Bondurant

Hmmm...I'm afraid to tell you when I attended. It will show my age. Oh well...I went to the advanced school in 1987. Sears Point (now Infineon) drivng Mustangs. Instructors were Parker Johnstone and Bill Cooper. I got BB as my instructor...a no nonsense guy...I don't know if he ever smiled. Maybe he thought he wasting his time with my no name talent. I had been racing in IMSA for four years at the time and I still learned quite a lot. You really find out how much you don't know that you thought you knew.

 

Went to Skippy twenty-one years ago, had Bruce MacInnes and Peter Kuhn. It was an awesome experience.

Was invited to LRP for race school instructor and race series coaching training and orientation after working with Dale at VIR and after the first day (of a week long program) I wanted to QUIT, I thought I $ucked so bad! <grin>

Now, I work with drivers EVERY DAY and have for twenty-years. I've taught pro schools with Ben Burrell, Beaux Barfield, Jeff Purner, Joe Foster, Darren Law and Dennis Macchio, among others. It's my full time job and I make a good living at it, but you CAN learn a LOT by going back to a top program whether it be BB, SBRS, Jim Russell, Bertil Roos or any of the front-line established professional schools.

It was tough because I thought I knew pretty well what I was doing... After the second day, I took a deep breath and realized I COULD do this and do it to their high standard. What going through the intensive program showed me was that one's success depends almost completely on one's grasp and discipline to focus on the basic skills and go from there. The experience ended up even better than the first time. I do this job because just like racing, I learn EVERY DAY.

I got my name badges in the mail this week... Woo-hoo! Watch out, fellows!

 

Have any of you guys tried any Spec Miata racing? I'm thinking of trying that out at Buttonwillow, SCCA sanctioned and you can rent the car from a separate outfit. I really liked the Formula car but I'd like to stay focused on Sports/GT cars.

 

My observations on Spec Miata....

Upside

- it's a great environment to learn a number of important tricks of the trade
- it's a fun car to drive
- Mazda's "ladder" makes it enticing to play in this class

Downside

- there is a lot of contact in this class
- to win, you have to spend more than you would in other classes, so it won't be as inexpensive as some people portray

 

Thanks for the info. What's the "ladder" involve? Points series, cash prizes, fame, trophy girls?

 

That is SO true. I took the class a few years ago (Les Betchner rocks, he was awesome). I was the only student in that particular class and really got a lot of one on one time. My wife showed up in a Dodge rental car the last day and let me drive her back to the hotel. She made me pull over and we switched seats within 5 minutes of hitting the 101. Below are a couple of pics from the last day-
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Gary- you are right about the van ride. I was laughing my a** off before it was over. Afterwards I asked Les what they did special to it and he said "we put stickers on it".

 

Oh the power of stickers. Les is an amazing driver, I watched him drift the Maricopa Oval in a Cadillac CTS, which was full of students and he had his left hand out the window, the guys there have skills.


Gary

 

Yes, it involves all of the above. It embodies the complete and utter glamour that all motor racing offers.

Seriously, Mazda has a couple of ladders, one for their formula cars, the other for Miatas.

Every year, Mazda invites a number of drivers to 'compete' for a Playboy MX-5 ride, which is really cool. In addition, the winner of the Playboy MX-5 series gets a ride in Speed World Challenge Touring Car. Last year's winner was Jason Saini, who took over Randy Pobst's (coke coke coke) seat with Tri-Point. Not a bad gig.

 

It would be like it was 10 years ago...exactly during my hiatus from motor racing...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

(At least back then, they still had Camaros.)

 

Great review. I'm hoping to check out a Bondurant program in the winter.

I attended the Skip Barber 2 Day High Performance program at Laguna in February. If you want to compare, I wrote a full review of the event here: http://www.ontrackdriver.com/official-ontrackdriver-reviews/

 

Thank you, I just replied to your email, please let if you received.


Gary

 

Yes, they're typically in my Run Group. I hate 'em...