| Career Summary | Picture Index |
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| Last updated: 1-January-2004 | |
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Background
F1 Rejects' inspiration an auto driver turned auto biographer |
Born in Stepney East in London, Perry McCarthy was the original inspiration for this entire website. As the sitting duck caught in the middle of one of the most bemusing and embarrassing F1 efforts modern Grand Prix racing has ever seen, 'Pel' is a perfect example of what we consider a 'reject' not a loser by any means, but a battler who never got the recognition he deserved, a talented driver with no money (although some other drivers we have profiled were accused of being the exact opposite).
Despite having a genius behind the wheel, impecunious Perry never got the opportunities he deserved, leading The Times to label him "the world's unluckiest racing driver". The following account is just a tribute to his career, a career where mere statistics fail to tell the whole picture. For the full behind-the-scenes story in his own words though, embellished in a way that we simply can't, we heartily recommend his sensational autobiography "Flat Out, Flat Broke". We also take this moment to thank Perry for his sense of humour and support of F1 Rejects! |
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1980-81
Off and racing in a Van Dieman Formula Ford |
Perry practically stumbled into motor racing by accident. Whilst at Basildon College in Essex he was introduced to Formula One via magazines by a friend, and in the meantime was gaining a reputation for pulling crazy stunts on public roads. But, as something of a counterpoint, he was also skilled on the piano, and began demonstrating the ivories at a local store. It was via the store owner, who knew of his antics and skill behind the wheel, that he came in contact with Les Ager, instructor at the Brands Hatch Racing School.
After one session there, McCarthy was hooked for life. Working as a spray painter on North Sea oil rigs for his father's company, and with the help of some neighbourhood businesses, by mid-1981 he had the funds to go racing, and he linked up with the Jubilee Racing team for the last two races of the year in a Van Diemen Formula Ford 1600. However, in a sign of things to come, in both the final round of the Champion of Brands Series and the Formula Ford Festival World Cup he crashed, having tried just a little too hard. |
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1982-83
When the going gets tough, the tough get going at Brands Hatch |
Indeed, 1982 set a pattern that would be repeated many times over. Scraping together just enough sponsorship, he stayed with the Jubilee Racing Van Diemen and entered the Dunlop Autosport Star of Tomorrow Formula Ford 1600 championship. But after six rounds, he had two poles (which proved that he was as fast as anyone else), but also a propensity for retirements and accidents. His money ran out and Perry was out on a limb again, having to scratch around for new deals once more.
Up to this point his father, who had come into a fortune via his business, had been understandably reluctant to back his son's motorsport adventure, but for 1983 he agreed to sponsor Perry on the proviso that either he won his Formula Ford 1600 championship or walk away from racing. Despite a mid-season change from Jubilee Racing to Rushen Green Racing, Perry claimed the Star of Tomorrow title with a commanding start-to-finish win, his sixth of the series, in the final round at Brands Hatch. |
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1983-84
Major accident dents more than just his FFord's bodywork |
What's more, he had also raced in the BP Superfind series where he clocked up another four victories, and he was also part of the winning British team in the Formula Ford World Cup. With that, one may have thought that it was time to move onward to better things, but without sponsorship he was back to square one. But thanks to Van Diemen owner Ralph Firman Snr and motorsport patron and then-Brands Hatch owner John Webb, McCarthy was placed with the Motosport International team for another season of Formula Ford 1600.
However, a hungry McCarthy was not only unimpressed with having to face another year in the category, he was also far from enamoured with his new team. After an uncompetitive 4th at Brands Hatch, at Oulton Park he touched wheels with a fellow competitor and was sent barrel-rolling over the track, across the grass verge and into the wall. It left Perry with minor concussion, a broken bone in his back, a sprained wrist, and some bruising - not to mention a motorsport career that was grinding to a halt. |
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1984-85
Another static year in FFord, but proves a Diemen in the wet |
By the end of the year though, the irrepressible McCarthy was back behind the wheel, in a one-off Formula Ford 2000 Winter Championship appearance where he finished 9th, but not before he had been 2nd fastest in the wet practice session - the first signs of his wet weather prowess that would become something of a trademark. And, targeting a leap up to British F3 for 1986, he decided to spend one more year in 1985 gathering career momentum in Formula Ford 1600.
