A Tribute to Chris Amon

Introducing Chris Amon

Chris Amon is well known as one of the three most successful Kiwi Formula One drivers. Together with Bruce McLaren and Denny Hulme, Chris and the other two top drivers were often referred to as the ‘Trio at the Top’.
Indeed a book by Desmond Mahoney published in 1970 and a recently released Sony Music DVD both use the title ‘Trio at the Top’ to tell the stories of Bruce, Denny and Chris.

When only 12 years old, Chris saw Stirling Moss win the 1956 NZ International Grand Prix (NZIGP) at Ardmore, near Auckland, NZ, driving his own 1954 Maserati 250F chassis 2508. Chris was instantly hooked on motor racing and thereafter barely missed a race meeting at Ohakea air force base, the new Levin track, or Ardmore.

When aged only 17 years, Chris entered his first ever race meeting at Levin on 15 April 1961. Chris drove his a little 1956 Cooper T41 Climax 1490cc gaining 4th place in his first race and 2nd place in his second race. In January 1962,
aged 18, he entered his own 1954 Maserati 250F chassis 2509 in the NZIGP at Ardmore and had a first hand view of Stirling Moss the maestro winning the NZIGP, once again.

The driving talent shown by Chris in 1962 in his venerable Maserati 250F led to an early offer to drive in international Formula One and Chris flew off to UK in 1963.
With so much natural talent, Chris should have been a Formula One World Champion – but bad luck stood in his way too often.

Of all the F1 World Championship races he entered from 1963 until 1976, he surprisingly was never to win, although he came agonisingly close on so many occasions. He did win many other notable races including the 1966 Le Mans 24 Hour race driving a Ford GT40 partnered by Bruce McLaren, and the 1967 Daytona 24 Hour race driving a Ferrari 330 P4 partnered by Lorenzo Bandini.

Chris won the both 1968 and 1969 NZIGPs. He was runner up in 1968 and Tasman Champion in 1969 driving his ‘works’ Tasman Ferrari race cars. Like many other drivers of his era, he was a highly versatile driver and was involved in many different international race classes including F1, F2, endurance, Can-Am and F5000.

Chris retired from racing in 1976 to his farm at Scotts Ferry near the mouth of the Rangitikei River not far from Bulls. He now lives near Kinloch, not far from scenic Taupo in the North Island of New Zealand.

The NZ Festival of Motor Racing to celebrate Chris Amon

In 2009 Chris kindly agreed to a request to be the named racing driver ‘celebrated’ at the NZ Festival of Motor Racing in January 2011. Just recently, when asked how he felt about this, Chris said, “I’m still slightly nervous about it to be honest, but it’s great to be remembered this way.”

Already a number of international owners of racing cars formerly driven, or like those driven by Chris have been approached to see if they would consider bringing their cars to the Festival, enjoy some Kiwi fun and summer sun, and join the celebrations of all that Chris achieved in his era as one of the very top international racing drivers.