Heroes in Business - Bob Bondurant Hall of Fame Racing Legend is interviewed by David Cogan of Eliances Heroes

Episode Date: October 18, 2024

Bob talks about the crazy early days of his race car driving career and becoming the go-to racing consultant for filming movies with James Garner, Robert Wagner and Paul Newman. Now he heads up the Bondurant Racing School which has received much acclaim as the pre-eminent school for performance driving. Bondurant is a proud supporter of ChildHelp.com and was nominated by Phoenix ChildHelp President, Stacey Weber.

Up in the sky, look, it's captivating, it's energizing, it's Alliances Heroes. Alliances is the destination for entrepreneurs, investors, CEOs, inventors, leaders, celebrities, and startups. We're our heroes in business aligned. leaders, celebrities, and startups. We're our heroes in business aligned. Now, here's your host flying in, David Kogan, founder of Eliance's. Wow, what an incredible lineup we have today. And I know, again, every single week I say this, but I mean, last week we had, right, the president of the United Nations, Newt Gingrich, founder of UGG. The list just keeps going on and on. But this morning, well, before I introduce our first couple heroes, let me tell you who

we've got later on the show. You've probably eaten at one of his restaurants, right? Probably Burger King, maybe Denny's, Peter Piper Pizza, Del Taco. Well, he's been the president or CEO of every single one of these, and wait till you hear what he's got going on now. We'll be ending the show with a performance coach who has a special thing about sparkle and why they call her sparkle. But let's get started first with our first hero. Now, when you have an exciting job, you call it a career.

you call it a career when your career is 100 of an adrenaline rush and someone asks you what you do for a living you say you're living life and that's what our next hero has done it's bob bondurant live in the studio founder and owner of bondurant Racing School, which is internationally recognized as the leading authority of advanced driver training. I mean, he's been on the forefront of professional driving and instruction since 1968. Bob, most important is what drove you to race cars and the adrenaline rush that would last the rest of your life? My dad took me to the Midget auto races every Thursday night, and I thought, wow, I want to race cars. I mean, did you ever think you'd be doing this for your career? No, but the funny thing is, I've never raced a midget car.

I've raced everything else but that. Wow. And share with me, though, what it must feel like to go so fast around a track with your heart basically jumping out. I mean, how fast do you go? As fast as that car will go on that track. I mean, is it 100 miles an hour, 150, 120? Yeah, 24 hours a mile. I went 212 miles an hour. All right went 212 miles an hour.

All right, 212 miles an hour. I mean, I can't even fathom that because when I'm going over about 75 or 80, it just starts trembling and stuff. Tell us, though, what it must feel like. Well, it feels fantastic. And I get to it easy. I don't just stand on the gas and go 212.

I back off a little bit and then back off. And then I'm on it. And it feels fantastic. And after that corner, the next corner was 36 miles an hour. So I was going from 212. I used all the road to get there and then 36 so you're going from 212 to 36 miles an hour back and forth that's amazing and what's all the way around track you're you're don't do the same speed you as fast as you can in that particular corner got it okay

and what about with the other cars surrounding you and that? I mean, you don't have a rearview mirror. You don't have the radio on, so it's pretty stressful. And no speedometer. You're just racing everyone. And all of us want to win. Unbelievable. What's amazing is that you've given the opportunity now

for others to also experience this. You've had hundreds of thousands of students, ranging from housewives, racers, celebrities, teenagers, professionals, police officers even, race on your track, which can be seen at Bondurant.com. That's B-O-U-N-D-U-R-A-N-T.com. We'll also have the clip on alliances.com where entrepreneurs align. I mean, what have you found most interesting among the students, though, that you've had?

