{"id":41006,"date":"2020-07-31T07:00:04","date_gmt":"2020-07-31T11:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dodgegarage.com\/news-api\/?p=41006"},"modified":"2024-03-25T11:22:38","modified_gmt":"2024-03-25T15:22:38","slug":"from-barber-to-bondurant-to-bale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/racing\/2020\/07\/from-barber-to-bondurant-to-bale.html","title":{"rendered":"From Barber to Bondurant to Bale"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

ABOUT ROB KNIPE: HIGH PERFORMANCE DRIVING INSTRUCTOR AT BONDURANT<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When you grow\nup with a 1970 AAR \u2019Cuda in your garage, being a muscle car enthusiast seems\nlike a natural fit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Rob Knipe,\nan 11-year veteran at Bondurant, it was.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ROOTED IN RACING<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Rob started\ngoing to the dragstrip and the Michigan International Speedway (MIS) as a\nlittle kid. But his passion for racing really took root when his dad took him\nto the 1981 Detroit Grand Prix. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s when he\ntold himself he was going to be a racecar driver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was more\nthan fleeting thought. It was something I knew in my gut. I was going to do\nwhatever I needed to do to be the guy on that track,\u201d recalled Knipe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AT THE \u201cBARBER\u201d SHOP <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAfter high school, I went to Skip Barber Racing\nSchool to train. I wanted to go there because I could drive a Formula Car. I made\nit up to the Barber Dodge Pro Series. But as the racing got better, the cost\ngot higher. I was working every minute I wasn\u2019t racing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Knipe admits it must have been painful for\nhis parents to watch. \u201cWe didn\u2019t have a lot of money, but my parents supported\nme 100%. They watched me work tirelessly through high school so I could afford\na racecar. And after high school, they let me live at home for free while I\nworked two jobs to support my racing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The idea of finding sponsors seemed selfish\nand wrong to Knipe, so when the money ran out, Knipe figured a factory job\nwould be his future. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

RACING MAKES A REBOUND   <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

For a while, Knipe, then 21, was very happy\nworking at said factory. It was there he met a coworker who ran a Formula Car\nseries. And they so happened to need an instructor. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Knipe worked for Roger Penske\u2019s Marlboro\nRacing School for about 12 years as a pro trainer. When the recession hit in 2008\nand cut backs ensued, the Marlboro team went up in smoke and Knipe was left\nwithout a job. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He applied at Bondurant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBondurant was a skeleton crew at the time,\u201d\nsaid Knipe. \u201cThey took a chance on me and hired me part time. We didn\u2019t know\nwhat was going to happen, so I left my wife and kids in Michigan for two years.\nIn 2010, Bob hired me full time and I moved the family out to Arizona.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"man
Knipe at Bondurant<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A CELEBRITY CLIENT<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Back in 2018, it was a typical day at\nBondurant when a fellow instructor asked Knipe to reach out to a stunt\ncoordinator who had a client who needed training. \u201cI had no idea who the client\nwas, and then when he showed up, I thought, \u2018Holy smoke, it\u2019s Batman.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was Christian Bale, actually, who was\nprepping for his role as Ken Miles in the film Ford v Ferrari<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Teaching him was a career highlight for\nKnipe. But not because of Bale\u2019s celebrity status. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe was like a sponge,\u201d recalled Knipe. \u201cHe\nwas so easy to teach because he really wanted to learn.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"man
Knipe and Bale<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAfter we got done training on the track,\nBale would talk to Bob about the history of racing. He wanted to know\neverything about it. He was a true professional and a natural talent. It was a\nrarity and a privilege to teach him,\u201d recalled Knipe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

THE BEST TOOLS FOR THE JOB<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Bale, like most clients, was trained behind the wheel of the Dodge\nChallenger SRT\u00ae<\/sup> Hellcat. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really the best tool for the job. That car is made to take abuse,\u201d\nsaid Knipe. \u201cWe can run it all day long with the A\/C on and the car just\ndoesn\u2019t stop. And it communicates so well back to the driver. It\u2019s really\nimpressive.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Knipe is also a big fan of the SRT program<\/a> and the SRT drivers who come through. \u201cIt\u2019s a great program for the owners. There\u2019s a lot of horsepower under the hood and it\u2019s important to know how to handle it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have such a great product. I honestly\nconsider the work we do as essential. Our programs help keep people safe. We\nhelp save lives.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ready to get behind the wheel yourself? Bondurant<\/a> is open for business. Who knows? Maybe you\u2019ll get to drive with Rob Knipe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ABOUT ROB KNIPE: HIGH PERFORMANCE DRIVING INSTRUCTOR AT BONDURANT When you grow up with a 1970 AAR \u2019Cuda in your garage, being a muscle car enthusiast seems like a natural fit. For Rob Knipe, an 11-year veteran at Bondurant, it was. ROOTED IN RACING Rob started going to the dragstrip and the Michigan International Speedway (MIS) as a little kid. But his passion for racing really took root when his dad took him to the 1981 Detroit Grand Prix. That\u2019s when he told himself he was going to be a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":41014,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[575],"tags":[625,526,519],"class_list":["post-41006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-racing","tag-bondurant","tag-challenger","tag-charger"],"acf":[],"custom_fields":{"post_thumbnail_image":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/barbertobondurantfeature.png","icon_selection":"article","external_link":"","featured_article":[],"upload_background_image":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41006"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41006"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41006\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41027,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41006\/revisions\/41027"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}