The identity of the Stig seems to have now been confirmed as Ben Collins.
For years the identity of The Stig has been a closely guarded secret, but Collins – who has previously competed in Formula Three, Le Mans, GT and NASCAR – has apparently outed himself to staff at a Bristol gallery.
The 33-year-old let his secret slip when he asked them to help him produce a limited-edition print of The Stig in action.
Collins, from Bristol, has always denied being The Stig and could face the sack if he admitted it. The first Stig, stunt driver Perry McCarthy, lost the job after outing himself in his book Flat Out, Flat Broke, published in 2002.
He was known as The Black Stig and always wore a black suit and helmet before he was “killed off” during the third series in 2003. Collins has since become The White Stig, and wears an all white helmet and suit.
This video shows the speed of the Foiling Moth against other boats – there is no doubt that foiling is where its all going.
I have followed the progress of foiling multihulls for a number of years and came close to buying one. There are two production multihull foilers at the moment – the Hobie Trifoiler which was the fastest but broke a lot and is no longer made and the Windrider Rave. Both of these have been clocked in excess of 40 knots!
On another note – I am certainly not the only one out there that sees Sunday’s F1 race as simply a travesty of justice. Ferrari should be stripped of the places in the race. If they had not implemented team orders arguably Vettel would have given Alonso a run for his money while he was hindered by Masse. I dont disagree with DC views that team orders happen all the time anyway, but surely if there is a rule you should be forced to stick to it? Perhaps they should do away with that rule and simply accept that its a team sport not an individual one?
Had the good fortune to attend the iGaming super show in Prague last week. Fortune because it was a really good time, I got to see all my good friends again, and also managed to get the word out about our new affiliate system for Mahjong Club.
We launched the new Super Affs affiliate system for Mahjong Club just in time for the show. Packed with heavyweight reporting, great demographic info and some really cool features like intelligent ad rotation, the system is powered by egass. In the future we expect to add further brands to the same affiliate system – creating a one stop shop for those affiliates who want something more from their products.
Meeting David Coulthard at the iGaming Super Show
While at the show I met David Coulthard who was the keynote speaker on day 1. David is well known to any Formula 1 fan, having driven for many years and still acting as an advisor to Red Bull formula one team and a BBC commentator. He was at the show representing Jet Bull. He assures there is no relationship between Jet Bull (a gaming product) and Red Bull – despite the abundance of Red Bull drinks at their stand and party and of course his presence at the show!
Outside "U-Fleku" with Dennis
Jeanine joined me for the weekend and we saw a lot of beautiful Prague. It truly is an amazing city and one that is well worth a visit. I hope we return there next year.
Just who is this mysterious “Witness X” (or is it Witness A as in Alonso?) who spilled the beans to the FIA about the Renault deliberate crash? And is it just vaguely possible that Piquet – already miffed at being fired – doctored the story a bit in his favour?
Indeed it is alleged in this morning’s Telegraph that it may have been his idea all along! In which case why is he getting off scott free and Briatore carrying the can?
Given that he (Piquet) is now immune from prosecution thanks to his deal with the FIA there is not much impetus to seek the truth further. Unless Briatore strikes back. Which he could. God knows he can afford to! And one has to guess that motor racing is in his blood, and right now he is looking at exclusion from his passion for the rest of his life, with a history that is sorely smeared at the end.
So don’t write off some form of comeback for Briatore. Imagine his thoughts – “that little prick came to me with the idea and now I carry the can for it!”. Mind you, he would still have responsibility as team principal for allowing the act to happen (unless he could allege that Piquet did it all on his own).
The game is not over yet. Watch this space – add the RSS or come back frequently as we keep you informed on this high octane, high stakes hitchcock thriller!
Never to return it seems. Effectively banned from any involvement including management – as well as Nelson Piquet Jnr, he manages the careers of Red Bull’s Mark Webber, Renault’s Romain Grosjean and Fernando Alonso and McLaren’s Heikki Kovalainen – it seems he will now have to retire to his rather large yacht and contemplate his navel (or check our his retirement investments).
I saw the boat in Monaco when I last went to the Formula 1 race there – it was very big! Hard to feel sorry for him – he has made his fortune and although his career in motor racing is well and truly over he still gets to keep the cash. No doubt he can get a nice home cinema put in on the upper deck to watch the races …
Yet another chink in the armour of this King of sports. All driven by “win at all costs” which in turn is driven by money. Buckets of it. According to the commentators Force India’s maiden win at Spa a few weeks ago is worth $20M in sponsorship money. Wouldn’t want to guess how huge the Alonso driver’s championship win payout must have been!
Having just read the Independent article on the Renault Formula One race fixing scandal it starts to make the antics over the America’s Cup look like child play!
It struck me how much I have enjoyed this season. Not least because some of the lesser teams have done well and the racing has been less predictable. I find it to be arguably one of the best years in the sport – from a sporting point of view – but what a horrible mess from any other point of view.
First we had the teams threatening to break away, the ridiculous (in my opinion) rule change to a single engine supplier and of course “Lewisgate” – the lies from McLaren in Australia.
Now we have recently sacked Piquet Jnr accusing Briatore of having instructed him to deliberately crash in order to secure the drivers title last year for Alonso. Cant say I would like that instruction!
Either way – I wonder if the sport will survive all of this. With the pull out of some great teams (Renault perhaps next?) the sport is poorer and no addition of new teams from the US CART series or elsewhere will make up for that.
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