BOB BONDURANT 1933-2021

Championship-winning racer, Le Mans class winner and instructor to the stars Robert Lewis Bondurant died on 12 November, aged 88. Even as a child he loved speed with his first tricycle, before his father took him to races from the age of eight. By 12 he’d persuaded his mother to let him use an electric bike for his paper round; four years later he went motorbike racing, graduating to cars aged 23 in a Morgan +4.

But it was in Chevy Corvettes that he started to make his name, winning 30 out of 32 races between 1961 and ’63. After that he joined Carroll Shelby’s team, and the following year he and co-driver Dan Gurney came third overall at Le Mans in a Shelby Daytona Cobra Coupe.

In 1965, he helped Shelby become the first American team to win big on the global stage, landing the International Championship for GT Manufacturers. That same year he made his first of nine Formula One starts, his best result being fourth in Monaco for BRM.

Can-am was his next challenge, but in 1967 at Watkins Glen a steeringarm failure on his Mclaren at 150mph led to life-changing injuries and the decision to establish an academy to improve driving standards. On 14 February 1968, the Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving was founded, and more than 500,000 students benefited from his skills.

Through his school, he became the go-to for Hollywood when it needed to train an actor to drive, working with Tom Cruise, Clint Eastwood, Paul Newman, Nicolas Cage, Christian Bale and many more. “My life has been lived in two halves,” he said. “The first was becoming a World Champion driver. The second was teaching the world to become champions.”