Race Summary
The race distance was shortened from the previous year, from 32 to 28 laps. More than half the field crashed out on the first lap due to a heavy rainstorm and there were only seven runners left by the start of the second lap. Four drivers went off and crashed at the sweeping Burnenville corner, where the heavy wall of rain was. Jo Bonnier's Cooper T81 went through an upstairs window of a house on the edge of the track and Jackie Stewart's BRM P261 crashed into a telephone pole and then landed in a ditch at Masta Kink, leading to him being stuck upside down in his BRM, halfway up to his waist in fuel, for 25 minutes. Graham Hill and Bob Bondurant, both of whom had gone off near Stewart, managed to rescue him with a spectator's toolkit. Jack Brabham slid his Brabham BT19 coming out of the Masta Kink at 135 mph, but regained control of the car and rejoined the race. There was so much water on the track that it got into and flooded Jim Clark's Climax engine in his Lotus 33 and he was out of the race on the first lap too. The entire first lap was run under green flags. And by the start of the second lap, 8 of the 15 drivers who started were out of the race.
The race was filmed for the motion picture Grand Prix. The eight minute segment of the 1966 film uses a combination of live footage and mocked up racing scenes. The live footage shows Surtees, Bonnier, Bandini, Ligier, Clark and Gurney in action. Surtees doubles in the scene for the fictional Jean-Pierre Sarti while Bandini doubles for the fictional Nino Barlini. The film is careful not to pick up Jackie Stewart in action as he doubles for the fictional character Scott Stoddard, who at this point in the film is recovering from a near fatal crash earlier in the season. James Garner's white Yamura (Honda) number 24 did not appear in the actual race and scenes showing it are part of the staged race filming.
After his accident in this race, Jackie Stewart began his efforts for safer racing which continued for decades; particularly after his influence as a Formula One racing driver grew through the next seven seasons he competed in Formula One.
Read more about this topic: 1966 Belgian Grand Prix
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