Gotfrid Köchert

AE Köchert jeweler in Vienna

Gotfrid Köchert , in some publications also Gottfried Köchert , (born March 22, 1918 in Vienna ; † November 6, 1986 in Altmünster ) was an Austrian automobile racing driver .

Life

Gotfrid Köchert was the most famous Austrian car racing driver of the 1950s. Because of his origins as a scion of the Viennese jeweler dynasty AE Köchert , he was called the "mad jeweler". Born in Vienna, he spent the 1930s in the USA and studied economics at a college in Florida from 1936 to 1938 . His parents had sent the young Köchert to the USA to stop his liaison with the actress Gusti Huber . He came back to Austria shortly before the war and married Gusti Huber during the war. The marriage, which was soon divorced, has two daughters. One of them was the actress Bibiana "Bibi" Besch . Köchert was therefore also the grandfather of Samantha Mathis , who also became an actress.

The Mille Miglia of 1956 was denied the first major car race that Köchert. He drove a new Porsche 550 , which he picked up just before the race in Stuttgart. To the astonishment of the professional world, the hitherto completely unknown Austrian was in fourth place in the overall ranking at the turning point in Rome. Shortly before Florence, however, his trip ended prematurely after a clutch damage. At this point, Köchert was in tenth place. A few weeks later, he won the Sports Car Grand Prix at the Nürburgring , celebrating the first Austrian victory in a car race after the Second World War .

In 1957 he competed again in the Mille Miglia. It was supposed to be the final 1000 mile race as the race disappeared from the racing calendar after Alfonso de Portago's death . The victory went to the Ferrari factory driver Piero Taruffi . Köchert, who also drove a Ferrari, crossed the finish line in tenth overall. He was also the first Austrian to compete in the Le Mans 24-hour race after World War II . With his partner Erwin Bauer , he drove a Ferrari 500TRC and was always in the top group for three hours before a defect in the fuel pump forced him to give up.

The Köchert / Bauer duo also competed in the 1000 km race at the Nürburgring in 1958 . At the end of the race - Köchert had long since moved and was waiting in the pits for his teammate, who brought the car to the finish line in tenth place - Bauer overlooked the checkered flag and drove on at full speed. A few kilometers after the finish line the German had a fatal accident.

At the end of the year, Köchert had a few serious accidents and a first minor heart attack. The doctors advised him to give up racing and Köchert continued to work as a sailor. At the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, he represented his country in what was then the largest Olympic yacht class and came in seventh.

You seldom saw him on the racetracks. In 1962 he drove a Ferrari 250 GTO in the 1000 km race on the Nürburgring, but was unable to classify. Gotfrid Köchert died of a heart attack in his house in Altmünster in 1986 .

statistics

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1957	Gottfried Köchert	Ferrari 500TRC	Erwin Bauer	failure	fuel pump

Individual results in the sports car world championship

season	team	race car	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11	12	13	14th	15th	16	17th	18th	19th	20th
1956	William Buff	Porsche 550	BUA	SEB	MIM	ONLY	KRI
					DNF	DNF
1957	Gotfrid Köchert	Ferrari 500TRC	BUA	SEB	MIM	ONLY	LEM	KRI	CAR
					10	13	DNF
1958	Austrian Automobile Sport Club	Ferrari 250TR	BUA	SEB	TAR	ONLY	LEM	RTT
						10
1962	OSAC	Ferrari 250 GTO	DAY	SEB	SEB	MAY	TAR	BER	ONLY	LEM	TAV	CCA	RTT	ONLY	BRI	BRI	PAR
									DNF
1964	ÖASC	Ferrari 250LM	DAY	SEB	TAR	MON	SPA	CON	ONLY	ROS	LEM	REI	FRE	CCE	RTT	SIM	ONLY	MON	TDF	BRI	BRI	PAR
																20th

literature

• Heinz Prüller : Our champions 1900–2003. NP-Buchverlag, St. Pölten et al. 2003, ISBN 3-85326-180-9 .

Web links

• The Ferrari 500TRC by Köchert / Bauer in Le Mans in 1957