An ambitious self-promotion campaign saw him win the Racing for Britain scholarship, and armed with eleven other sponsors he joined Milldent Motorsport for an assault on the British FF1600 title in a Van Diemen RF85, with future BAR designer Malcolm Oastler as his mechanic. But in a traumatic year, though he was regularly up the front in the top half-dozen in qualifying, either unreliability or overdriving, too often the latter, conspired to keep him off the winner's dias. |
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1985
Step to F3 a nervous jump, in more ways than one |
In truth, Perry had probably not done enough during 1985 to make the transition to F3, but with dogged determination and invaluable support from the Hawtal Whiting company, he was signed by Madgwick Motorsport to drive their Reynard 863 Volkswagen at a time when most others had gone for Ralts. Not to worry: for the second race at Silverstone, in the wet qualifying session McCarthy stunned the establishment by recording the 2nd fastest time, followed by another front row start and a 6th place finish at Brands Hatch.
But, as always seemed to be the case, a mid-season drama struck when McCarthy was forced to sit out three events in order for a damaged nerve in his right leg to heal. When he returned, three accidents including two massive ones caused by suspension failures on the Reynard dented his confidence, but he fought back in spectacular fashion to take pole and finish 4th at the Cellnet Super Prix at Brands Hatch. With 11 points, he finished equal 12th overall, plus he had also competed in several rounds of the French F3 championship. |
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1987
Proves his mettle with the best of Europe F3 pilots |
Having well and truly made his mark though, McCarthy began 1987 as one of the favourites for the British F3 title, and with Madgwick upgrading to a Reynard 873, he was narrowly pipped at the post for the win on the Silverstone club circuit by Johnny Herbert. But it was fast becoming apparent that not only was a litany of mechanical woes ruining his campaign, his Volkswagen engine was also being out-gunned by its competitors. It precipitated a mid-season engine change to Alfa Romeo for Madgwick.
But alas, although the Italian motor brought him closer to the pace, the reliability problems continued, and Perry finished the season in only 8th place with 22 points, although he deserved much better. He showed his worth however when Europe's best F3 drivers came to Silverstone for a one-off race to decide the title of European F3 champion, by qualifying on the front row and then challenging Bernd Schneider for 2nd place before spinning into the gravel trap. |
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1988
A break into F3000, thanks to Foitek and Mike Collier |
But with nothing left to prove in F3, yet also not enough funding to move up to F3000 in 1988, McCarthy's career seemed to have come to a grinding halt once again. That was until the horrible accident at Brands Hatch which injured several drivers, most notably shattering Herbert's legs. Gregor Foitek, commonly thought to be the instigator of the collision, had also been hurt, and with no one to drive the Swiss' GA Motorsports Lola T88/50 Cosworth at the Birmingham Superprix, GA Motorsports boss Mike Collier sent out a one-off SOS to Perry.
With only 20 laps' worth of testing experience in the Lola, McCarthy went out in first qualifying only for a differential failure to cause a fire, sidelining the car for the rest of the session. Then, in typical Perry misfortune, rain fell in the second session, although the fastest driver, Roberto Moreno, was only around 0.3s slower than the slowest qualifier in the dry, Jean-Denis Deletraz. McCarthy recorded a stunning lap within 0.09s of Moreno's time and was going for broke, and a spot on the grid, when he crashed. That was the end of his weekend. |
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1988-89
Perry is thwarted at every turn as top drives go to other drivers |
But another opportunity arose when McCarthy was signed to drive a works Ralt RT22 Judd in the last three rounds of the season. Trouble was, the RT22 was a beast at the best of times, although Perry showed his tremendous wet-weather skills by topping the time sheets in wet practice at Le Mans Bugatti. However, in the race he was taken out by Gary Evans, and then at Zolder Andrea Chiesa pushed him into David Hunt at the first corner, before he wrestled the reluctant Lola to a battling 16th at Dijon.
