Bondurant Shows He Can Win Race Driving Any Car

PALM SPRINGS —  Driving instructor Bob Bondurant, after coming from last place to win a vintage car race Saturday in a 1979 Cobra, came back Sunday to win wire-to-wire in a borrowed 1959 Devin during the seventh annual Palm Springs Road Races.

The engine on Bondurant’s Cobra blew shortly after he crossed the finish line, and it was not ready to race Sunday, so Barry Watkins of Tustin offered Bondurant his C Production car to drive. Watkins had finished fourth in it Saturday.

John Marconi of Orange, driving his family’s 1975 Lola Formula 5000, was an easy winner in the feature race for Grand Prix-type, high-horsepower equipment. Marconi’s father, Dick, finished 12th in the same race.

Several car-crunching accidents, uncommon to vintage car racing, delayed the program and sent many of the estimated 18,000 spectators home before the final race of the four-day event.