Three weeks after he had won the 1966 Grand Prix of Monaco in an aging, works, 2-liter, V-8 BRM P261, Jackie Stewart lay trapped in the wreckage of his car after having left Belgium’s Spa-Francorchamps circuit in the pouring rain at 165 mph. His BRM had smashed into a telegraph pole, hit a shed, and ground to a halt in a farmer’s outbuilding. Broken fuel tanks flooded his cockpit and soaked him with their volatile contents. Stewart laid there, a potential…

Stewart at the wheel of the oftentimes difficult BRM H16 during the 1966 USGP at Watkins Glen. Stewart was in 3rd place, when he retired on Lap 55.
Photo: Mike Jiggle Collection