Perry McCarthy

At the age of 46, Perry McCarthy is one of Britain’s top racing drivers and is already part of motor racing folklore. His appeal however has been dramatically widened to car lovers everywhere after being disclosed as 'The Stig' (the secret racing driver in black) as seen on BBC Top Gear

McCarthy’s rise through the ranks along with close 'Rat Pack' 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.

McCarthy’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. 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
• "Perry McCarthy has always been excellent at describing his career in a series of memorable anecdotes, and here they are, strung together in book form. The reader is frequently left racked with sympathy at the author’s outrageous misfortune, or in convulsive sobs of laughter. This is an utterly fantastic read." - MotorSport magazine
• "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
• "His engaging story of a less-than-smooth life in motor racing exudes his own cockney energy and enthusiasm and is a charming feel good tale that shows you can get what you want if you want it badly enough" - Scottish Sunday Express
• "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