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Chris Amon
Sign in to saveAlso known as Christopher Amon, Christopher Arthur Amon
New Zealand racing driver
OverviewAI-generated
Chris Amon was a New Zealand racing automobile driver and farmer. Born in Bulls in 1943, he competed in auto racing, participating in events such as the 24 Hours of Le Mans. During his career, he drove for teams including Reg Parnell Racing, Scuderia Ferrari, March Engineering, and Equipe Matra Sports. His record includes 125 starts, five pole positions, and 11 podium finishes, accumulating 83 points without a win.
Amon was awarded the Member of the Order of the British Empire. He died of cancer from natural causes in Rotorua on August 3, 2016.
Synthesized by Vinony from 32 facts across 5 sources: Wikidata, Crossref, MusicBrainz, Last.fm, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.
Key facts
- Born
- Christopher Arthur Amon , ( 1943-07-20 ) 20 July 1943, Bulls , Rangitikei, New Zealand
- Died
- 3 August 2016 (2016-08-03) (aged 73), Rotorua , Bay of Plenty, New Zealand
- Spouse
- Tish Wotherspoon ( married</span>"}]]}'>m. 1977 )
- Nationality
- New Zealander
- Active years
- 1963 – 1976
- Teams
- Parnell , privateer Brabham , McLaren , Cooper , Amon , Ferrari , March , Matra , Tecno , Tyrrell , BRM , Ensign , Wolf–Williams
- Entries
- 108 (96 starts)
- First entry
- 1963 Monaco Grand Prix
- Last entry
- 1976 Canadian Grand Prix
- Participating years span years
- 1964 – 1967 , 1969 , 1971 – 1973
- Best finish
- 1st ( 1966 )
- Class wins
- 1 ( 1966 )
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- human
- Given name
- Chris
- Gender
- male
- Citizenship
- New Zealand
- Place of birth
- Bulls
- Place of death
- Rotorua
- Participant in
- 24 Hours of Le Mans
- Sport
- auto racing
- Image
- AmonChris19730706.jpg
Show 11 more facts
- Commons category
- Chris Amon
- date of birth
- 1943-07-20
- date of death
- 2016-08-03
- Commons gallery
- Chris Amon
- cause of death
- cancer
- manner of death
- natural causes
- points for
- 83
- number of wins
- 0
- pole positions
- 5
- podium finishes
- 11
- number of matches played/races/starts
- 125
Sources (3)
via Wikidata · CC0
~34 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Christopher Arthur Amon (/ˈeɪmən/; 20 July 1943 – 3 August 2016) was a New Zealand racing driver and motorsport executive who competed in Formula One from 1963 to 1976. Widely regarded as one of the greatest drivers to never win a Formula One Grand Prix, Amon won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1966 with Ford, as well as the 24 Hours of Daytona in 1967 with Ferrari.
Born and raised in Bulls, Amon learned to drive aged six and initially competed in hillclimbing before progressing to national motor racing competition in 1962. Amon joined Reg Parnell Racing the following year, making his Formula One debut at the Monaco Grand Prix. After a non-classified championship finish in his rookie season, Amon scored his maiden points finish with fifth-place at the 1964 Dutch Grand Prix. Following intermittent Grand Prix appearances in 1965, Amon became a test driver for McLaren and moved into sportscar racing. After winning the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans in the Ford GT40 Mk.II alongside Bruce McLaren, Amon was signed by Ferrari for 1967, achieving his maiden podium at the Monaco Grand Prix amongst winning the 24 Hours of Daytona; he finished a career-best fifth in the World Drivers' Championship.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Chris Amon” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.