Amon

Bulls, New Zealand, 1943. Chris Amon was born into wealth as the only child of sheep farmers Ngaio and Betty Amon. He learned to drive at six, taught by a farm worker on the family property. After leaving Whanganui Collegiate School, he persuaded his father to buy him an Austin A40 Special, which he entered in local hillclimbs and minor races. He progressed through a 1.5-litre Cooper and an old 2.5-litre Maserati 250F before drawing serious attention in the Cooper-Climax T51 Bruce McLaren had used to win his maiden Grand Prix.

In 1962, Amon entered the Cooper for the New Zealand winter series but was hampered by mechanical problems. Scuderia Veloce then entered him in a similar car, and in the rain at Lakeside, he performed well enough to catch the eye of English driver Reg Parnell. Parnell persuaded Amon to come to England and race for his team. A test at Goodwood confirmed the promise, and Amon was immediately on the pace in the Goodwood International Trophy and Aintree 200 pre-season races.

Bulls, New Zealand, 1962. On a rain-soaked track at Lakeside, a nineteen-year-old Chris Amon climbed into a Cooper-Climax T51 and began to change the course of his life. The car was the same model Bruce McLaren had used to win his maiden Grand Prix, and in the difficult conditions, Amon’s performance caught the eye of English team owner Reg Parnell, who was in the grandstands. Parnell persuaded the young New Zealander to move to England and race for his outfit.

Amon’s path to Formula One had been swift. He learned to drive at age six on his family’s sheep farm, graduated from an Austin A40 Special to a 1.5-litre Cooper and then a 2.5-litre Maserati 250F, but it was the drive in McLaren’s old T51 that announced his arrival. A test at Goodwood confirmed his pace, and he was competitive in the Goodwood International Trophy and Aintree 200 pre-season races. By 1963, he was in a Formula One car, making his debut at the Monaco Grand Prix with the Parnell team. He was only twenty years old.

By the time Chris Amon arrived at Ferrari for the 1967 season, he had already driven for Lola, Lotus, and Cooper-Maserati, a pattern of constant movement that would define his entire Formula One career. Over fourteen seasons, he raced for a record thirteen different teams—Lola, Team Lotus, Cooper-Maserati, Ferrari, March, Matra, Tecno, Tyrrell, his own Amon outfit, BRM, Ensign, and Wolf—a statistic that speaks both to his talent and his misfortune. His best championship finish came in his first full Ferrari season, 1967, when he placed fifth. That year he took three podiums and two pole positions, including a famous front-row start at the Belgian Grand Prix. Despite never winning a championship Grand Prix, Amon scored eleven podiums and five poles across 96 starts, leading 183 laps in seven races. He won two non-championship Grands Prix, including the Silverstone International Trophy. His reputation for bad luck became so entrenched that Mario Andretti once joked that if Amon became an undertaker, people would stop dying. After Ferrari, he drifted through March, Matra, Tecno, and Tyrrell, often in uncompetitive machinery, before retiring from F1 in 1976.

Chris Amon never had a peak defined by championships or a run of wins, but his strongest sustained period came between 1967 and 1970. Driving for Ferrari in 1967, he finished fifth in the World Drivers' Championship, his best career result, and scored five of his eleven career podiums. That year he also took pole position at the British Grand Prix and led the Italian Grand Prix before mechanical failure intervened. In 1968, he added two more podiums and a pole at the Spanish Grand Prix. Across those four seasons, driving for Ferrari, March, and Matra, Amon started 40 Grands Prix, stood on the podium nine times, and claimed four of his five career poles. His 1967 season with Ferrari remains the statistical apex of his Formula One career, yet it is remembered less for the results he achieved than for the races he nearly won—a pattern that defined his reputation as the unluckiest driver of his era.

Amon married Tish Wotherspoon in 1977, and the couple raised three children in New Zealand. His son James became a high-performance personal trainer, working with the Central Districts Stags cricket team and later serving as Brendon Hartley’s personal trainer. Amon’s life after racing was quiet by design. He rejected the narrative of bad luck that clung to his career, pointing instead to the simple fact that he had survived fifteen seasons in Formula One while friends such as Bruce McLaren had not. He lived with his family in the North Island, far from the European paddocks where he had driven for thirteen different teams. In 1993, he was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire. He died in Rotorua Hospital on 3 August 2016, aged 73, of cancer.

After his final Formula One race in 1976, Amon largely withdrew from the public eye of international motorsport. He returned to New Zealand, where he managed the family farm in the Manawatū region. He remained involved in the sport in a limited capacity, serving as a consultant and occasionally attending historic racing events. In 1993, he was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire for services to motorsport. Amon also contributed his expertise to the Toyota Racing Series, which named its drivers' championship trophy after him and established an international scholarship in his name to support young New Zealand drivers. He lived quietly in Rotorua with his wife, Tish, until his death from cancer in 2016, aged 73.

Amon died at Rotorua Hospital on 3 August 2016, aged 73, after a battle with cancer. He was survived by his wife Tish Wotherspoon, whom he married in 1977, their three children, and grandchildren. One of his sons, James, became a high-performance personal trainer, working with the Central Districts Stags cricket team and serving as Brendon Hartley’s personal trainer. The death of a driver widely considered one of the finest never to win a championship Grand Prix prompted reflections on a career defined less by results than by an almost mythical run of misfortune. Fellow driver Mario Andretti had once joked that if Amon became an undertaker, people would stop dying. Yet Amon himself rejected the narrative of bad luck, noting that he survived serious accidents, including one in 1976, while friends like Bruce McLaren did not.

Amon never won a championship Grand Prix, yet the scale of his ability is measured in the respect of his peers. Mario Andretti once joked that if Amon “became an undertaker, people would stop dying.” Ferrari technical director Mauro Forghieri called him “by far the best test driver I have ever worked with.” The numbers tell only part of the story: 96 Grands Prix, 11 podiums, five poles, 183 laps led across seven races. He holds the record for the most different makes of car driven by a Formula One driver—thirteen. Away from the championship, Amon won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1966 with Bruce McLaren, the 24 Hours of Daytona in 1967, and a Tasman Series title. He remains the only driver from New Zealand or Oceania to race for Scuderia Ferrari. Amon himself rejected the “unlucky” label, noting he survived a decade and a half in the sport while friends like McLaren did not. His name lives on in the Toyota Racing Series driver’s championship trophy and the Manfeild Autocourse in Feilding, New Zealand. He was inducted into the New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame in 1995.