(David Mist)
Chris Amon, 19 years of age, awaits the start of the 1963 Australian Grand Prix, Warwick Farm, Sydney. Cooper T53 Climax…
Amon didn’t finish in his ‘Scuderia Veloce’ entered Cooper, the cars fuel pump failed after 24 laps. Jack Brabham won the race in his Brabham BT4 Climax, Amon’s team-leader and ‘SV’ owner David McKay finished fourth in another Brabham BT4 Climax.
I wrote an article about McKay a while back; https://primotipo.com/2014/07/03/pete-geoghegan-ferrari-250lm-6321-bathurst-easter-68/
These were the early days of a very successful collaboration between Amon and McKay which resulted in the pair winning the 1969 Tasman Series in the fabulous Ferrari Dino 246T. Chris was the first of many drivers the racer/writer/team owner nurtured over the years.
In Amon’s case it was at a stage of his life when McKay was about to vacate the driving seat and evolve into a new stage of his career as owner/entrant of cars driven by others. Amon, then racing a Maserati 250F in NZ tested McKay’s Cooper T51 at Warwick Farm in August 1962 and contested Australian Gold Star rounds later in the season at Mallala and Sandown, non-starting in both but taking a strong third place at Warwick Farm in the Hordern Trophy behind Bib Stillwell and John Youl in October.
This was all valuable experience before the NZ and Australian Internationals with McKay entering the Kiwi in a later model T53 Cooper.
He was seventh from grid 6 in the NZ GP at the brand new Pukekohe circuit on 5 January, and had DNF’s with ignition and gearbox dramas at Levin, Wigram and Teretonga. He qualified fourth, sixth and seventh. In Australia he had slightly more luck.
(J Ellacott)
Before the off- Surtees Lola Mk4A, #10 McLaren Cooper T62 and an obscured David McKay Brabham BT4, row 2 Tony Maggs Lola Mk4A and Chris in #14 Cooper T53 then Lex Davison on the left, Cooper T53, John Youl bright red Cooper T55 and you can just see Graham Hill’s distinctive helmet, Ferguson P99 on the fence (B Wilson)
He contested the AGP at Warwick Farm above, for grid 5 and DNF fuel pump. At the Lakeside International he was fourth from grid 6, his best result. In Tasmania, at the South Pacific Championship at Longford he was seventh from grid 8 and at the Sandown International, the Australian Grand Prix, he finished sixth from grid 12 in the last meeting of his tour on 10 March.
It was a critical period in Amon’s progression as a driver. Chris raced his ex-Owen Racing Organisation Maserati 250F in the first of the Kiwi Internationals at Renwick in November 1962. He then graduated to McKay’s Cooper and so impressed Reg Parnell (who ran Lola Mk4A’s for John Surtees and Tony Maggs in Australasia) that summer in a car that was not the latest bit of kit, and 2.5 Coventry Climax FPF powered rather than the 2.7 variant used by much of the opposition, that he was off to Europe for the rest of 1963. Seventh place in the British and French Grands Prix were his best results in the Parnell Racing Lola Mk4A Climax V8 that season.
His climb went all the way to the top echelon of Grand Prix Racing of course, championship Grand Prix win or not, he was undisputably a ‘Top 5 In The World’ pilot in several seasons during the 1967-72 period…
Chris Amon, Cooper T53 Climax Lakeside 1963. 4th in the race won by John Surtees’ Lola Mk4A Climax (Bruce Thomas)
Cooper T53 Climax ‘F2-8-60’…
The car was built by the CT ‘Tommy’ Atkins team for Bruce McLaren to drive but using the identity of one of the 1960 works F1 cars. (Jacks 1960 chassis)
The chassis was either built late in 1960 for McLaren to race in 1961 UK Intercontinental races or at the end of the season for his use in the 1962 New Zealand and Australian Internationals, depending upon the account you reference.
It was then sold to David McKay for the 1962 Australian Gold Star Series, raced by Amon in the ’63 Kiwi/Australian Internationals and then passed into the hands of a succession of Kiwi owners; Bill Thomason in 1963, Feo Stanton and Ian Rorison 1964 or 1965 and rebuilt as the Rorstan Sports with 2.7-litre Climax engine, then to D Lupp in 1970. Ted Giles bought it in 1978, it’s still in the families ownership in 2012.
Credits…
David Mist, Powerhouse Museum, Bruce Thomas, Hammo, John Ellacott
Bibliography…
oldracingcars.com for the chassis history and race results, sergent.com, Bruce Wilson
Tailpiece: Amon’s Scuderia Veloce Cooper T53 Climax 2.5 prowling the Longford paddock, he was 7th in the ‘South Pacific Championship’ race won by Bruce McLaren’s Cooper T62 Climax 2.7…
(Hammo)
Finito…
primotipo... 