Ralt founder Ron Tauranac wanted McCarthy to stay on for 1989, but he then sold the team and with it went Perry's tenure. With only minimal backing, he was also overlooked for the F3000 drives at the Roni Q8, Footwork, Leyton House and CDM teams. When Jean Alesi replaced Michele Alboreto in the Tyrrell F1 outfit but was unavailable for four events due to clashing F3000 commitments, Ken Tyrrell entered into serious negotiations with McCarthy, but eventually went for Herbert instead. |
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1989
Finally, some luck goes Perry's way, with RCR forced to pick him |
So Perry was out on his ear again, and this repeated pattern of coming so close but yet so far to so many seats would have broken a man of lesser spirit. Still, he plugged on, cajoling sponsors and team managers, building up contacts and remaining ever hopeful. It paid off when GA Motorsport came calling again, asking McCarthy to drive the Lola T88/50 Cosworth again in the last round of the British F3000 series at Brands Hatch. A fine 2nd place was the best result for Lola in the series, and left him equal 8th in the standings with 6 points.
Meanwhile, Perry had been somewhat badgering RCR team owner Roger Cowman for a drive in the international F3000 series, and succeeded in convincing Cowman to give his name to the FIA as RCR's official reserve driver, which in reality meant very little, or so it seemed. But when RCR had used up their allocated number of driver changes, instead of taking a pay driver as they intended to do, they were forced to give the drive instead to their designated reserve driver - the impecunious McCarthy! |
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1989
Pel stuns the establishment with a storming drive at Spa |
His outings in the RCR Lola T89/50 Cosworth were eventful. At Birmingham, McCarthy once again did not set a time in first qualifying, this time due to a misfiring engine. But then the car broke down again in the second session and, suspecting a battery problem, Perry ran to the pits for a new one, sprinted back and fixed it himself. Then, on exiting the pits again he hit a careless mechanic from the FIRST team, and an ensuing fracas with FIRST boss Lamberto Leoni meant he didn't get out in time, and he had to cop the DNQ.
But at Spa, in wet qualifying he was an astonishing 2nd fastest, dropping to 11th in the dry, but in the race he stormed past several fancied drivers including Eddie Irvine, and by race's end almost took Thomas Danielsson for 6th place and a point, but 7th had been a mighty effort already. Then at Dijon he almost failed to qualify again, but from the back of the grid eventually climbed his way back up to 15th place. |
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1990
Off to the US and IMSA (a curious route to F1, to be sure) |
In truth, though, opportunities in Europe were going to be few and far between without the right funding, so in 1990 Perry seized an opportunity to race in IMSA sports cars in America. Driving for the Spice works team in a Spice SE90P Buick in the Camel Lights class, on debut at Mid Ohio he and Tomas Lopez finished 8th outright, but won the class. On the strength of that, McCarthy was invited back for five more races in the main GTP class in a Chevrolet-powered SE90P, where he demonstrated an awkward propensity for showing up the established stars.
At Watkins Glen, partnering Tommy Kendall, he grabbed the lead in the wet, making it the first time for a long time that the works Spice team or a Chevy engine had led a race. He was masterfully pulling away from a field that included the works Nissans and TWR Jaguars when electrical problems forced their retirement. But there was more McCarthy magic at Sears Point, where he secured pole by 1.3s in the car he was sharing with Jay Cochran, although engine problems struck in the race. |
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1990
They love him in the US, taking driver awards and Rookie of the Year |
McCarthy and Cochran were running 3rd at Portland when overheating dropped them to 7th at the finish, whilst at San Antonio, from 5th on the grid Perry once again took the lead, but once more engine problems intervened. Finally, in Tampa, casting aside the news that his good friend Martin Donnelly was fighting for his life after his accident in practice for the Spanish GP, Perry was on his way to another stunning pole when his car ran out of fuel. From the back of the grid Cochran crashed after 18 laps.
