Like McLaren, with whom he won the Le Mans 24-hour endurance race in a Ford GT40 50 years ago, he founded his own team but Chris Amon Racing failed to achieve much success.
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Amon showed incredible speed during his time at Ferrari – with a run of pole positions in 1968 – but the bad luck that would dog his career meant none of them would be converted into a race victory. Having seen the flaming wreck of Lauda’s Ferrari, Amon refused to join the race restart and was promptly fired by the Ensign team – prompting him to retire from F1.
On Amon’s legendary lack of good fortune during his Formula One career, American driver Mario Andretti, a Formula 1 champion and Indy 500 victor once joked: “If Chris Amon was an undertaker, no one would die”.
“It was with profound sadness that I heard the news this morning that Chris Amon had passed away”, Dennis said.
I count myself so very lucky to have got to know him over the past 14 years.
He died in Rotorua Hospital in New Zealand on Wednesday. “I am eternally thankful to be here”.
“It was very frustrating sometimes – we were so close and yet so far on so many occasions right through my career really”.
His major successes came in sports auto racing and including the Silverstone International Trophy, the 1000km Monza and the Daytona 24 hours race.
That prompted an invitation from Enzo Ferrari to drive for his F1 team in 1967, when he delivered a number of podium finishes during a campaign that was overshadowed by the death of teammate Lorenzo Bandini at Monaco.
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Amon is widely regarded as being one of the greatest drivers never to win a grand prix, but was victorious in a handful of non-championship races.
