Perry McCarthy
Perry McCarthy is one of Britain’s top former racing drivers, is part of motor racing folklore, and is known to millions of BBC Top Gear viewers simply as “The Stig”.
Perry’s rise through the ranks along with close friends Damon Hill, Johnny Herbert and Mark Blundell, has been against all odds and in a sport dominated by finance he recalls how he ‘started with nothing and then lost it all!’
Perry’s 10-year fight to reach the sport’s elite paid off in 1992 when he was chosen to drive for the fledgling Andrea Moda Formula One organisation. The dream however turned into a nightmare as the team stumbled from one disaster to the next and in recent years he has turned his attention away from Grand Prix to Le Mans and the demands of Sports Prototype racing.
As always, Perry’s exploits are well chronicled but when he is on the track his talent and determination shine through. His sense of humour is legendary and is frequently aired in his articles for leading publications and in his work as a TV commentator and programme presenter.
Perry’s bubbly personality and absolute refusal to concede defeat have made him popular with the press; The Telegraph headlined him as ‘a new cult hero’ The Times called him ‘the world’s unluckiest racing driver’ and America’s Sunday Express described him as a ‘comedian locked inside a racing drivers body’.
In a career spanning over twenty years, McCarthy is still smiling and still fighting. Along with Germany’s Frank Biela and Finland’s Mika Salo, Perry was recently chosen as a works driver for Audi UK’s high profile 2003 assault on the famous Le Mans 24 Hour race. However, away from the track, Perry has used his experiences to become a superb ‘after dinner‘ and ‘motivational’ speaker who gives a highly amusing insight to the world’s most glamorous sport.
His hilarious autobiography Flat Out, Flat Broke, launched in July 2002, has already become a motor racing best seller and has received rave reviews:
‘Perry McCarthy does for Formula One what Bill Bryson did for travel writing. But beneath the black humour and wisecracks – funny enough to make you laugh out loud in public – lies an inspiring and at times poignant tale of that rarest kind of racer: one who never gave up and was, literally, prepared to die trying.’
The Independent on Sunday
‘Sometimes books, like cigarette packets, should come with a surgeons health warning. Flat Out Flat Broke is a case in point, not just because it contains photographs of the author in the long forgotten days of his early childhood, but because it will make your stomach ache from laughing.’
F1 Magazine
‘…. A fantastic funny story
(book of the week) The London Evening Standard
‘The James Hunt impressions, the Ayrton Senna pizza delivery, the Rat Pack stories – the laughs come thick and fast in Perry McCarthy’s fantastic new book, Flat Out Flat Broke …’
Daily Express
Communications Experience
TV Presenter /Journalist/commentator
Hundreds of events as:
After Dinner Speaker, Motivational Speaker, Master of Ceremonies, Question & Answer sessions, Guest Interviewer, Guest Interviewee
Presentations, Corporate Videos
For companies such as Angel Trains/Lombard, IBM, Bang & Olufsen, Grant Thornton, Hilton Hotels, Lamborghini, Honda, BMW, Alfa Romeo, Mercedes, Audi
TV and Media Experience
TV Presenter For:
Programme Broadcaster
Year
Young driver of the year.
BBC1 – 1995
Pulling Power
Carlton – 1997
Pulling Power
Carlton – 1998
Formula 3
Sky Channel – 1998
Sky Sport
Sky Channel
1998
FIA GT Championship
Eurosport
1998
F3 ON 4
C4
1999
GT ON 4
C4
1999
Sky Sport
Sky Channel
2000
Sky Sport
Sky Channel
2001
F1 Digital +
F1 and Sky
2002
Top Gear
BBC2
2002
TV Commentary for:
Sky Channel
Sky Sport
ScreenSport
Eurosport
Journalism:
Autocar, Auto Express, Autosport, Chequered Flag, Complete Car, F1 Magazine, Motor, Motoring News, Motor Sport
Author:
Flat Out Flat Broke (published 2002)
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