We woke up in the UK this morning to the very sad news of the passing of Chris Amon at the age of 73 after a battle with cancer.
Consistently referred to as the best racing driver never to win a world championship grand prix, the Kiwi legend did though win the 1966 Le Mans 24 Hours, the historic first win for the Ford GT40, with fellow countryman Bruce McLaren.
The following year he won the Daytona 24 Hours, this time in a Ferrari 330 P4 (above) with Lorenzo Bandini, also taking a win at the Monza 1000kms the same year.
His F1 career saw spells at Ferrari, BRM, Cooper, Ensign, Matra (single seaters and sportscars), March, Tecno, Tyrell and Wolf, plus privateer runs in Lola, Lotus, Brabham with a hatful of podium finishes.
He had a brief spell too as an F1 constructor, the Amon AF101 of 1974 (below), two years from the end of an F1 career that spanned 13 years after making his Grand Prix debut at 19 years old in an era where that was truly exceptional, mixing his F1 (and F2) programmes with race winning form for McLaren in Can-Am, and also taking the 1968 Tasman Championship, again for Ferrari.
During ’65 and ’66, he was also successful in Can-Am and won races for McLaren. And in the 70s there was touring car success with BMW, winning the Nurburgring 6 Hours alongside Hans Stuck.
Amon retired to his home nation but is cited often by the current generation of young Kiwi racers as both an inspiration an a mentor.
He’ll be sadly missed by them, and by countless others.
