Bondurant enters SCCA Hall of Fame

The Sports Car Club of America inducted its new members into the SCCA Hall of Fame on March 8, including racing legend Bob Bondurant. Bondurant joins Kathy Barnes, Dan Gurney, Dr. Bob Hubbard, Jim Downing and Pete Hylton as the class of 2014. Notable names already in the hall include Carroll Shelby, Bobby Rahal, Skip Barber and Briggs Cunningham, among others.

“I'm really honored to be voted into the SCCA Hall of Fame,” said Bondurant, “I have been racing all of my life. I raced over in Europe because I wanted to race against the world's best. When Dan [Gurney] and I won at the Le Mans in the Daytona Coupe, it was the first time anyone had beaten the Ferrari GTOs. I had four of them chasing me for the final two hours and they couldn't catch me.”

His racing career is just part of the reason for his induction into to the Hall of Fame. Bondurant created the Bondurant School of High Performance Driving. It was the first SCCA-certified school for racing licenses.

The Phoenix, Ariz.-based driving school is unlike any other facility in the world. Nearly 500,000 individuals have trained on the course in some form or fashion from law enforcement to professional race car drivers.

“When you look through the list of the Sports Car Club of America Hall of Fame members, it is clear that they are also legends in the wider world of motorsports,” said Lisa B. Noble, SCCA president and CEO. “Bob Bondurant's sensational driving record would make him a contender, but the advent of and his continued work with the Bondurant School of High Performance Driving cements that.”

Bondurant's wins in Corvettes date back as far as the 1950s. He won the 1959 West Coast SCCA B-production National Championship, taking the title in 18 of 20 races. He continued on to win 30 of the next 32 SCCA races from 1960 to 1963, and ended up driving for Shelby America in 1964, taking the Cobra Daytona Coupe class at Le Mans. Bondurant helped Shelby take the FIA GT Championship title with 10 wins in 1965, only to be picked up by Ferrari as a Formula One driver, later driving an Eagle F1 car for Gurney.

Tragedy struck in 1967 while Bondurant was driving a McLaren Mark II at Watkins Glen. A steering arm failure caused a devastating crash, ending Bondurant's racing career. But his passion for racing wasn't stifled. He continued by creating the driving school. Paul Newman and Robert Wagner were among his first students at the Orange Count International Raceway in Santa Ana, Calif. By 1990 the school set up its current residence in Arizona.

Ty Woodhall
Bob Bondurant joins the 2014 SCCA Hall of Fame.

By Brad Wiley