Bondurant Grand Prix Racing School

http://toursminute.com/GrandPrixRacing.aspx
by François de Pouqueville 
 
  Who is Bob Bondurant? A world famous driver, a legend – actually, in my view the Frenchiest American race car driver ever. He was on the Shelby team, racing the Cobra Daytona coupe, and on the Ferrari team among other teams. At the 24 Hours of LeMans he drove the winning Cobra, and I remember when his name was announced on the airwaves; many French people thought that a French driver driving for the Americans had won! We have loved him ever since.

  His School of High Performance Driving has been operating for over 40 years.

  When I first arrived at the School, I was impressed by the extent of its fleet-- a seemingly endless line of brightly colored cars to drive, including different types of two seater Corvettes, the Cadillac CTS, two seater Pontiac Solstice, and monoplace Formula 1 styled race cars with  Mazda rotary engine.

 Why do people enroll in these schools? For one thing, if you have a sports car, it teaches you how to handle your own car better. Also, you are eligible upon graduation for a regional SCCA license. Assigned to an instructor, he soon detects what you're doing wrong and he can then plan how to fix it. You can actually see yourself becoming a better driver each day.

 It requires somewhat of a leap of faith to be a student, in that you can only get out of it what you put into it. You have to put your complete faith and trust in the instructors—if you do that , you'll get more out of this school than you might imagine possible. You soon learn that your driving skills can only be truly effective if you concentrate fully on what you are doing and on what you are planning on doing. This learning experience not only makes you a better driver but ultimately a better person.

 Here’s what I did, day by day, during my May, 2009 class:

 MONDAY, Day 1:

After some brief formalities and introductions, we had a 25-minute class on vehicle dynamics, including information on weight transfer and quick primers on trail braking and the Accident Avoidance Simulator that we will be going through later. Then a tour of the shop areas where you can see how the cars are worked on by Bondurant's skilled staff of full-time technicians. It’s incredible how much attention is paid to the cars, things like checking brake pad depth and tire tread depth several times a day.

In fact, although they were driven a large part of each day, the 430-hp Corvettes C6 took what was dished out with no problems thanks to a prefect preparation.

 One interesting thing is that the tires are changed out after two days and the oil after only 800 miles. The Corvettes also had more wrap-around seats than stock Corvettes and 4 -point shoulder seat belt combinations that cinch you in really tight.

 By 8:30 AM, we're already ushered out to do our first bit of driving. Before getting into the Corvettes, we received some quick instruction on one of the skid pads in our instructor's Cadillac CTS, where we each got behind the wheel and practiced throttle steering.  It's basically steering via the application of the gas pedal. This teaches that understeer is caused by the use of excessive speed in a turn. Backing off the gas allows more grip on the front tires and immediately brings the car in on a smaller turning radius.

 The next thing you learn is how important seating position is and the technique of heel-&-toe downshifting—a tried and true race car maneuver. Heel-&-toe is basically placing your right foot toward the right hand edge of the brake pedal and rolling the bottom part of your foot onto the gas pedal, so you can give it a nice little jab before releasing the clutch. The purpose is to “match the revs", i.e. rev up the engine so when the downshift takes place you are not grinding the gears. Executing it well takes a bit of practice.

 Then it was back to the classroom for more on the basics of understeer and oversteer, trail braking, and a new subject--how to hit apexes (sharpest point) of different kinds of corners, and the like. Why clip the apexes? Because that allows you to drive through the turns faster.

 The tiny class size meant we received more of the personal attention Bondurant prides itself on. There were twelve people in our class – each group of 3 students with their own instructor! Many of the attendees were business owners who took pride in their sports car but wanted to know how to drive it better. A few were early retirees, who decided to live life to its fullest.

 Monday afternoon brought us face to face with the Accident Avoidance Simulator. Basically this puts you in your 'Vette in a center lane of three. You’re looking at three green lights, one above each lane. As you come up to a 3-way split, at increasing speed up to 65 as the exercise is repeated, one or more of the lights turn red, and you choose a green lane without touching the brakes. Lifting off the throttle transfers weight to the front tires, allowing you to turn. Squeezing on the throttle then transfers weight back to the rear tires to keep from going into an oversteer as you turn back straight. This was followed by all three lights going red, requiring full ABS stops, both straight on and while executing a sharp turn (ABS could be dubbed the Ability to Brake and Steer).

