Felice Nazzaro (4 December 1881 – 21 March 1940) was an Italian

racecar Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. Auto racing has existed since the invention of the automobile. Races of various sorts were organise ...

driver, a native of

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...

. He won the

Kaiserpreis The Kaiserpreis (german: Emperor's Prize) auto race, named after Emperor Wilhelm II, was held in 1907. Like his brother's Prinz-Heinrich-Fahrt held from 1908 to 1911, it was a precursor to the German Grand Prix. As Camille Jenatzy had won the Gordo ...

in 1907 as well as the

French Grand Prix The French Grand Prix (french: Grand Prix de France), formerly known as the Grand Prix de l'ACF (Automobile Club de France), is an auto race held as part of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile's annual Formula One World Championsh ...

in 1907 and 1922 and

Targa Florio The Targa Florio was a public road endurance automobile race held in the mountains of Sicily near the island's capital of Palermo. Founded in 1906, it was the oldest sports car racing event, part of the World Sportscar Championship between 1955 ...

in 1907, and 1913. His European wins in 1907 resulted in an invitation to compete in the

1908 American Grand Prize The 1908 Grand Prize of the Automobile Club of America took place at Savannah, Georgia on November 26, 1908. The race Louis Wagner won the closely contested race in his Fiat finishing less than a minute ahead of Victor Hémery's Benz. Wagner ...

Savannah, Georgia Savannah ( ) is the oldest city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia and is the county seat of Chatham County, Georgia, Chatham County. Established in 1733 on the Savannah River, the city of Savannah became the Kingdom of Great Br ...

, where he finished third. He returned to the United States for the 1910 event but a damaged rear axle forced him out of the race. It was his victory in the 1908 Circuito di Bologna that inspired a young

Enzo Ferrari Enzo Anselmo Giuseppe Maria Ferrari (; 20 February 1898 – 14 August 1988) was an Italian motor racing driver and entrepreneur, the founder of the Scuderia Ferrari Grand Prix motor racing team, and subsequently of the Ferrari automobil ...

to become a racing driver. In 1911 he founded his own manufacturing company in Turin, Automobili Nazzaro, which produced circa 490 vehicles in total and won both the 1913 and 1920

s, plus the 1914

Coppa Florio The Coppa Florio (or Florio Cup) was a motorsport race for automobiles first held in Italy in 1900. It was renamed in 1905 when Vincenzo Florio offered the initial 50,000 Lira prize money and a cup designed by Polak of Paris. The cup was to be aw ...

.''The Complete Encyclopedia of Motor Cars'', G.N. Georgano, Ebury Press, 1973. He continued racing until 1929 at the age of 48, and died in Turin in 1940 after a long illness at the age of 58.

References

1881 births 1940 deaths Sportspeople from Turin Italian racing drivers Grand Prix drivers {{Italy-autoracing-bio-stub