You guys aren't going to be race drivers after three days here, but now you know lots about what's right and wrong on the racetrack."-Bondurant instructor
For many of us, the idea of getting into road racing for the first time is a little intimidating. Most of us are street enthusiasts or drag racers-and little or minimal effort is needed to make a few passes down the boulevard or pay at the gate, tech in, and bang off some quarter-mile blasts during time trials. It is just going straight, after all! But road racing gets complex. Not only are you placing your car in a much more dynamic position when wheeling around a race course, there's heel-and-toe downshifting, trail braking, apexes, as well as a host of other things you must master that you never had to worry about on the 1320. And let's not forget about all of the other cars on the course. Anyone who's ever seen one of those multi-million-dollar F1 smash-ups going into Turn 1 knows how complicated-and dangerous-road racing can get.
As GMHTP is blessed with the use of Raceway Park's brand-new road course at Englishtown, New Jersey, it was high time Editor Rick Jensen and Tech Editor Scott Parker got a proper road racing education. Thankfully, the Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving was happy to teach us.
For those of you unfamiliar with Bondurant, it is one of the premier racing training centers in the world. Bob Bondurant started the school in 1968 after his professional racing career-which peaked when he was a Formula 1 driver for Ferrari-ended with a bad accident in 1967. Bob's tremendous talents as a race driver are now passed on worldwide to racing enthusiasts looking for the ultimate in car control. A whopping 8,000 students funnel through the school every year!
Bondurant offers a dizzying array of courses, ranging from military and executive security training to high-performance driving utilizing GMs like Pontiac Grand Prix, Cadillac CTS-Vs, and Corvette Z06s, and to 1- to 4-day Grand Prix Road Racing and Advanced Road Racing classes. We took the 3-day Grand Prix course, which combines classroom study, car control exercises, and real road racing against other class members in C5 Corvettes.
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Former F1 racer and Bondurant Founder Bob Bondurant, posing in front of the #05 Corvette with "Rusty." |