All this left Perry equal 49th in the 1990 IMSA standings on 4 points, along with actor Paul Newman and Jacques Villeneuve Snr. In the Camel Lights points, for his Mid Ohio win, he was equal 23rd with 20 points. Most importantly, Perry had established himself as a star in the US scene, and his immense natural talent despite his appalling luck was vindicated when he was given the Exxon Driver Award, the JRI International Award, and Rookie of the Year honours. |
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1990-91
Business as usual in America: good qualifying and plenty of points |
He rounded the year off with a one-off start in the World Sportscar Championship, where he shared a Richard Lloyd Racing Porsche 962C GTi in Mexico with Manuel Reuter, but the car retired with gearbox failure in a race won by Jochen Mass and one Michael Schumacher. McCarthy then returned for more IMSA action in 1991, sharing the GTP Spice with Albert Naon Jnr at Miami, and returning to the Lights car to come 10th outright and 2nd in class at Road Atlanta setting fastest Lights lap in the process.
He then had a one-off in the Hotchkis Racing GTP SE90P Pontiac with Jim Adams at Mid-Ohio, coming 9th, before three more solo drives in the works Chevy-powered car saw Perry record a pole at New Orleans, 3rd at Laguna Seca, and 5th at Del Mar, leaving him equal 24th with 24 points, and equal 25th in Lights with 16 points. At the start of 1992, he also had a one-off IMSA drive in the Sebring 12hrs in a Tom Milner Racing Chevrolet GTP, where he qualified 3rd but the car only lasted 7 laps until the gearbox failed. |
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1991-92 Footwork Tests an F1 car, at last! Followed by an exciting call up |
McCarthy's spectacular efforts despite his limited opportunities in both F3000 and IMSA had not gone unnoticed though. Midway through 1991, Footwork Arrows F1 team manager John Wickham invited Perry to help out in several test sessions, and for the first time he tasted the exhilaration of an F1 machine. But it was in mid-March 1992 that he got what seemed to be the biggest break of all - he was contacted about a full-time drive with the new Andrea Moda Formula One team!
Andrea Moda boss, the flamboyant shoe magnate Andrea Sassetti, had originally signed Alex Caffi and Enrico Bertaggia, but when both complained about the team's progress in getting its two new Nick Wirth-designed S921 chassis prepared, Sassetti promptly fired them. Instead, he brought in Roberto Moreno, and other contacts kept pointing to McCarthy. So Sassetti agreed on Perry, offering him the drive on the condition that he wouldn't have to pay but nor would he be paid, and that he pay his own expenses. |
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1992
Storm clouds loom over Perry's superlicence |
It was by no means the world's best deal, but it was the chance of a lifetime Perry had been waiting for all these years. He was glad to be teamed with Moreno, an experienced and well-regarded driver, who was also "the only man in F1 with less hair than me!", in Perry's own words. But first there was the issue of an FIA superlicence. McCarthy needed it to compete in F1, but due to his lack of opportunity in F3000, he didn't actually fulfil the criteria to receive one.
A fortuitous error by the Formula One Commission, however, saw Perry awarded his superlicence, and off he went to Brazil for what he thought was going to be his Grand Prix debut. But late on Thursday afternoon before Friday pre-qualifying, the FIA realised its error and revoked his superlicence. Enter, stage left, F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone. After Bernie had been cornered for an explanation by David Tremayne, a respected journalist and long-time Perry supporter, McCarthy went to see the great man himself. |
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1992
Bernie goes in to bat for Pel, while Moda is forced to keep him |
Taking a liking to Perry's tenacity, Bernie told him that in such circumstances a driver could have his superlicence returned by a unanimous vote of the Formula One Commission, consisting of five team principals and eight others. Bernie would ask the other eight to vote in favour if Perry himself could sway the five team bosses, namely Frank Williams, Ron Dennis, Flavio Briatore, Giancarlo Minardi and Marco Piccinnini. With paddock sympathy for McCarthy running high, the unanimous vote was as good as done.
