the steering arm broke at 150 mph approaching the Loop-Chute section of Watkins Glen (the current Turn 5, but without the bus stop, which was installed in 1992). Bondurant sustained serious rib, leg, foot and, most seriously, back injuries in the subsequent accident in which his car flipped eight times. Doctors told him he would likely never walk again, but through courage and hard work he overcame his injuries.

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. The Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving opened in early 1968 at Orange County International Raceway then moved to Ontario and later moved to Sonoma, where he was an important figure in the track's development. Nissan Motor Company (under Datsun in the US) was Bondurant's sponsoring partner in his school from its beginning at and continued in that role at the Sonoma Raceway driving school.

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) .

Bondurant had four NASCAR starts, all at Riverside International Raceway, with his highest finish of 18th in 1981.

Following the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake he moved the driving school to Phoenix, Arizona, where he enjoys close ties to General Motors and Goodyear Tires.

Bondurant was a driving instructor to actors James Garner, Paul Newman, Clint Eastwood, Robert Wagner, Tim Allen, Tom Cruise, and Nicolas Cage.

Award

Bondurant was inducted in the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America[1] in 2003.

Racing record

SCCA National Championship Runoffs
YearTrackCarEngineClassFinishStartStatus
1977 Road Atlanta Chevrolet Camaro American Sedan 6 8 Running

Complete Formula One World Championship results

(key)

Year Entrant Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 WDC Points
1965 North American Racing Team Ferrari 158 Ferrari V8 RSA MON BEL FRA GBR NED GER ITA USA
9		 NC 0
Reg Parnell (Racing) Lotus 33 Climax V8 MEX
Ret
1966 Team Chamaco Collect BRM P261 BRM V8 MON
4		 BEL
Ret		 FRA GBR
9		 NED GER
Ret		 ITA
7		 14th 3
Anglo American Racers Eagle T1G Climax Straight-4 USA
DSQ
Weslake V12 MEX
Ret

Formula One Non-Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year Entrant Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
1971 Competition Developments Lola T192 (F5000) Chevrolet V8 ARG ROC QUE
25		 SPR INT RIN OUL VIC

Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results
Year Team Co-Drivers Car Class Laps Pos. Class
Pos.
1964 Shelby-American Inc. Dan Gurney Shelby Cobra Daytona GT +3.0 334 4th 1st
1965 R.R.C. Walker Racing Team
Shelby-American Inc.		 Umberto Maglioli Ford GT40 Mk.I P 5.0 29 DNF DNF
1966 North American Racing Team (NART) Masten Gregory Ferrari 365 P2 P 5.0 88 DNF DNF
1967 Dana Chevrolet Inc. Dick Guldstrand Chevrolet Corvette (C2) GT +5.0 167 DNF DNF
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References
  1. Bob Bondurant at the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America
  • Bondurant Racing School
  • Bondurant Kart Racing School
  • Bondurant Driving & Racing School Programs
  • The Bondurant Methodology
  • Bondurant Racing School History
  • Bob Bondurant America's uncrowned World Driving Champion (2007, Editions Cotty; ISBN 0-9765247-0-8)
  • Bob Bondurant Des Cobra à la Formule1 la meme passion (2008, Editions Cotty; ISBN 978-0-9765247-3-1)
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