Ben Pon

Pon's only World Championship Formula One start came at the 1962 Dutch Grand Prix on 20 May 1962, held at his home circuit of Zandvoort. The entry was arranged through his close personal friend Carel Godin de Beaufort, whose Ecurie Maarsbergen team entered a Porsche 787 — powered by a Porsche 547/3 1.5-litre four-cylinder engine — for Pon to race. He qualified eighteenth and was classified tenth on the grid by some sources. The race ended in accident: the car was thrown over, ejecting Pon into roadside shrubbery. He was unhurt, but the experience proved decisive. He vowed never to race a single-seater again, and kept that vow for the rest of his career.

Having closed the door on open-wheel competition, Pon turned to sports car racing with Porsche machinery and competed actively from 1961 through to 1967, with a gap following his formal retirement in 1965 before one last appearance two years later.

His Le Mans record spanned six starts. In 1961 he co-drove a Porsche 356B Abarth GTL with Herbert Linge to tenth overall and first in the S 1.6 class — a class victory. In 1962 he returned with Carel Godin de Beaufort in a Porsche 356B Abarth, but the pair retired. In 1963, now co-driving with Heinz Schiller in a Porsche 356B 2000GS GT, he retired again. In 1964, paired with Henk van Zalinge for Racing Team Holland in a Porsche 904/4 GTS, he finished eighth overall and second in the GT 2.0 class. In 1965, another DNF in a Porsche 904/4 GTS with Robert Buchet as co-driver.

After his 1965 retirement, Pon returned for the 1967 24 Hours of Le Mans as a one-off effort. Co-driving a Porsche 906K Carrera 6 entered by Porsche System Engineering alongside Vic Elford, the pair finished seventh overall and first in the S 2.0 class — the strongest result of his racing career and a second class victory at Le Mans to close his competitive record.

Pon also competed in early 1960s sports car events in Canada under CASC sanctioning.

Pon built a substantial second career in wine. He founded the Bernardus Winery in Carmel Valley, California, and also owned the oldest wine-negotiating business in the Netherlands. His competitive instincts surfaced once more in Olympic sport: he represented the Netherlands in clay pigeon shooting at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, finishing 31st in the skeet event. That combination — a Formula One World Championship start and an Olympic Games appearance — places him in a distinctly rare category of multi-sport competitors.