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<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nThose folks are right \u2013 Radford Racing School isn\u2019t the same as Bondurant High Performance Driving School. It is the same piece of land in Arizona with many of the same instructors teaching the same curriculum and the majority of its student and instructor vehicles are Dodge products, but with the new ownership has come an array of major upgrades to the facility and to the program. This includes the first resurfacing of the main road course in 30 years, renovations to the main building where the students spend most of their non-driving time, renovations to the event center, new covered areas around the main track to help keep students out of the sun, additions to the instructional program offerings and rebranding of everything on the grounds \u2013 from the cars and track signage to all of the cool apparel offered in the gift shop and online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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<\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\nHaving attended and loved Bondurant High Performance Driving School back in 2015, I have to agree that it isn\u2019t the same under the Radford name \u2013 it is better. The core attributes of the school that made it so popular under Bob Bondurant have been preserved, but the improvements to the grounds lead to a much more enjoyable experience while receiving the same level of world-class performance driving instruction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Radford Name<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n
When considering a new name for the school, the ownership group and management wanted a name with some historic automotive background and international reach. The Radford brand had recently been brought back to life by a team of coachbuilders that includes F1 world champion Jenson Button, television personality Ant Anstead and businessman Roger Behle. The Radford brand was initially known for founder Harold Radford building bespoke versions of high-end luxury vehicles from Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Aston Martin and Land Rover starting back in the 1930s. As Radford\u2019s custom cars gained attention and popularity through the 1950s, his business became the go-to for celebrities, including The Beatles, Peter Sellers, Sir Stirling Moss, James Garner, Steve McQueen, Enzo Ferrari and many others during the 1960s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Over time, Radford\u2019s coachbuilding business was sold and\neventually went out of business, with Harold Radford passing away in 1990.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nHowever, in 2021, a group headed by Button relaunched the\nRadford brand with the plan of offering a modern-day take on custom\ncoachbuilding. Button and his team reincarnated Radford Motors as a modern\nlifestyle brand that celebrates automotive design and performance,\nhigh-performing driving and racing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Of course, if Radford Motors is going to build high-performance custom cars, they are going to need a test track and that is where the new owners of what was previously Bondurant High Performance Driving School came into play. The owners of the driving school and the owners of the coachbuilding company met and came to an agreement for the school to become Radford Racing School. While Radford Racing School and Radford Motors are two different entities, owned and run by different people, the coachbuilders use the racing school as a testing facility for their vehicles in addition to marketing Radford Motors apparel in the gift shop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nAfter becoming the official testing facility of Radford\nMotors, Radford Racing School also cemented a multi-year deal to be the\nOfficial High Performance Driving School of Dodge\/\/SRT\u00ae<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOur sponsorship extension with Radford Racing School builds\non Dodge\u2019s longstanding performance-centered philosophy,\u201d said Tim Kuniskis,\nDodge Brand Chief Executive Officer. \u201cThe school is the perfect proving ground\nfor our SRT vehicles. We\u2019re excited to build on our relationship with the\nRadford Racing School team and bring the Dodge\/\/SRT experience to new members\nof the Brotherhood of Muscle.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dodge-Heavy Instructional Programs<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nAs was the case under the previous owners of the facility,\nRadford Racing School offers a free one-day course to everyone who buys or\nleases a new Dodge\/\/SRT product, with the option for Super Stock owners to take\nthe one-day drag racing course. When owners come to the school for their\nprogram, they spend time driving the Durango SRT 392, the Charger R\/T Scat\nPack, the Challenger SRT Hellcat and the Challenger SRT Hellcat Redeye. In the\ndrag program, they drive the Challenger SRT Demon. Those same vehicles are also\nshowcased in the school\u2019s High Performance Driving (HPD) program, which is the\nschool\u2019s flagship, and most popular, course \u2013 with all other programs being\nbased on the information taught in the HPD classes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nIn addition to the High Performance Driving program, Radford Racing School uses the SRT Hellcat Challengers, the Charger Scat Pack and the 392 Durango in various phases of its Grand Prix Road Racing and Advanced Road Racing programs, as well as in the Advanced Teen Driving and Special Ops classes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Finally, the 2018 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon is the marquee\nvehicle of the Radford Racing School Drag Racing program, which allows students\nto earn their NHRA license to compete in a 9-second car. That licensing program\nis the first of its type in the country, joining Radford\u2019s SCCA licensing\nprogram via the Grand Prix Racing courses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDodge is in our DNA,\u201d said Mike Kessler, Radford Racing School\u2019s general manager. \u201cThere\u2019s simply no better way to describe our relationship. Dodge is an icon of American performance with its line of SRT vehicles, and we couldn\u2019t be more honored to showcase the capabilities of these cars every day on our track. Every student who takes one of our courses is simply blown away by the handling, power and technology that\u2019s engineered into every SRT vehicle. This is the best place on the planet to experience what these cars are made of, on our legendary racetrack and with our world-class team of instructors.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nIn the end, while the Bondurant name has been replaced, the\ntrack and driving instructional program that Bob Bondurant created decades ago\nare still a key component of Radford Racing School \u2013 with many of the same\ninstructors teaching the theories put into practice by Bob Bondurant. The key\ndifferences under the new ownership relate to major renovations around the\nproperty and the future program offerings, so if you enjoyed the Bondurant High\nPerformance Driving School, you are likely to love Radford Racing School. The\nname of the school and the people in charge have changed, but the core\nattributes of the school\u2019s iconic reputation remain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Back in 2019, Bob Bondurant\u2019s High Performance Driving School was sold and later renamed Radford Racing School by Stig Investors \u2013 a group of auto enthusiasts, collectors and Bondurant alumni. Since then, several driving and racing fans have commented online about how the school just wouldn\u2019t be the same. Those folks are right \u2013 Radford Racing School isn\u2019t the same as Bondurant High Performance Driving School. It is the same piece of land in Arizona with many of the same instructors teaching the same curriculum and the majority of its […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":67142,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[638],"tags":[2976,605],"class_list":["post-67139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-showcase","tag-radford","tag-srt"],"acf":[],"custom_fields":{"post_thumbnail_image":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/WhoIsRadford_Feature.jpg","social_image":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/WhoIsRadford_Social.jpg","icon_selection":"article","external_link":"","featured_article":[],"upload_background_image":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67139"}],"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\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67139"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67139\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67160,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67139\/revisions\/67160"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}