Chris Amon Racing

Chris Amon Racing was the name of a short-lived achievements of the New Zealand racing driver Chris Amon with which this took up to 1974 individual World Cup races in the Formula 1.

• 4.1 The International Trophy in 1974
• 4.2 The Grand Prix of Spain 1974
• 4.3 The Monaco Grand Prix 1974
• 4.4 The Grand Prix of Germany 1974
• 4.5 The Grand Prix of Italy 1974
• 4.6 After the end of the team

The history

Chris Amon was the opinion of most observers, one of the most talented racers of the late 1960s and early 1970s. What made ​​him special was the fact that he never won a Formula 1 race in spite of his talent and despite his enthusiasm. The British journalist Maurice Hamilton summed up the with the words: " Chris Amon was the best winless racers of Formula 1 history."

Some observers attributed the chance to or thought that Chris Amon was dogged by bad luck. With the cause of the Sieglosigkeit New Zealander was in an objective sense, however, the fact that he at any rate in the second half of his career for teams that were not competitive organized or inserting second-rate material went. In the 1960s, factory driver at Ferrari, Amon was in the Formula 1 1972 season Factory driver of the French Matra team, which had increasingly lost touch after his separation from Tyrrell and after this season ended his as factory Formula 1 involvement. 1973 Amon drove for the Italian Tecno team, which took the name " Martini Racing Team " with a private car and a separate engine in Formula 1. Tecno was overwhelmed technically and organizationally and 1973 could only achieve a single world championship point. Chris Amon left the team disappointed with its lack of competitiveness, even before the end of the season and played the last two races of the year as a third driver for the team Tyrrell.

For the 1974 season Amon had no driver's contract in view, so that it became the way to independence as the last alternative. In 1972 Chris Amon was entered as an entrepreneur in the short term phenomenon. Along with Aubrey Woods, former manager of the racing team BRM, he had Amon Racing Engines founded a company that supplied racing engines to teams in Formula 2. Indeed, few drivers based their engines of Amon, and the operation was because he had not proved profitable, sold with some loss of March Engineering. Notwithstanding this experience, Chris Amon decided to to compete in the Formula 1 1974 season with its own newly formed team to the World Cup.

The Team Chris Amon Racing

Chris Amon Racing was founded in November 1973. The team decreed the end of 1973 with a budget of 100,000 British pounds. This amount is applied mainly to Amon supporters John Dalton.

The idea that drivers engaged with its own team was not new. Since the 1950s, there were privateers, and even in the 1970s, this concept was still pursued by some pilots. Mike Beuttler for example, had in 1971 denied almost all world championship races with his team Clarke - Mordaunt- Guthrie until 1973. There were countless pilots who volunteered to single race only. They all sat usually a customer cars by large vehicle manufacturers, including cars from March Engineering, rare Brabham, Tyrrell or (later) Williams. Chris Amon's concept, however, went further than the pure private driver. Unlike them, he wanted to compete not only with his own team, but also with its own, self- designed and built car. Also for this idea there were role models: Sir Jack Brabham was the first racer who successfully started their own car. These were followed by Bruce McLaren and John Surtees; went in the late 1970s, then - less successfully - Arturo Merzario the same way.

In the first few months Chris Amon also planned to build a car for the Formula 5000; as engine was here a Repco - machine conversation, which should be based on an eight-cylinder Holden. Larry Perkins reported that Amon was hoping some Formula 5000 cars for sale, and thus to finance the operation of its Formula 1 team. They were not, however; the company lacked the financial means from the beginning to develop in addition to the Formula 1 car yet another vehicle.

Chris Amon put in the organization of the team value on simple structures. In an interview with the magazine sport auto in January 1974, he declared: "I want my team is as easy as possible. I do not want to use too much time on organizational tasks; I just want to drive only race. I do need a good chassis, a Cosworth engine and a small, enthusiastic crew. " Part of the company was the Australian racing driver Larry Perkins, who had previously achieved some good results in Formula 3. Perkins should on the one hand take over the function of a mechanic, on the other hand work as a test driver and drive the development of the car.

