Although the championship season was over, BRM were running strongly and were making signs that they would be the team to watch in 1972. To support this idea Jo Siffert put his Yardley McLaren BRM on the pole ahead of the rest of the field. He made a poor start but began a strong run up the field and was in fourth place by lap 15 when his car ran off the road at the approach to the fast right-hand bend at Hawthorns on the Brands Hatch Grand Prix loop. The accident itself was not huge but was large enough to rupture the fuel tanks of the car which immediately burst into flames. Race organisers and marshals were well aware of the dangers of fire and indeed the marshals on scene were dressed in a silver heat resistant suit which was supposed to allow them to go into the flames to retrieve a driver from a burning car.Siffert’s car was very quickly an inferno and it was clear that this was a major accident. Footage from the time shows a suit equipped marshal having trouble getting into the flames to rescue the stricken driver. The reason that the marshal was unable to carry out his tasks we shall never know. Jo died at the scene from lack of oxygen as so often happened in fiery accidents and ironically his other injuries were minimal and would not have been life-threatening.

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