RIP Bob Bondurant

[Harpoon PV2]

A funny little story in the life of this great man. Bob was partially responsible for getting Carrol banned from most of the FIA races, (except la Mans) in 1965! At the 65 Monza Bob and Jerry Grant started going way to fast for the delicate 289 engines even after Alan Mann gave the slow signal. Later Alan discovered Shelby had offered a bonus if the Good Year car finished ahead of the other Cobra's. Alan called Ford and told them if Carrol turned up at another race, no Cobra's would start! Alan also threatened Bob, after that Bob was the ultimate team player! His hard work paid off, when he crossed the finish line at Reims, fifth overall to clinch the GT Group III title. Although, Ford and Shelby bragged that on the 4th of July an all American team clinched the World Championship, never mind all the people from the UK, especially, Alan Mann and that the world championship had ceased to exist some months before the first tube was cut for CSX2000.

Bob's codriver was Jo Schlesser, who started to exceed the 6500 rpm limit on the 289. Mann gave the slow signal, but he kept going, finally Alan brought him in and told him he would be replaced by Allen Grant, he slowed down. Jo's wife was furious and threw a champagne bottle at Alan, she didn't understand that Bob and Jo just had to finish in the points!

If that wasn't crazy enough, Gentleman Jack Sears was driving one of the Daytona's when as he said, "it just went bang, I declutched quickly and pushed it for what seemed like a very long way to the pits!" It had thrown a rod, normally, that would be that, but we are talking Cobra's, nothing is normal. Jabby Crombac of Autosport said off hand to Mann, "it was a pity they had to retire." Alan later said, "I asked if he would bet me 100 bottles of champagne that we couldn't finish, and he agreed. So we pulled out the remains of that rod, took out the pushrods from that cylinder, and clamped two bearing caps on the journal. It ran quite well, really ... and we won the champagne." And that is just two races out of Bob's incredible career!