Editor Chris Balfe remembers the 1968 German GP - Nurburgring, 4 August 1968

Following the death of Ayrton Senna at Imola in 1994, Formula One was in crisis. The new generation of F1 fans weren't used to seeing their heroes killed, whilst sponsors felt uneasy being associated with death rather than glamour. The FIA needed to be seen to act swiftly and positively.

In the years preceding the tragedy of the Imola GP race, fans had witnessed far more horrendous accidents than that which had robbed them of the triple champion, they had become complacent. They had grown used to seeing drivers climb from the wreckage, dusting themselves down, then running back to the pits in order to get in to the t-car. However the double tragedy of Imola (Austrian Roland Ratzenberger had been killed during practice the previous day) reminded us all that motor racing is - all always will be - dangerous.

This week's classic GP comes from an era when race fans 'lost' their heroes on a regular basis. Nowadays, thanks to the clauses in their contracts with the teams and sponsors, GP drivers race in F1 and nothing else. Not that long ago however, F1 drivers could be found racing a vast variety of different machines including Formula 2, Sports Cars, GT and Can-Am. This was in an era in which men lived to race and if there wasn't a GP on at the weekend then an alternative needed to be found.

On 7 April 1968, World Championship leader Jim Clark was participating in a minor Formula 2 race at Hockenheim when his Lotus suddenly veered off track and crashed in to the unforgiving pine trees, the Scot was killed instantly in an accident which has never been explained.

At the time, New Zealand F1 star Chris Amon commented 'If it could happen to Jimmy, it could happen to anyone', twenty six years later similar sentiments were expressed following Senna's fatal crash.

How strange therefore that just months following Clark's death, to which weather conditions were a contributory factor, a Grand Prix race was run in thick fog, and on the Nurburgring of all circuits. Even more amazing is the fact that this race was utterly dominated by a man whose name is synonymous with motor sport safety! Jackie Stewart.

There is no doubt that should similar weather conditions prevail at any of today's F1 events, the race would be delayed (cancelled even), such is the attitude towards safety in the modern era. However, as the teams arrived at the Nurburgring for Friday practice it was simply a question of 'let's get on with it', despite the wet and extremely misty conditions.

During the Friday sessions only six drivers posted times under ten minutes, the fastest of these being Jacky Ickx (9:04.0), whilst Richard Attwood could only manage 10:48.2 - that's 1:44s off the pace. Conditions on Saturday were even worse with visibility down to just a few metres on certain parts of the track. As a result, an extra practice session on Sunday morning allowed Jackie Stewart to improve his time and take sixth position on the grid behind Ickx, Amon, Rindt, Hill and Elford.

As the conditions worsened (rain and fog), the organisers pondered whether they should cancel the race, especially in light of Clark's fatal crash earlier in the year. However, following an hour's delay the organisers merely opted to change the grid layout from 4-3-4 to 3-2-3.

Hill made an amazing start, capitalising on the slow reactions of the three men on the front row and led the field in to the South Curve. Stewart was running a brand new single grooved (yes grooved) tyre from Dunlop dubbed the 'super wet' which had soon allowed him to slip past Rindt and Amon to take second. By the end of the first lap, JYS had passed Hill and built up a lead of nine seconds!