Chris Amon - Unluckiest Driver?

Successful motor racing depends upon the combination of a highly skilled driver fitted into a top performance vehicle both of which require the blessing of Lady Luck. Sometimes superlative driving skill can compensate for mechanical deficiencies but only sometimes. And nothing compensates for lack of luck. For instance, at Monaco in 1955 at the end of lap 10, eight drivers including Stirling Moss in a Mercedes Benz W196 were in front of Maurice Trintignant. Then on lap 50 a broken transmission caused Juan Fangio to retire. On the 81st lap, a smoking engine sent Stirling Moss out of the lead and into the pit. Both men were superlative drivers and Mercedes certainly had a reputation for winning vehicles but Lady Luck cast her blessing upon Trintignant who crossed the finish line first. And at the Indy 500, Alberto Ascari suffered his only loss for the year when he was forced out after 40 laps due to mechanical problems

So every driver at some point in his career falls out of favor with Lady Luck however with Chris Amon it was a chronic condition. In fact, Chris encountered so much misfortune that another driver, Mario Andretti, said in jest, "If he became an undertaker people would stop dying." And Amon became well known in the racing community as "One of the best F-1 drivers to never win a Grand Prix."

Chris was born on July 20, 1943 in Bulls, New Zealand. His father Ngaio Amon was a wealthy sheep farmer. When Chris finished school his dad bought him an Austin A40 special which Chris started running in local races. His driving attracted the attention of the English driver, Reg Parnell, who invited Chris to become a member of his team. Amon's ill luck started in 1963 at Monaco when he had to surrender his car to team member Maurice Trintignant whose car had developed a last minute malfunction. Mechanical problems dogged Chris throughout the year at the Dutch, Mexican, Belgian and German Grands Prix. In 1964 Christ was finally able to score world championship points at the Dutch Grand Prix but then mechanical problems kept him out of the running in 1964 and 1965.

Although he drove in Canada in 1966, he made only two F1 appearances that year. However, 1966 was still a good year for Amon as he won the 24 Hours at LeMans. In 1967 Chris signed on with Ferrari and won three third places and one fourth place in the Drivers' Championship. He was more successful in sports car racing than in F-1 and won the Daytona 24 Hours and 1000 km Monza events.

Chris raced until 1976. During his active years in F-1, he had 96 starts, achieved eleven podiums and won five pole positions. He had three fastest laps. Overall he earned 83 career points. After witnessing Niki Lauda's crash at the German GP, Amon decided to retire from racing. In his own words, "I'd seen too many people fried in racing cars at that stage." Chris also disagreed with the bad luck theory commenting that in his thirteen years of racing he had walked away from some bad accidents while many of his friends had been seriously injured and died. So from that point of view, Lady Luck indeed blessed him.