Would you work on an oil rig for two years so you could save money to fund your seemingly impossible dream of becoming a Formula One racing driver?
Not many people possess that kind of ‘whatever it takes’ determination, but that’s exactly what Top Gear’s Original Stig and ex Formula One driver Perry McCarthy did: “I’m somebody who goes for things. If I think it’s a good idea and there are barriers in front of making the idea happen, the next job is to remove those barriers.
“My approach to pretty much everything – whether in racing or with business ideas – is to either smash through the barriers, dig under them, go over them, go around them, or whatever it is, find a way through the barrier.”
And smash barriers he did.
“Because much of racing is a financially dependent sport, performance is often limited or enhanced by exactly what kind of budget you’ve got. Every time these wheels go round for a junior formula or a top formula, it’s an awful lot of money and money needs to be found sometimes, and I’m certainly not unique here.
“As a young driver I had no track record to even get sponsorship. I got a job working on North Sea oil rigs for two years, which paid me a lot of money. That was two years of working 12-14 hours a day, every week, and then a week off, to get the money together to even start motor racing.