Well, I've had so many neat students. Paul Newman, Robert Wagner for the movie Winning. Robert Wagner for the movie Winning. And then I worked on the Grand Prix movie with John Frankenhammer. And I worked at different jobs at it. And we were racing Formula One at the same time on that movie because that movie was all about Formula One Grand Prix and that was

fantastic and it's fun to do and I learn so much every time I do one like we ran the first series of it then we looked at the film and it was too fast so we had to slow it down

to for them for people to really see it the way it was but it was neat and every time you use something like that you learn more and i love it incredible bond bond around i mean the the race car legend and owner of bond around.com and you and you're listening to Alliance's Heroes with me, David Kogan. Be a hero. Go to where entrepreneurs align. Be part of the community at alliances.com. That's E-L-I-A-N-C-E-S.com. Now, Bob, my son, you know, loves it when I drive fast.

He feels like it's a roller coaster. John, you know, loves it when I drive fast. He feels like it's a roller coaster. What advice, though, do you have for kids to get on the right track who want to be a race car driver and or as successful as you have been and having such a strong passion for what you do? Well, teenagers, we have a fantastic one- and two-day teenage course because we're all teens at once. One time and we want to make them safe yet have fun. So we worked out every week and then some of them wanted to go ahead and go up and be

a race driver so when you do, you come back to the school, we have three- and four-day Grand Prix racing courses. And so a lot of them come back and race and say, wow, this is fantastic. And a four-day Grand Prix course is worth about two-and-a-half days of real racing wow and what i like about it too and from what i've seen on your website and that is is you provide all the training it's a safe environment which is absolutely maybe maybe somewhat different as of being a a professional race car driver on

the track where where it's such high competitive in that. I mean, the scariest thing about being a race car driver must be the chance of crashing in that. Tell me about, well, particularly the crash that you had and more importantly, how you stay motivated to stay in the industry after this, because let's talk about what happened at the Watkins Glen. Well, I lived in two worlds of my life, racing here and in Europe, winning at Le Mans, a 24-hour race,

won the world, and then we heard that we were going to have a 200-mile-an-hour series, so I'm all about that. So I came back home and started racing that series, doing really well. And walking in, I was going through a corner at 150 miles an hour, and the right steering arm broke, went off, hit the impact head-on. And one time, all the Formula One drivers,

we want to save ourselves physically as much as we can and one came up with the idea uh just before you're going to hit something just take a quick deep breath milliseconds your head i remember just going it relaxes your upper body arms chest everything and doing that and and I flipped it eight times, end over end, and rolled over. And I went as high as a bunch of trees, way up. And then I started coming down. I thought, ooh, this is going to be bad,

a real bad one, Bandra. And that's the last thing I remember. And I woke up in the hospital, and the doc came in, and I said, so how soon am I getting out? He said, you're going to be here for a long time. And I said, what's wrong with me? He told me, he said, you have head injuries, you'll heal. You broke three ribs, you'll heal. I thought, oh, that's not bad. Then he said, I can't have you sit up or you could become paralyzed.

And I broke both knees and both feet, every bone and both feet. And he said, you'll never walk. And I had taught James Gner and the other actors for the movie grand prix and i thought somehow i am going to walk and we put that together and had no spring yellow counter pad i wrote down everything i do in need for a school and i still do everything today just like I talked about then.

And we've got a little less than a minute left, but I have to ask you, going and experiencing that, I mean, most people would be scared to ever go in a car again. Yet the rest of your entire career are still involved race cars. How do you do that?

You just do it. You love it, and you put it together, and you just do it you love it and you go you put it together and just put it together and do it and i love it incredible also too is thank you too to stacy weber and child help for nominating nominating that's right bob bondurant and his incredible wife for their involvement in Child's Help effort to save children from abuse and get them on the path to brighter days. Go to ChildHelp.org to learn more. Bob, you're a legend. Corvette, NASCAR, Sports Car Hall of Fames. You've consulted on movies. You teach others how to drive at amazing speeds with technique and safety. With that, Bob,

you've been on the forefront. You entertain others. You teach. That's what a hero does. Thank you for being here. Bob Bondurant with Bondurant.com. Thank you very much, David. I loved it.