Heavy rain in the Manawatu seventy-five years ago caused severe flooding at Scott’s Ferry – a small farming community some 20 minutes driving time from Bulls. Long before the construction of the bridge over the Rangitikei River, traffic was ferried across the water by barge operated by a couple named Scott. The ferry business is long redundant but the barge remained as a monument to Scott’s Ferry.
The floodwaters were of such significance in mid to late July 1943 that a heavily pregnant farmer’s wife had to be transported on a horse before getting into a waiting car for the balance of the journey to Palmerston North Hospital. On the 20th of the month she gave birth to a boy and his given names were Christopher Arthur however in years to come, the world of motor racing would know him simply as Chris.
Fifteen years ago, when he was on the brink of turning the age I just have, he told me – “I suppose one of the significant things about my early life was that I was an only child, we lived out in the country at the end of a dead-end road miles from anywhere and, in hindsight, I was really lonely. When I got back from school of an afternoon, I’d have to entertain myself, and this didn’t really prepare me to deal with people later in life. I always had dogs, and they have been an ongoing feature of my life. I just loved getting back to my dogs after a race, even up to the end of my career, and I still have a dog.”
I have known dog-lovers – hell I’m one myself, but I have never met a greater lover of canines that Christopher Arthur Amon. Fast forward quarter of a century and on the day of his 25th birthday, Chris was facing the starter for the 1968 British Grand Prix. It was the year wings were introduced to Formula 1 and Chris had one fitted to his Ferrari at Spa – old Spa, all 14.1 kilometres of it. He was on pole by a margin of over four seconds – four seconds. “They all assumed it was because of the wing but I had gone just as quick without it – it hindsight we should have removed it for qualifying because by the next race all the front runners had them…we tripped ourselves up in reality…”
The Belgian Grand Prix had been round four of the championship and Chris had already been on pole in Spain which was round 2 – it was a race he had in the palm of his hand until deep in the race. He was on pole again at round 5 at Zandvoort, the Dutch seaside circuit. Round 6 was at Rouen north-west of France and when he was in New Zealand last February to launch Circuit Chris Amon, his team-mate at Ferrari that year, Jacky Ickx, told me how guilty he felt that Chris, the senior man was still to win his first Grand Prix, and that he – as a new boy, had won. In fairness it was an impressive debut victory but as Jacky said ‘we had taken a gamble on tyres because of the conditions – me on one compound, Chris on the. My tyres ended up being the right ones…”
The British Grand Prix was held at Brands Hatch in 1968 and by now Lotus had introduced the highest wing of all – the works cars occupied the right hand side and middle of the front row of the 3-2-3 grid. On the outside of the front row was the birthday boy from Bulls – could today be the day?
Deep into the race he was running in second place behind the Lotus of Jo Siffert – Motor magazine’s report confirmed – ‘Ten laps to go and only a second between the two leaders. The Ferrari pit were now showing Amon the number of laps left…but his left rear tyre was bald and the back of the car was sliding wildly in all directions, so that try as he might, Amon could fight no more.’
Siffert won and Chris was second – bizarrely in a season where he could have easily been world champion, this day in Kent was his only visit to the podium…and that would be his last haul of points for 1968.
Chris was a great supporter of Brendon Hartley and it is a shame he didn’t live quite long enough to see him make it to Formula 1. He once told me – “Do you know Brendon was also born in Palmerston North Hospital?” I don’t know if some curse of bad luck has been aimed at any baby born in that establishment who goes onto make it all the way to Formula 1 but as Brendon lines up in Germany this weekend, and practice will be on the 75th anniversary of the great Chris Amon’s birthday, we can only hope that he’s already had all of 2018’s bad luck…and 2019’s and 2020’s…
Comments