  (Conext:) Surveys of Wolf-Rayet (WR) populations in nearby galaxies provide
tests of evolutionary models plus Type Ib/c supernova progenitors. This
spectroscopic study complements the recent imaging survey of the spiral galaxy
NGC 300 by Schild et al. (Aims): Revisions to the known WR content of NGC 300
are presented. We investigate the WR nature of candidate #41 from Schild et al.
which is spatially coincident with the bright X-ray point source NGC 300 X-1;
(Methods:) VLT/FORS2 multi-object spectroscopy of WR candidates in NGC 300 is
obtained; (Results:) We establish an early-type WN nature of #41, i.e. similar
to the optical counterpart of IC 10 X-1, which closely resembles NGC 300 X-1.
We confirm 9 new WR stars, bringing the current WR census of the inner disk to
31, with N(WC)/N(WN)~0.9. (Conclusions:) If #41 is the optical counterpart for
NGC 300 X-1, we estimate a WR mass of 38 Msun based upon ground-based
photometry, from which a black hole mass of > 10 Msun results from the 32.8 hr
period of the system and WR wind velocity of 1250 km/s. We estimate an 95%
completeness among WC stars and 70% among WN stars, such that the total WR
content is ~40, with N(WC)/N(WN)~0.7. From the Halpha-derived star formation
rate of the inner galaxy, we infer N(WR)/N(O)~0.04
