A statue of former Formula One driver Chris Amon was unveiled in his hometown of Bulls on June 29, with (from left) Adele Hulme, Georgie Amon, Amanda McLaren and James Amon joining the celebration.
A statue of former Formula One driver Chris Amon was unveiled in his hometown of Bulls on June 29, with (from left) Adele Hulme, Georgie Amon, Amanda McLaren and James Amon joining the celebration.
A statue of the late Chris Amon has been unveiled in his hometown of Bulls to honour his success as a Formula One driver.
About 500 people and 17 Ferraris attended the unveiling on June 29, temporarily shutting State Highway 1 through the Rangitīkei town.
Amon, who died in 2016,is renowned as one of the greatest drivers to never win a Formula One Grand Prix.
His 2.4m bronze statue was erected in his birthplace of Bulls, where he learned to drive at the age of 6.
Chris Amon won the 1969 New Zealand Grand Prix. Photo / NZME
The project took seven years to come to fruition, with project director Paul Sharland taking inspiration during a trip to Pukekohe and seeing the statue of former rally car driver Possum Bourne.
By coincidence, Sharland bumped into Kenny Smith at the supermarket that same day and he encouraged Sharland to follow through with the statue.
The statue of Chris Amon was unveiled in Bulls on the weekend.
Harkness explained the complex process of completing the “fantastic job” that Gauldie had done.
He took over from Gauldie’s work 11 months ago and had to take the moulds of the sculpture, make waxes and plaster sections on a rubber coating then paint wax into it to create a layer.
He then cast the moulds into bronze and pieced the statue together “like a 3D jigsaw puzzle” with help from his daughter on the metal work.
“The installation was quite a big thing,” Harkness said.
“It was a relief that I finished it for my mate Ross, I don’t think I would have tackled it if he hadn’t passed because he would have done it with me.”
Amon’s statue was the first he had taken on without Wilson’s help since he began bronze casting 30 years ago.
The pair’s first statue was of English settler and entrepreneur John Plimmer on Lambton Quay, Wellington, in 1996. Since then, they have produced 15 statues around New Zealand.
Sharland said the feedback from the crowd during the unveiling and throughout the process has been amazing and he thanked the community for getting together to make it happen.
Amon’s children, James Amon and Georgie Amon, attended the event with their children and performed the honour of unveiling their father’s statue.
Also present were the daughters of Hulme and McLaren, uniting three daughters of champions.
Sharland said it was important to have the statue in Bulls to honour one of the town’s finest products.
“The three champions of that era, McLaren, Hulme and Amon, there should be a memorial of them to say what they did because it is almost a forgotten era,” he said.
“We’re all concentrating now on Liam Lawson and those sort of guys but people tend to forget that in the ′60s and ′70s, those three guys did extremely well.
“It’s a great way to memorialise them and make sure they are there for good – and they will be, people will notice it. I think it’s a resurrection of an era we tend to forget about.”