The car: Amon F101

The concept

As technical director of the 35- year-old designer Gordon Fowell was obliged barely had experience in the construction of racing cars. Fowell had been awarded the contract in the summer of 1973 by Tecno, to construct a replacement vehicle for the disabled Tecno PA123; this new car, called Goral E 731, however, was, in the words of Amon similarly hopeless as its predecessor, and it was only used at each race. Chris Amon saw in Fowells lack of experience something positive, because so Fowell would be able to come up with fresh ideas, without being prejudiced. Amon's concept was to build the car outside the home, in the workshop of John Thompson, who had already prepared for the Scuderia Ferrari, Surtees and Tecno commissioned work cars.

The implementation

Gordon Fowell designed for Chris Amon a car that was in some ways ambiguous. On one hand, it corresponded in many ways the standard in the 1970s model kit cars: It consisted of a square aluminum monocoque with purchased components, including suspension parts from Koni, a DG -400 five-speed gearbox from Hewland and a DFV - eight-cylinder Cosworth. On the other hand, there were some features that were ahead of their time:

• These included especially the location of the fuel tank, which was located between the driver seat and the engine. The AF101 was the first Formula 1 car with this arrangement. Until then, it was common for many small tanks to place around the driver. Fowells concept pursued the one hand, security thoughts, on the other hand, he was able to achieve a center of gravity of the car. With respect to this element was the AF101 a pioneer.

• Unusual also was the design of the air inlet of the airbox. It was rectangular and was transverse to the direction of travel.

• Another special feature of the AF101 had in its initial form, a sensational double front wing: installed on the car's nose was a wing with the reverse orientation; behind it there was over the front axle an additional conventional wings. Both should together produce a better flow at high speeds. In fact, this concept proved to be unfit: first tests showed that no output, but buoyancy was produced at the front end. In the end, had this peculiarity removed before the first race again and the car will be equipped with a conventional front wing.

The problems in the realization of

Overall, the team suffered in the first months of 1974, among numerous difficulties:

• First, the goals set by Chris Amon schedule did not comply. The production of the car at John Thompson took much longer than planned. Amon had initially intended to occur already at the first race of the World Cup, held in South America in January 1974 with his car. At this time, AF101 was not yet assembled, however. Also, the Race of Champions in March 1974 the car was not ready.

• When the car was finally completed end March 1974, the aerodynamics proved problematic. Even without the dubious double wing on the front end was not easy to drive the AF 101. It took a series of tests in order to improve the aerodynamics.

• Then appeared during the test drives countless reliability problems. The car was inherently unstable, and broke several parts or fell off. In an exit of the AF 101 at the Goodwood Circuit Amon suffered in a high speed round a serious accident, which he survived unscathed.

• Another problem was finally the Firestone tires that used Amon: Given the fact that Firestone wanted to retire in late 1974 from Formula 1, the development of the tire was already set, preventing them from over the competition from Goodyear, with the successful teams were equipped, clearly proved to be inferior.

Due to the time delay of the defects and the aerodynamic problems, the budget of the team was largely used up before the first race.

The races

The International Trophy in 1974

Chris Amon Racing debuted at the BRDC International Trophy on April 7, 1974, the Silverstone Circuit, a race that was not part of the Formula 1 World Championship. Amon took part in the qualifying and reached a time, which ultimately meant the 28th starting position. Due to a mechanical problem that could not be solved on the spot, the Chris Amon Racing team withdrew prematurely, without taking part in the race.