Had the Commission rejected McCarthy's superlicence application in the first place, all this would not have been possible, so the original mistake had turned out to be a stroke of luck. More good fortune was to come, though, because by now Bertaggia wanted his seat back, and was offering Sassetti $1 million's worth of sponsorship. However Andrea was told that he had made his allowed number of driver changes, and McCarthy had to stay. But, as Perry found out, Sassetti remained bitter about not getting that $1 million. |
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1992
The most famous qualifying debut in Grand Prix history!! |
McCarthy finally made his much-awaited debut in Spain - and what a debut it was! After almost not making it to the track in time for pre-qualifying (the account of this in his book has to be read to be believed), and after a small engine fire ignited when his mechanics tried to start up the car, Perry finally took the black Andrea Moda number 35 out of the pit garage. According to the man himself: "I had understeer as I came out of the garage, which turned into snap oversteer, but I held it fine."
Amazingly, he then got only as far as 18 metres out of his garage when the engine stalled, making it reputedly the shortest Grand Prix debut in history. Some cynics even said that there was no engine in the car at all, and the mechanics had been making engine noises. In all honesty, the earlier fire had probably already destroyed the motor. At any rate, having passed the pit exit line, Perry was officially onto the circuit. And though he was close enough to talk to his crew, they could not push him back to the pits. His debut was over. |
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1992
The policy on McCarthy was to treat him as Moreno's spare |
Truth be told, despite good but misplaced intentions, Andrea Moda had no cash whatsoever, and Perry didn't bring any with him. Sassetti was enthusiastic at first but gradually lost interest as he realised that he didn't have a clue how to run an F1 team, nor the resources to do so properly. His two cars were plagued by every mechanical problem under the sun, and a lot of the time the team barely even had one fully operational car that could run a dozen trouble-free laps, since parts were at a premium.
As a result, and probably still angry at the fact that McCarthy had denied them Bertaggia's million, team management would request that McCarthy only do a few laps in pre-qualifying before leaving the car as Moreno's spare. Seven laps at Imola was most he ever got, and at Monaco he enjoyed the paltry three laps on this most testing of tracks. But after Moreno did the scientifically impossible and managed to qualify the Andrea Moda into the race, a chirpy McCarthy hoped that this would attract sponsorship and give him a proper go. |
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1992
Andrea Moda arrive with no engines in Canada, and no equipment in France |
Reality turned out to be very different, though. In Canada, Andrea Moda had to withdraw its entry when their Judd V10 powerplants simply never arrived in Canada! Computer cables, damaged in a storm, caused the airline carrying Moda's engines to offload all its freight, and when it was reloaded the engines weren't there. The team eventually borrowed some engines off fellow strugglers Brabham, but McCarthy never so much as ventured out onto the Montreal track.
Then, in France, Andrea Moda faced the even more drastic prospect of not having any equipment at all, due to the French truck drivers' strikes and blockades. All teams but one made it to Magny-Cours, and the one team stuck was, you guessed it, Andrea Moda. Aside from being tremendously frustrating, this was also getting costly for Perry, as he had to pay his own way to races, and often only managed to do so thanks to the goodwill of others, or by getting his travel expenses paid for in return for giving speeches to F1 tour groups. |
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1992
After wet tyres in the dry at Silverstone, Pel and Andrea face off! |
Andrea Moda did turn up at Silverstone, but once again the team left McCarthy waiting in the pits without much thought of letting him out. Eventually he was sent onto the circuit - on wet tyres which by this stage was completely unsuited to the drying track. Although he set what was then the joint-fastest time (later bettered by everyone else), his desperate kamikaze run was brought to an end by a clutch failure. After which he went off and sold a thousand T-shirts he had made protesting against his treatment by his own team!
Understandably, Perry was starting to get fed up by Andrea Moda's antics. A phone call to the team's secretary, who had never even heard of him, can't have made things better - yet things were only to get worse. A meeting with Sassetti in Italy brought their antipathy against each other out into the open, with the team boss still livid that he couldn't get his hands on Bertaggia's money. |
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1992
Things graduate from the farcical to the dangerous at Spa |
Not surprisingly, Germany and Hungary both saw McCarthy provided with farcical opportunities once again. At Hockenheim, Perry was caught out by the team's car-swapping tactics in Germany, when he missed a weight check as a result and was disqualified. In Hungary, he was only let out of the pits with 45 seconds left in the session, not enough to do a flying lap. Perry would have quit there and then, but the opportunity to race again at Spa, site of his F3000 heroics, was too tempting.
