What We Do:

On February 14th, 1968, with one leg still in a cast from his Watkins Glen McLaren Mark II CanAm racing accident, Bob Bondurant beat the odds after being told he would never walk again. He founded the Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving at Orange County Raceway where his 3rd and 4th students were Paul Newman and Robert Wagner for the movie “Winning”.

The World Champion American, Bob Bondurant, took a big risk for the times when he opened the school by specifically choosing the controversial Asian car maker, Datsun 240Z and a small fleet of Porsche 911 and 918s.

In 1971, Bob was lured into bringing his now already famous driving school to the brand-new Ontario Motor Speedway in Ontario, CA. Although, the deal was a dream situation for Bondurant, that was until Bob was able to purchase Sears Point Raceway and move the school in 1973, maintaining the school’s residency there until 1990. Bob was courted by Ford Motor Company to go with the Ford lineup of Mustangs. Ford found it only fitting that since Bob won the Le Mans Gt Class and a year later, the World Manufacturers Sportscar Championship in cars powered by Ford, that the partnership was destined. The school cars were primarily Cobra Mustangs.

In 1990, now famous for his driving school, Bob had successfully designed the only dedicated training facility in the world, proudly located on the Gila River Indian Community in Phoenix, AZ. Bob continued his relationship with Ford until 2003, where he was given an ultimatum to sell his school to a buyer of their choice, or to lose their sponsorship. He immediately turned in the direction of the cars he started his racing heritage with, CORVETTES.

Bob’s successful history with Corvettes placed him the Corvette Hall of Fame for winning 30 of 32 races, coming in 2nd in the two he didn’t win, and winning the East and West Coast National Championship. He also raced the 1967 Stingray at Le Mans, leading the race until the 13th hour, before the wrist pin broke, resulting in a DNF. Bob stayed with the Corvettes until their demise in bankruptcy in 2015, forcing him for the first time to purchase the fleet, without being given prior knowledge that a second Corvette school had been launched the next state over. This decision by Chevrolet forced an unhealthy cannibalism of both school’s success being in such close proximity to one another. Bob then handed over the reins of the School to President and wife, Pat Bondurant, who grew up a Mopar girl, owning a Barracuda her senior year in high school following with a lineup of high horsepower sports cars until she met her famous husband, Bob. In 2015, Pat secured an $11 million dollar deal with the Dodge President, Tim Kuniskis, in less than 15 days to bring on the Vipers and the Hellcats with a surprise unveiling at SEMA.

The Bondurants agreed that although the Dodge contract had been breached when they stopped manufacturing the Viper, the Hellcats were a car they were determined to show America that this was a true American muscle car that proved to be one of the best school training cars in the Bondurant history.

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. You can read more about it  HERE (AP Wire Press Release) and HERE (Forbes).

In less than a year’s time, enough financial and infrastructural damage had taken place to force the legendary racing school into Chapter 11 protection. As a resulting worse-case scenario, the school’s assets were sold off in 2019.

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.

The Bondurants intend to reopen their school under an all-new ownership and management structure, at an exciting new location, and are currently entertaining investor inquiries on opportunities to purchase the Bondurant Trademark License Rights.