The Grand Prix of Spain 1974

The first message to a World Championship race took place on the occasion of Jarama in the end of April 1974. During the race the car tended to substantial vibrations, in particular einstellten when applying the brakes and the car made ​​almost impassable. Chris Amon could qualify with 3.3 seconds off the pole time for the 24th grid position is nevertheless, before Rikky von Opel factory in the second Brabham and Tim gift giving Trojan (Formula 1). In the race Amon retired after 22 laps. In some cases a brake failure is indicated for the failure, according to other sources dissolved in the race a front wheel. The Grand Prix of Spain should be the only race where the Amon AF101 participated.

For the Belgian Grand Prix at Nivelles joined the team not to.

The Monaco Grand Prix 1974

The next announcement was made for the Grand Prix of Monaco. The team had modified the car in the past four weeks considerably. There were a few braces in the car, which should mitigate the vibrations; Furthermore, a new front wing has been installed, and the position of the condenser was changed. Chris Amon qualified for the 20th starting position, a position behind Jacky Ickx, who drove a factory Lotus, and before Graham Hill in his Hill - Lola. In the race itself, the team did not participate, however. As before, the hub was a problem of the car, and the team could not rule out that in the race due to the defective hub for the umpteenth time a wheel would fall off. In this regard, especially in the narrow streets of Monaco, an accident in the race was not excluded. Amon wanted this - and a possible expensive repair as a result of which - Avoid given the difficult financial situation, so he withdrew the team before the race.

The Grand Prix of Germany 1974

The next race, to which Chris Amon Racing made ​​its appearance, was the Grand Prix of Germany at the (old ) Nürburgring. The car was again modified in some areas; in particular, there was another new front wing. First, Chris Amon reported themselves as drivers. He took part in spite of illness on Friday training and achieved a lap time of eight and a half minutes; so that his deficit was almost one and a half minutes on the subsequent poles of Niki Lauda. On Saturday before the race deteriorated Amon's health, so he passed on the car to Larry Perkins. Perkins could not qualify; he was by far the slowest of the session. His residue at the pole time of Niki Lauda was 45 seconds; Perkins thus did not qualify. Since both drivers ( with the same car ) come on different days timed laps, Chris Amon Racing appears in the stats race with two drivers.

The Grand Prix of Austria was the team from again.

The Grand Prix of Italy 1974

Chris Amon registered his team once again for the Grand Prix of Italy. The AF101 now wore a fifth different version of the front wing. In qualifying he was 5 seconds behind Lauda's pole time of the penultimate; slower was only Leo Kinnunen in the private Surtees of Finland AAW Racing Team.

Then Chris Amon Racing closed forever the gates. The team had become insolvent, and Amon saw no way to maintain the racing.

After the end of the team

After the end of his own racing team Chris Amon raced in Formula 1 1974 season two races at BRM, 1975, then two races with the Ensign team for which he played almost the entire 1976 season. His last race went Amon the end of 1976 for Walter Wolf Racing.

Larry Perkins appeared in 1976 with a car called Boro 001 for the Dutch team HB Bewaking system (Formula 1) in Formula 1 before 1976 individual qualification trials for the left in resolution tradition Team BRM undertook.

The AF 101 was never reinstated to a Formula 1 race. The car still exists. It was restored several years ago and is now taking part in historical races.

Chris Amon analysis

To motivate able to set up a dedicated team and the problems of the team Amon said in April 1998:

" After 11 frustrating years in Formula 1, I knew exactly what I had to ask a race car. I wanted a custom-made car and let Gordon Fowell implement my ideas. But the project proved too ambitious for my financial situation. I was sure that my test experience would be sufficient to develop the car properly. But whenever I tried to ride it, broke anything. (...) When I went the first time the car at Goodwood, one dropped tires from. the same thing happened at Silverstone. several other parts fell off. I just had to put in the car, already dropped something off. (...). It was a high-tech company, which we in a garage. had we operated tries some ground fuller, so we could be more successful. "

Some years earlier could be Chris Amon quote as follows: "My car was the only race car, the one cent starting or prize money has never retracted". At the time, this may have been true; later years, however, should produce cars whose lack of opportunity was more than the AF101.