In 2011 Chris Amon told Autosport magazine about his greatest race for our ‘Race of my Life’ feature. Following his death, Autosport is republishing the story in tribute to the former grand prix driver and Le Mans 24 hours winner:
The race that sticks in my mind is the 1972 French Grand Prix at Clermont-Ferrand with the Matra. It was the first race for the MS120D.
We’d been having all sorts of problems with the engines and when we got to Clermont there were no F1 engines available so we had to use a sportscar engine. It had three-ring pistons, while the F1 engine had two-ring pistons, and a few other differences.
The F1 engine was quoted as having 30 or 40 more bhp, but once in the chassis the sportscar engine was probably giving more power because it allowed the oil to scavenge better.
The MS120D felt very good straight out of the box. Right from early on I knew we had a pretty good chance. I was right up there in practice and got pole position.
The big worry I had was that we carried so much more fuel in the V12s than the [Cosworth DFV] V8s – 30 to 40kg more at the start. The first few laps were always a battle because you were fighting that extra weight.
I managed to get away in front, just, albeit under a lot of pressure from Denny Hulme [McLaren M19C] and Jackie Stewart [Tyrrell 003]. Then, as the fuel burned off, I started to pull away a bit and it was feeling really good.
Then Denny dropped back and I had a reasonable cushion back to Jackie. I thought I could afford to ease back a bit and I got a bloody puncture. There were a lot of loose stones – they were all over the track, you couldn’t pick a line through them.
It was a comedy pitstop. The wheel jammed and I was in the pits for a minute and a half or so.
From that point I just went for it. I drove as quickly as I could and I lapped almost as quickly as my pole time. I managed to pass Francois Cevert [Tyrrell 002] and Ronnie Peterson [March 721G] on the same lap, which I was quite pleased about.
With one lap to go I was eight or so seconds behind Emerson Fittipaldi [Lotus 72D] and I ended up four seconds behind in third. One more lap and I’d have got past him. I was 30 seconds behind Jackie at the end – I’d taken a minute or so out of him, though he might have backed off.
I really felt nobody could touch me that day. I had a clear margin over everybody. I wish I knew why – I’d have done it every time!
Originally published in April 7, 2011 issue. Chris Amon was talking to Kevin Turner
