Wednesday, 1 September 2010

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SEE PIC Top Gear's The Stig's identity is revealed

Top Gear's secret driver is denied right to anonymity

The Stig tried to remain incognito

The identity of Top Gear driver The Stig has been revealed.

Former Formula Three driver Ben Collins, 35, has been outed as the man behind the helmet after a High Court bid to block HarperCollins' publication of Ben's autobiography was rejected. 

Damon Hill and Michael Schumacher have previously been rumoured to be The Stig - the secret expert driver on the popular BBC show which recently attracted celebrity guests Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz.

BBC bosses had tried to keep The Stig's identity a secret by arguing that it would ruin the audience's enjoyment of the show if they knew who he was.

The corporation won't confirm or deny if Ben Collins was or remains The Stig but he is thought to be the second driver to take on the role, slipping into the hot seat vacated by Formula One's Perry McCarthy, 49, in 2003. 

But since the High Court ruling was announceded, Top Gear presenter James May has joked that he, in fact, is the genuine man in the mask.

'Obviously I'm now going to have to take some legal action of my own, because I have been The Stig for the past seven years,' he quippped in a radio interview.

'I don't know who this bloke is, who's mincing around in the High Court pretending it's him.'

Ben Collins (above) has won the right to publish his autobiography.