For Belgium, the Brabham team had disappeared, so pre-qualifying was a thing of the past and Andrea Moda was in the main qualifying draw. But as Perry plunged down towards Eau Rouge on his first flying lap, his steering seized. Somehow McCarthy avoided a fatal head-on meeting with the wall and made it through the world's most daunting corner intact, but when he returned to the pits, he discovered that the team had, intentionally, put onto his car Moreno's discarded steering column from the last race! |
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1992 Benetton Williams Duel with DC for Damon's testing spot: oh, what might have been |
For all his gritty determination, this was more than enough even for Perry. But it didn't matter anyway, since Sassetti was that weekend arrested on fraud charges and Andrea Moda were banned for bringing the sport into disrepute. So McCarthy's unfortunate F1 record thus stood at 8 entries, 7 DNPQs, and 1 DNQ. Nevertheless, his resolve had won him many fans in the paddock, and he was duly rewarded when Benetton invited him for several days of serious testing at Silverstone when their regular tester Alessandro Zanardi was ill.
An even bigger opportunity came knocking in April 1993 when none other than all-conquering Williams asked him to do two days of ABS-development testing, with a view to pitting Perry against David Coulthard for the permanent tester's job vacated by Damon Hill. Imagine where McCarthy's career may have ended up if he landed the prize position. But in the end, having not got on well with the Williams test team manager, they went for the younger Coulthard, and, not for the first or last time, Perry was on the sidelines yet again. |
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1993-96
Decision to retire is made, but it's only temporary |
So McCarthy had squeezed into F1, only to have it bite, and bite hard. He had little money to start with, and his pockets had been further emptied by the Andrea Moda debacle. Apart from missing out on the Williams test drive, he had also been signed to drive for Nissan in the 1993 Daytona 24hrs only for the Japanese manufacturer to pull the plug when its new normally aspirated engine proved hopeless, and he had also been contacted by Vic Lee to drive for his British Touring Car Championship team just before Lee was sent to prison.
It was as if the constellations had permanently lined up against him, and Perry decided to retire. But the racing bug is a hard one to shake, and in 1994, according to Stephen Herbert, he made a one-off appearance in the local TVR Tuscan championship, finishing 8th, and in 1995 he competed occasionally in Formula Classic in the British club scene, recording a few 5ths and 3rds at Donington. But when Audi contacted him about driving one of their Quattros in the 1996 BTCC, McCarthy was ready to resume his career. |
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1996
Joins Lotus, partnering Jan Lammers in Global GT |
Audi eventually went for John Bintcliffe to partner Frank Biela, but McCarthy nonetheless found the backing to sign up with the Lotus team to drive their Esprit GT1 V8 in the BPR Global GT Endurance Series, joining Jan Lammers in the car. Reliability problems meant early retirements in the rounds at Monza and Jarama, but after extensive testing at Snetterton the pair managed a fabulous 2nd at Silverstone, and could have won had Perry not made a mistake in the pits.
Unfortunately, by this stage McCarthy had already fallen out with the team after an incident during the Snetterton test, and now the team took revenge by firing him. Nonetheless Perry ended up equal 25th in the championship with his 24 points. He then joined up with ORECA to drive their Chrysler Viper GTS-R at Le Mans with Dominique Dupuy and Justin Bell, but the car retired with an engine failure, and a deal to remain in the Global GT series in a Superpower Engineering De Tomaso Pantera fell through at the eleventh hour. |
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1996
Back to single seaters, dead heat for 3rd in British F2 |
But all was not lost, because towards the end of the year Perry found his way back to single seaters with the DKS Prosperity Management team, run by Roger Cowman's friend Kevin Sherwood, in a Reynard 95D Cosworth for the last 3 rounds of the 1996 British F2 championship. In his first race at Silverstone, he was confronted with terrible conditions, which caused the race to be stopped, restarted, and concluded behind the safety car. Results would be worked out on aggregate times.
