Chris Amon Festival 2011
Read the articles contained within the Official New Zealand Festival of Motor Racing celebrating Chris Amon, published in 2011. I’ll be added more content in the upcoming weeks, so check back often or signup to receive notifications of new content. To see all articles relating to the festival click on the Chris Amon Festival topic in the side column.
Welcome to New Zealand Festival of Motor Racing celebrating Chris Amon! The Festival will be held at Hampton Downs Motor Sport Park on 21–23 January 2011, and on 28–30 January 2011. The Festival will celebrate the significant motorsport achievements of New Zealand’s own Chris Amon. You will read much more about Chris in the pages that follow in this programme.
Chris raced over 80 different types of car. At the Festival there will be a number of racing cars that Chris actually drove, including his first race car the1947 A40 Special, the 1954 Maserati 250F (1st Weekend only), a 1959 Cooper T51 Climax, 1968 Ferrari 246T and the 1974 Amon AF101 F1. Add to these a number of other cars that were very like those he raced, including a Cooper T53, Formula Vee, Shelby Cobra, Shelby Cobra Daytona R, Brabham BT11, Ford GT40 R, McLaren M1A/B and M12, BRM P201 F1, Talon MR1A and many others. Most of these cars will be raced or demonstrated, and some will be displayed in the Chris Amon lunchtime parade. I want to thank the owners of all these wonderful ‘Chris’ cars for bringing them to the Festival for us all to enjoy.
Jim Barclay (left) with Chris Amon at the NZ Festival of Motor Racing celebrating Bruce McLaren.
A special mid-afternoon on-track demonstration will be held on each day throughout both weekends, and we hope to see Chris out on the track driving some of his former cars in these short demonstrations – have your cameras ready!
In addition to a busy race schedule involving some 280 single-seaters, sports cars, and saloon & GT cars, we welcome the NZ Classic Motorcycle Racing Register to the first weekend of the Festival with some 35 pre-1963 classic racing bikes. NZ Superbike Champion Andrew Stroud will demonstrate his Suzuki Superbike at lunchtime on the first weekend. A brief lunchtime air display from NZ Warbirds (Saturday 29th January) and the RNZAF Red Checkers (Sunday 30th January) will join the programme for the second weekend.
Visitors to the Festival should allow time to see the display of cars located in the Chris Amon display maquée which is supported by the Bruce McLaren Trust. The Trust will release a special 105-page book Chris Amon: A Celebration of a Kiwi Icon, and Chris will be in
attendance daily at 1030am to sign copies of this new book. All profits from the sale of the book will go to the Trust, which is something Chris, a Patron of the Trust, is very proud to support. Visitors should also visit the Pits to see the cars close-up, take photos and talk with the drivers and crews.
In closing, I want to thank all the competitors and their crews from near and far who have brought their wonderful cars and bikes to help us celebrate our New Zealand Festival of Motor Racing. I also want to thank all those volunteers who have given of their time so freely to make this Festival a success. And finally, I want to thank our sponsors, suppliers and all of our spectators for supporting
the Festival.
I trust you will enjoy the Festival. I look forward to seeing you back for the New Zealand Festival of Motor Racing celebrating BMW Motorsport in January 2012, and the New Zealand Festival of Motor Racing celebrating Denny Hulme in January 2013. Watch our website www.nzfmr.co.nz for future developments.
With my special thanks to everyone,
Jim Barclay
Festival Chairman
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