Perry McCarthy

Perry McCarthy

McCarthy in 2003
Born	(1961-03-03) 3 March 1961 Stepney, East London, England
Formula One World Championship career
Nationality	British
Active years	1992
Teams	Andrea Moda
Entries	10 (0 starts)
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podiums	0
Career points	0
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0
First entry	1992 Brazilian Grand Prix
Last entry	1992 Italian Grand Prix

Perry McCarthy (born 3 March 1961) is a British racing driver, who drove in Formula One in 1992 before moving into sportscars, including driving in the 24 Hours of Le Mans five times between 1996 and 2003.

McCarthy also portrayed The Stig in the first two series of BBC motoring show Top Gear.

Career

Born in Stepney, East London,^[1] McCarthy grew up to work for his father's company servicing North Sea oil rigs. Unlike most Formula One drivers, McCarthy did not start racing in karts. He worked his way through the junior categories of motor sport in Europe, such as Formula Ford, Formula 3, eventually F3000 and various touring and sports car races in the US, including drives for Spice Engineering.

In 1991, McCarthy was chosen to test for the Footwork Formula One team. Although he impressed the team, his break did not come until the eve of the 1992 Formula One season, when he was signed by the independent Andrea Moda team run by Andrea Sassetti who thought that entering Formula One would be a good way to advertise his shoe business. The team was uncompetitive, disorganized and poorly managed, and after a lengthy battle to gain an FIA Super Licence the season soon descended into farce.^[2] McCarthy, frequently denied more than a handful of laps in which to prepare, failed to qualify for any Grand Prix. His Grand Prix debut at Spain lasted eighteen metres down the pit lane in pre-qualifying. The team folded before the end of the season in controversial circumstances and McCarthy was left without a drive. In a July 2004 interview with The Times, McCarthy discussed how this period in his career had contributed to him being dubbed the world's unluckiest racing driver, saying "Dick Dastardly had more luck than me".^[2]

McCarthy did not race in Formula One after 1992, but tested for both Williams and Benetton teams during the 1990s. He was denied a permanent role as test driver at Benetton because he was covering for their normal test driver, Alessandro Zanardi, who was unwell. He had little success at Williams because he did not see eye to eye with the engineers and the position was then given to David Coulthard.

Top Gear

After a brief retirement, McCarthy returned to sports car racing, appearing at Le Mans in 2002 and numerous other events. In 2002, he released his autobiography entitled Flat Out, Flat Broke, in which he spoke candidly about his time in Formula One and, in the second edition, his work for the BBC's Top Gear motoring show as The Stig, a masked, anonymous, racing driver who evaluated the latest high performance cars.^[3] McCarthy was the original, black-suited Stig, who left after the first two series. He provided commentary on F1 races for the BBC in 2009.^[4] McCarthy now works as a corporate ambassador and after dinner speaker for corporations around the world.^[5]

Bibliography

In 2002, McCarthy wrote an autobiography, titled Flat Out, Flat Broke: Formula 1 the Hard Way!; it detailed his career, and the hardships he faced while trying to break into Formula One. In the second edition of this book, McCarthy revealed that he was Top Gear's The Stig.^[6]

Racing record

Complete International Formula 3000 results

(key)

Complete Formula One results

(key)

Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
1996	Viper Team Oreca	Dominique Dupuy Justin Bell	Chrysler Viper GTS-R	GT1	96	DNF	DNF
1997	David Price Racing	David Brabham Doc Bundy	Panoz Esperante GTR-1	GT1	145	DNF	DNF
1999	Audi Sport UK Ltd.	James Weaver Andy Wallace	Audi R8C	LMGTP	198	DNF	DNF
2002	DAMS	Jérôme Policand Marc Duez	Panoz LMP-1 Roadster-S	LMP900	98	DNF	DNF
2003	Audi Sport UK Arena Motorsport	Frank Biela Mika Salo	Audi R8	LMP900	28	DNF	DNF

References

Andrea Moda Formula Founder Andrea Sassetti Drivers Roberto Moreno Perry McCarthy Alex Caffi Enrico Bertaggia Formula One cars C4B S921