Amazingly, McCarthy dead-heated to the nearest hundredth on aggregate times with the car driven by current Arden boss Christian Horner, and both had to be awarded equal 3rd in the race. The other two rounds were not as successful. McCarthy retired at Brands Hatch after an engine failure, and he also failed to finish at Donington. Still, with 4 points he was equal 8th in the championship with Fabrizio Gollin, Pietro Ferrero and David Cook. He then also drove for DKS in one round of the BOSS Formula championship, finishing 2nd. |
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1997
Takes to Panoz like a duck to water, registers only podium in the year |
But for 1997, McCarthy had another sports car drive on his hands, racing a Panoz GTR Ford for David Price Racing. Most of the time he teamed up with David Brabham, who along with Andy Wallace had pushed for Perry's inclusion in the team, while at times, another ex-F1 pilot, Olivier Grouillard, was also part of the line-up. Along with the youngest son of Sir Jack, Perry came 3rd at Sebring in Panoz's only podium finish of the year, earning them 4 points, enough for equal 23rd in a championship dominated by the McLarens and Porsches.
At Le Mans McCarthy, Brabham and Doc Bundy retired after 145 laps when the engine blew on the Mulsanne Straight. However, that he was even allowed to start at Le Mans had been a triumph in itself after yet another brush with officialdom. After problems had struck the car in practice, McCarthy had been unable to go out for practice in the dark, which was a mandatory prerequisite. Eventually, the situation was happily resolved when Perry was allowed to race, but forbidden from taking the opening stint. |
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1997-98
Robbed of victory by pistons at Daytona whilst leading by 3 laps |
Apart from racing the 'Batmobile' Panoz, in 1997 Perry also headed back to the USA to race in the IMSA Exxon World Sportscar Championship after an introduction by Dave Price himself. McCarthy drove for the URD-Rennwagenbau-USA operation in a URD BMW, and was teamed with drivers such as Marc Duez, Armin Hahne and Bill Auberlen. But the car was not particularly competitive, and McCarthy's best result was 7th at Lime Rock. With 32 points he was 38th overall in the championship.
In 1998, he began to scale back from active racing as other pursuits began to take up more of his time (more about this later), but he did race in the Daytona 24hrs (part of the SCCA US Road Racing Championship) in a Dyson Riley & Scott Mk III Ford with Butch Leitzinger, John Paul Jr and Rob Dyson. Disaster struck with under four hours to go while the car was leading by three laps, when two pistons let go. Being classified 18th was little consolation, but in gaining 33 points, McCarthy still finished equal 29th in the championship. |
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1998-99
Tries his hands at driver management, and latches onto an F3 winner |
He was entered to drive the same car in the Sebring 12hrs, round 1 of the IMSA Exxon WSC, but he never saw any race action, and then left after a disagreement with the team. Perry then rejoined Panoz for Le Mans, driving a Panoz GT-R1 Hybrid with James Weaver, but the pair failed to pre-qualify. The aim of the Hybrid was to combine a petrol engine with an electric engine to produce extra power whilst saving on fuel, but the battery system made the machine so heavy it never stood a chance.
Then in 1999, he turned his attention to driver management, looking after young British driver Marc Hynes, who took out that year's British F3 title, beating both Luciano Burti and Jenson Button. But throughout 1998, McCarthy had been working towards a drive with a German manufacturer, and he got his wish when Audi UK chose him along with Wallace, Weaver, Stefan Johansson, Stefan Ortelli and Didier Theys as their six drivers for their 1999 Le Mans assault. |
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1999-2000
Another assault at Le Mans is followed by soapbox assault at Goodwood |
As if that wasn't enough, the German-based works Audi Sport Team Joest then also called him up for the Sebring 12hrs, now a round of the American Le Mans Series, as well. Coming 5th in the Audi R8R with Emanuele Pirro and Frank Biela, the 20 points gained left him equal 52nd overall. The Le Mans assault with Audi UK was not as successful though, with McCarthy, Wallace and Weaver retiring after a gearbox failure in their Audi R8 Coupe after 198 laps.
