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Chan Martinez
interviewed by Anthony Qaiyum on 13 November, 1995
"The performance of the car is generally so much higher than the ability of the driver."
How about this for adventure travel: The Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving lets you slide behind the wheel of a souped up Ford Mustang GT and try your hand as a racecar driver. Chaz Martinez tells you how to achieve the speed you need.
Tripod: How many people attend the Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving each year?
CM: Over 5,000.
Tripod: And do you need any previous experience in order to attend?
CM: You need a valid driver's license and at least six months of driving experience.
Tripod: I understand you have a few different programs. Can you give me a brief description of the options?
CM: There's a whole variety we offer. Our premier course is the four day Grand Prix Road Racing Course. It's a four day course, like I said. You spend two and a half days in a race prepared Ford Mustang GT, and a day and a half in our open wheel cars which are called Formula Fords. That's where we teach you all of our techniques such as heel-and-toe downshifting, trail breaking, proper apexing of turns, elevation of vision, accident avoidance, and skid control technique.
Another one we have -- after you graduate from the four day -- is our Advance Road Racing. That teaches you how to improve those specific areas that you're having problems with -- whether it's apexing of turns, problems with speed through different corners. We really work on your quickness, and concentrate on getting you seat time, and getting you more comfortable behind the wheel on different courses and tracks.
We also offer a Highway Survival Training Course. That's for people who want to gain competence in their day-to-day driving, feel more comfortable behind the wheel. We emphasize active driving skills, and elements of car control that can save your life -- accident avoidance, skid control, ABS training, which is anti-lock brakes, and panic stopping...
We also offer a teenage defensive driving course ... Another interesting one is an Executive protection anti-kidnapping course. We teach people with the government, bodyguards, chauffers, people from third-world countries that are having problems with terrorism ... We also do corporate events.
Tripod: When you say Grand Prix Road Racing is it really serious racing? Would we see the same type of racing on TV?
CM: A lot of things that we teach -- yes. These are the basics that you have to learn in order to get your racing license. Going through our four day course counts as one credit towards getting your SCCA license, when you take their test.
Tripod: So this can really be a starting point for a career in racing?
CM: Oh, definitely. We've taught so many people that have gotten into racing. We've taught everyone from Al Unser, Jr. to Robby Gordon to Dale Earnhardt to Mark Martin, Rusty Wallace, Kyle Petty, and Ricky Rudd, who just won out here at the Pheonix 500.
We've also taught a lot of different celebrities including Paul Newman, Candice Bergen, Crystal Bernard. Just recently Jason Priestly went through, Sean Elliot from the San Antonio Spurs. And, actually, Tim Allen from television's Home Improvement. As a matter of fact, Bob [Bondurant] races with Tim Allen and another gentleman named Steve Saleen. It's a three car effort, called RRR racing -- and that's the Saleen-Allen team. They race in the World Challenge Series for the SCC pro.
Tripod: If I were attending, what's the top speed I could look forward to reaching?
CM: Anywhere from 80 to 115 miles per hour. It depends more on each individual, and what their thresholds are. We find that a lot of people, after they've taken the course, are concentrating on so many other things that they don't really think about speed at that point -- you just know your going fast. I know people who have just gone through the course, and they're like, "You know, I have no idea what speed I was going, because I was so busy concentrating on where I was going to have the car placed for the next apex of the turn," or things of that nature. But you definitely get some speed. It's enough to say, "Bring an extra pair of pants." [laughs]
Tripod: Do you ever get someone who does the racing program for fun, but turns out to be a real talent?
CM: It depends. We have in the past ... There's a variety of people who take this school, and yeah, there's a lot of them that use this as an avenue into racing. Racing is more of how much money you're able to come up with. It's a big money aspect as far as being a driver. So if you have bottomless pockets, or a lot of people who are willing to sponsor you, you can go just about as far as you want to go.
Tripod: Interesting. I've read you have a High Performance Driving program which combines street driving skills with racing techniques.
CM: Yeah. It's a two to three day course. You can either bring your car in, or you can drive one of our Ford Mustang GTs.
Tripod: To me it sounds kind of like a class on becoming a highway daredevil.
CM: It's not so much to become a highway daredevil, as it is to teach you techniques of high performance driving, car control.
Tripod: So the emphasis is on safety?
CM: It's on safety, and -- the performance of the car is generally so much higher than the ability of the driver. That's what we try to even out by teaching you different car control techniques.
Tripod: Are there activities near the school for people who want to do things besides racing?
CM: Oh yeah. Shoot. We're next to every single theater you could possibly think of. Sun Devil Stadium. We're 15 minutes from downtown Pheonix. There's a lot of resorts around -- lot's of golfing areas. Shopping -- in fact, in the next year, they're going to have one of the biggest malls in Arizona that's going to be just down the street from us. Right where we're at, there's three casinos ... so there's plenty to do.
For more information about the Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving visit: http://bondurant.com
Or call (800) 842-7223
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