My Dad's Bondurant Experience

The story below is my Dad's email to his buddys following 2 days at Bondurant. He turns 78 years young this April. Thought some of you would like this write up. First pics are of his own Z, foloowed by the track shots.




This week I had the fun of attending Bondurant School of High Performance Driving for two days. I enrolled in the course called Z06 Experience.
It was a blast. I have written it up and sending it to you and any one else who I think is interested. The Ron I speak of is our friend, now dying of cancer, who was at one time a top-fuel dragster pilot. So here it is:

Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving Feb 22-23, 2011
The weather was beautiful, but a little chilly. Glad I had a jacket.
I arrived early at the track, before the office was open, but while walking around the school cars, I was greeted by an employee who invited me into the museum and told me to enjoy it. I read the chronology of Bondurant's racing history, and saw a variety of cars significant to the school. Another fellow, Brian A... from Boulder, CO, had arrived and we chatted until the office opened. We signed in and signed all the waivers. Then joined others in a classroom where we learned techniques, what makes a car do what it does? How and why do braking and accelerating affect turning. Lift, brake, turn in, trail brake, hit the apex, point to the exit, unwind the wheel and accelerate. Your eyes and concentration must be about two steps ahead of where you are. Anticipation is stressed. Expect the unexpected, especially on the streets and highways. Don't get behind a vehicle you cannot see around. People on cell phones are as dangerous as a drunk.

Then we were driven around the road course in Chevy Vans, at speed, and some of the students got woozy. Next was our turn in our cars. I had Z06 #2 for the entire 2 days. We drove the slalom course several times. Then a reaction test, one lane of highway splits into 3 lanes. At about 45mph, each of the 3 lanes has a green light, when without warning 2 of them turn red. You have to react quickly enough to steer into the green lane, without hitting anything. They told us to think of the orange cones as pets or children. Next was an exercise in depth perception, where we had to bring the car to a smooth controlled stop from 65-70mph in a specified distance. That distance was then shortened and the run repeated. The last distance required extreme braking, but we still had to do it smoothly, and without putting the car in ABS mode. Next was an exercise to show us accident avoidance.
At 65mph, we had to slam on the brakes at a specified point, getting into ABS mode, and steering around an obstacle. It demonstrated that when you cannot stop short of something, ABS still lets you steer to avoid it. The speed and distance chosen resulted in the car being about 1-2 car lengths past the point of impact, but if you did it correctly, you were alongside the obstruction. We all did well in each of these exercises.

At last we had a chance to get on the 1.6 mile road course for a number of laps, getting the feel of the car and trying to remember all we had been told. For the first few laps, our instructor led us in his car, and we followed in line. No passing allowed. Then he pulled off and we enjoyed ourselves. If we caught up to someone, we pulled into the pit lane and waited for the track to clear and went at it again. We had very specific instructions on hand signals and techniques for leaving and entering the course. At the end of the day, Bob Bondurant and his wife were in the office and we were introduced to them.
Back at home, Mar and I went to J...'s and I shared my day with Ron. He seemed to enjoy hearing about it, and was perked up. We stayed for supper at Donna's request.

Day 2. Another beautiful day. After a short refresher course in the classroom and instructions in how to properly downshift, we made several runs to practice downshifting from 3 to 2 at 60mph. Next we attacked the autocross track, defined by cones on a very large parking lot area. We were to make 1 ½ laps and then exit. In 2nd gear all the time. My first 2 tries, I did 2 ½ laps, because I lost track of where I had been. I started slowly (relatively speaking), but improved my time on each run. My best time of 102 seconds was 2 seconds faster than the guy driving a ZR1. Thinking back, I know I was not using full throttle at times when I could have. Next, we drove that part of the road course called Maricopa Oval. It might be a quarter mile, but I am not sure. One end is a constant radius, but the other end is a tight radius into an increasing radius, (or vice versa, depending on your direction). On one lap, I went into the tight corner too fast and put one wheel in the dirt, throwing up a cloud of dust. Our final exercise was on the "West Track", described as "1.1 miles. Fast and flat, this track is primarily used for Advanced Road Racing and Executive Protection Courses." After taking us around in the instructor's car, he then led us around, as we tried to keep up. Three of us, with 2 instructors. At one point we caught up to the slowest guy, and the second instructor, who has been watching from a parked spot, pulled out and protected the slower car while we passed him. On the long straight, we were able to exceed 100mph, just before braking for a hard left turn. Our earlier braking exercises were put to good use here.

The 2 days were over much too quickly. The ZR1 driver(Dr Mike H. from Dallas) was in for a third day, so only 2 of us stayed for the presentation of our certificates and plaques. My grade was 3.0 on a 1 to 5 scale. Good enough for an almost 78 year old. Our instructors were absolutely first class. All professional racers, with numerous driving titles, and one, Cory Hosford, is a Hollywood stunt driver also, with several movies and Miami Vice TV shows to his credit.
They were kind and patient with each of us even when we made mistakes.
Bob Bondurant was there to talk to us at the presentation of the certificates, and told us no one will ever get a 5. He has given NASCAR and Indy drivers 4.5. Made my 3.0 sound better. Earlier in the day, Bill Elliott, NASCAR driver, was there with his young son Chase, and I told Bill Elliott I would like to meet his son. Someone said he is 15, but I would have said 12 or 13. When I pulled out a pen and my driving manual, Bill started to reach for my pen, thinking I was asking for his autograph, but I pulled the pen back and said "No, I want Chase's". Bill smiled, and Chase said "You mean me?"

I was the last to leave the office, after saying goodbye to the remaining staff, and went to my car. Then I decided to go back and ask for a copy of the Driving Manual to give to Ron. When I told the receptionist, Randi Abbott, about Ron, she handed me a booklet and asked his name and how to spell it. She then went upstairs and in a few minutes returned with a poster of Bondurant in an old racing picture, signed "To Ron J...., Cheers, Bob Bondurant". Randi then asked if I thought Ron would be up to visiting the school, and if he was, Bob wanted to give him some "Hot laps". Kind of a perfect ending to a great experience.
(note: Ron’s visit with Bob B is now scheduled for March 3)
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