Gody Näf - a lifelong connection to racing (obituary)
09/08/2019
Gody Näf has witnessed almost the entire history of the automobile. Today, it is hard to imagine that a person was already ten years old when Achille Varzi won three Grand Prix races with the Alfa Romeo P2. That shortly before the war, at the young age of 20, he was able to experience the hustle and bustle of the Silver Arrows. That after the war, at the age of 32, he took the wheel himself and saw and experienced everything from Juan Manuel Fangio to Lewis Hamilton.
His birthday was on June 29, 1919 and he died in his 100th year on August 24, 2019.
Gody's professional activities in his food import company took him all over Switzerland. He naturally drove these routes in his car and used the trips as training for his beloved racing. He covered around 2.5 million kilometers without an accident. Over the years, his vehicles included a Chevrolet, four Topolinos, six Jaguars, a BMW, three Porsches, an Abarth, a Punto and finally an Alfa Romeo.
He had been active in Swiss racing since 1948 and took part in his first race, the Albis mountain race, in 1951. He chose a little-known English sports car at the time, the Jowett Javelin Jupiter.
He later won the Girenbad hill climb and also celebrated great successes on the Kerenzerberg, including in a Fiat-Abarth vehicle.
Among other things, he also won the Gold Cup of the ACS Bern section.
He continued to take part in historic motorsport events, mostly in an Amilcar and later in an Alfa Romeo RZ, right into old age.
He always enjoyed driving, but getting in and out of the car became an increasing problem. So he often stayed in the car for most of the day. I still remember exactly how he was pushed along with the Amilcar to the age of the holy mass at the GP Mutschellen. We wrote about his passion and commitment in a separate article back then.
Gody, in your long life you really have seen everything that was exciting and interesting in motorsport. Now you will hopefully meet all your role models again, from Tazio Nuvolari to Ayrton Senna and Niki Lauda. Enjoy your peace now.