According to Andrew Spokes, Perry also took part in the Goodwood Festival of Speed in 1999, and we know that in 2000 he was there again, even taking part in the Goodwood Gravity Racing Club Soapbox Challenge, against the likes of Sir Stirling Moss, the late Barry Sheene and Allan McNish. Apart from that, he spent the year in semi-retirement from racing, watching the Audis finishing 1-2-3 at the Le Mans 24hrs, and wondering what might have been. |
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2001-03
So near yet so far at Le Mans, skirting around the top teams |
McCarthy's racing activities continued to be limited in 2001, although he did test for Audi mid-year, and was originally part of the Bentley effort for the same race. Indeed, he could have been in the car with Leitzinger and Wallace which eventually took 3rd outright, but it was Eric van de Poele who eventually raced. Then in 2002 he returned to La Sarthe with the DAMS team, driving a Panoz roadster with Jérôme Policand and Marc Duez which was the subject of a French racing movie, but the car broke its main shaft after only 98 laps.
In 2003, although he dreamed of being part of Bentley's Le Mans effort (which subsequently finished 1-2), early in the year he was signed by Audi Sport UK again to drive the dominant and reliable R8 at Sebring and Le Mans. With Jonny Kane and ex-Toyota driver Mika Salo, he came 6th at Sebring, but with Salo and Biela was considered a genuine chance for victory at Le Mans. That was until Biela made a most uncharacteristic error, missed the pit entry on his in-lap while lapping a slower car, and ran out of fuel. |
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Personal
Already a writer, his autobiography is published to great fanfare |
Perry nowadays has plenty to keep him occupied away from the cockpit. Described by an American newspaper as 'a comedian locked into a racing driver's body', he has become a respected writer whose autobiography "Flat Out, Flat Broke" came out in hardback in 2002 and in paperback in 2003 due to overwhelming demand. Meanwhile, he has also been penning articles for Auto Express, Autosport, Auto Car, Motoring News and Chequered Flag among others. In one article about Monaco, he claims:
"Why do some of Monaco's most glamorous and affluent inhabitants look as though they've just been bored rigid by a two-hour pitch from a double glazing salesman? Maybe Monaco hasn't quite got everything; maybe it needs a sense of humour, and maybe that's why they keep the Grand Prix. Because watching Formula One cars trying to pass each other there is the only thing that makes them laugh any more!" |
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Personal
Makes his make on SkyTV digital and as 'The Stig' on Top Gear |
Perry started up a successful Internet sports betting business in 2000, and has also ventured into the world of television, working for Sky TV, Eurosport, the BBC and Channel 4 as both a commentator and a presenter. In 2002 he was actually co-presenter with Damon Hill of the Sky TV digital F1 coverage - a shame it was such a boring season of F1! And for the past two years he has been the mysterious character 'The Stig' on BBC's Top Gear program, the identity of whom baffled many viewers for a long time.
Indeed, according to Tom Prankerd, after the Andrea Moda debacle in France 1992, Perry promptly left the track, went to another circuit, and commentated on an F3000 race for Eurosport! Perry has also become a respected and renowned speaker, often acting as the host of functions, or giving after-dinner or motivational talks, drawing from the many anecdotes gained from his years of grafting up the motor racing ladder. In fact, his services have been utilised by companies such as Ford and IBM. |
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Personal
Says Perry: "All good things come to those who wait!" |
McCarthy currently lives in Brentwood in Britain with his wife Karen and their three daughters. Once again we thank him for his support of our site, and we heartily recommend "Flat Out, Flat Broke" for your reading pleasure. Back in 1992, in the middle of his F1 ordeal, he optimistically told Formula One International magazine that "all good things come to those who wait".
In recent years, he may reflect on his time in motor racing more soberly - not surprising considering the lengths it took him to get to the top. Nevertheless, here's to a great racing driver and a generous man, with an inspirational attitude and a gift behind the wheel that made him one of the best unrecognised talents of the last 20 years. |
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Click here to read our exclusive Interview with Perry! |
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