 

TUESDAY, Day 2

After a much-needed night's rest, on the second day we met the skid pad in the skid car. The pad is a small oval-shaped course taken at at 25 mph. In the skid car, the instructor can hit a switch to hydraulically alter the weight balance of the car and induce oversteer. The trick to maintaining control is to turn the wheel into the slide while decreasing brake pressure, gently applying throttle as the slide begins to settle and the steering is brought back to its center position.

 Safety is something that is always stressed and we had a lesson on that, with a fast ride through of the main track's Lake Loop/Carousel configuration with the instructor at the wheel. The excitement was palpable when we were issued red racing jumpsuits and helmets and soon were into our 'Vettes' for our first solo laps on the main track, followed by a full afternoon of driving exercises and practice. It was only the second day, and I could see they were keeping their promise of maximum track time in the Corvettes.

 

WEDNESDAY, Day 3

Soon after a short classroom session in the morning, we were back in the Corvettes running the final full-course track layout, which now incorporates the Maricopa Oval.

The whole 1.6 M / 15 turns racetrack has been designed inch-by-inch by Bob Bondurant himself to recreate a large variety of curves, chicanes and straightaways that he raced so many times in many celebrated races around the world, such as LeMans, Monaco, and of course his favorite: the Nürburgring.

 Then we are taught about starts and restarts in race. We must master the flags and flag signals because later in the course we are going to race each other. 

 The rest of Wednesday is spent doing hot laps in the Corvettes, using everything we've learned so far and pushing ourselves as far as we feel comfortable doing. We are allowed to run the cars hot and hard but the instructors “flag” us in if they want to give us advice, which sometimes means they ride with us to check our technique, and fine-tune it.

Taking this course is a true workout and you lose several ounces of weight per hour.

 

THURSDAY, Day 4

This is a most exciting day for those of us who have chosen the 4-day course because we are finally introduced to the Formula race car.

Now donning a full helmet, we get acclimated to these lightweight cars made by Mazda Motor Sports, each with a two rotor 180-hp. engine, a 4-speed manual, and no-tread slick tires.

 These are the essence of sports cars. No power steering, no power brakes, and the weight of the engine in the back instead of the front, so a different driving technique becomes necessary.

  They prove a great contrast to the front engine Corvettes, not only because of the different handling characteristics, but because there is no ABS, Active Handling, or anything else. It teaches you smoothness as smooth inputs are greatly rewarded. Weighing only about 1,000 lbs, doing 0-60 under 4s and reaching 150 mph, the single-seater Star Mazda cuts faster lap times than the Corvettes, and heel-&-toe downshifting is at last a 'piece of cake'!

 After lunch, we are left on our own to drive the full course as hard as our abilities allow, pulling twice the G force of gravity in the tightest turns. Of course the instructors can’t ride along, so they periodically flag us in for a “chalk talk” on the pitlane whiteboard – giving us pointers on what we're doing right and wrong

 Although we are allowed to pass, not all the drivers remember about pulling to the right and signalling to let a faster driver pass but it's the great lesson of this course to learn to refrain from letting the adrenaline get over you and instead use patience, concentrate and apply yourself to anticipate and look where you want to go - in short you have learned well if you remain in full control of yourself and the car. Remembering this, I waited for an opening and then, passing inside in the Carousel turn, I wound the little rotary out to its 9000 rpm redline as I raced down the staightaway to the checkered flag.

 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I received a nice score for the whole program, a passing grade allowing me to apply for my SCCA racing license, but most of all, I feel that this course made me a much safer driver.

I'd like to thank all the instructors, all of whom were exceptionally skilled and dedicated, and Bob Bondurant himself. I resolved to attend the school again another time, taking an entirely different course with an entirely different goal to further my driving expertise.

 

  

I never got a chance to tell Bob that "Bondurant" in French means: Good and lasting. Nobody ever had a name so perfectly fitting the man, his school, and his teaching.

http://www.bondurant.com

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

François de Pouqueville is a French born professional art publisher, who also writes automotive and travel articles for magazines and websites the world over.

 

Comments:

Your Name
Email Address
Comment
Image Validation Text