Dick Seaman was leading the 1939 Belgian Grand Prix at Spa when he crashed into a tree in the heavy rain. Seaman's silver Mercedes W154, split in two, burst into flames and left the great British driver, who had won at the daunting Nürburgring a few months earlier, with no chance of survival. Had he made it, Seaman would have eventually lost his Mercedes drive when Great Britain declared war on Germany a few weeks later.
