Top Gear Stig to star at NZ Speedshow
While The Stig is better known for his all-white look, Perry McCarthy's original Stig preferred black.
Some say he was one of the unluckiest Formula 1 drivers of all time and was killed off from his popular TV show. All we know is, he's called Perry McCarthy, he was the original Stig and he is coming to New Zealand for the Speedshow on July 21.
Perry McCarthy was not only a very noteworthy and successful racing driver who famously made it as far as Formula 1, but he was far better known as his anonymous alter ego - The Stig - in the early series of a little TV show you may have heard of called Top Gear.
McCarthy appeared as The Stig in the first two series of the relaunched Top Gear back in 2002 and 2003, before a newspaper outed him as the anonymous black race-suited racing driver during the second season.
As well as being the original Stig, McCarthy was also a successful racing driver. And a not so successful F1 driver.
His subsequent admission that he was indeed The Stig in an autobiography following the conclusion of the second season led to the "black" Stig being killed off in the first episode of the third series during a race between a Jaguar XJS and a jet fighter on an aircraft carrier, only to be replaced by the "white" Stig (revealed to be British racing driver Ben Collins many years later) in the next episode.
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McCarthy's Formula 1 experience is also the stuff of legend. Or maybe nightmare. But he can see the funny side these days.
In 1991 McCarthy was chosen to be the test driver test for the Footwork Formula One team, with his break coming the following season, when he was signed to race by the new and independent Andrea Moda team run by Andrea Sassetti.
"Andrea thought an obvious way to advertise his shoe business would be to build an F1 car and enter Grand Prix" said Perry.
The team and car, however, became the laughing stock of the paddock and F1 for its unprecedented lack of competitiveness, disorganisation and poor management.
No, not this Stig. McCarthy was the original black-suited Stig from the two first seasons of the rebooted Top Gear.
The small Italian team faced a lengthy battle to gain an FIA Super Licence and things didn't improve once it secured one.
The unreliability of the car meant that the drivers rarely got more than a handful of laps during practice and McCarthy failed to qualify for any Grand Prix. His debut at Spain lasted eighteen metres down the pit lane in pre-qualifying and the team folded before the end of the season in controversial circumstances, leaving McCarthy without a drive.
In total, the team took part in nine World Championship Grands Prix, officially entering two cars for several races, but still only managed to qualify for a race on one occasion when Roberto Moreno scraped through to the Monaco Grand Prix, only to retire after 11 laps with a blown engine.
McCarthy also has a tuning company cheekily called "Topgear Tuning" in the UK.
While McCarthy's F1 race career was disastrous - and he didn't race in Formula One after the 1992 season - he fared far better as a test driver, testing for both the Williams and Benetton teams during their 1990s dominance.
McCarthy's appearance at the Speedshow in July will be his first visit to New Zealand and, according to the organisers, he will be on hand all weekend to talk about his experiences as the Stig, as a racing driver and perhaps confirm or quash a few of the biggest questions Kiwis might have about the Top Gear phenomenon.
"Stig never said much as we all know," said Perry. "But I will definitely be spending lots of time chatting with visitors to the show and sharing the good times and the bad times which will hopefully give them all a laugh and a bit of an understanding about how hard life can be as an aspiring racing driver. Meeting people and having fun is what it has always been about and CRC Speedshow will bring plenty of that."
CRC Speedshow gets underway on Saturday July 21 at the ASB Showgrounds in Auckland for the weekend.
- Stuff
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