Bondurant launched the school in 1968 at Orange County International Raceway. Seeking a manufacturer partner, he first approached Porsche for funding, but Porsche declined because the venture was too uncertain. He then turned to Datsun, which agreed to back the school. The opening fleet included Datsun 240Zs, 510s, and 2000 convertibles alongside a Lola T70 Can-Am car and a Formula Vee, giving students exposure to both road cars and dedicated racing machinery.
By 1970 the school had outgrown its original site and relocated to Ontario Motor Speedway. Watching how Bondurant's operation raised Datsun's profile, Porsche — which had originally turned him down — reversed course and began supplying 911s and 914s to the fleet. In 1973, as demand grew further, Bondurant moved the school to Sears Point International Raceway near Sonoma, California, giving students access to a full road circuit.
In 1976 the president of Ford Motor Company persuaded Bondurant to leave Datsun and accept a full Ford sponsorship covering cars, parts, and marketing. That partnership lasted until 2003 and kept the school supplied with contemporary Ford performance vehicles across three decades.
In 1989 Bondurant accepted an offer to relocate to Firebird Raceway — later renamed Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park — in Chandler, Arizona. The promise was the opportunity to build the world's first purpose-built driver training facility. Land limitations ultimately meant a scaled-back version of his ideal concept, but the finished campus still featured a 15-turn, 1.6-mile road course, an eight-acre asphalt pad for advanced exercises such as skid control and threshold braking, and a fleet of more than 100 race-prepared vehicles.
The school's teaching framework was Bondurant's copyrighted Bondurant Method, which systematically developed car control and situational awareness across a range of disciplines. Course offerings included competition driving, police pursuit driving, evasive and protective driving for chauffeurs and bodyguards, and stunt driving instruction for film and television productions.
Many NASCAR drivers attended the school specifically for road course training, a discipline historically underrepresented in the oval-focused stock-car series. The school also attracted celebrity clients, most notably Paul Newman and Robert Wagner, who trained for their driving roles in the 1969 film Winning.
In late 2018 the school and its parent company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, citing financial difficulties and infrastructural damage. The assets were subsequently sold off in 2019, ending more than fifty years of operations under the Bondurant name.
Across its history the school graduated over 500,000 drivers, spanning amateur enthusiasts, professional racing drivers, law-enforcement personnel, and celebrity actors. Bondurant himself was a ten-time hall of fame inductee, and the school he built became one of the most recognised performance-driving institutions in North America. Its influence on road-course preparation within NASCAR — and its training pipeline for film stunt driving — left a lasting mark on both professional motorsport and the entertainment industry.