Ben Collins (racing driver)

Benjamin Lievesley Immi Collins (born 13 February 1975) is a British racing driver. He has competed in motor racing since 1994 in many categories, from Formula Three and Indy Lights to sportscars, GT racing and stock cars. In his role as The Stig, he co-presented the British motoring television programme Top Gear from 2003 to 2010.

Collins was placed second in the Marlboro Masters Formula 3 championship event in 2000. He was the fastest driver at the 2001 Le Mans 24 hours race for approximately four hours during the rain at night in his debut at the event. After winning the European Stock Car Championship in 2003 ASCAR stock car racing he was signed by PDM Racing to do selected rounds of the 2004 Indy Racing League, but the car never appeared. In 2005, he competed in the British GT Championship in a Porsche 996 GT3, winning races on the way before moving up to the FIA GT Series with Ascari where he led races and scored several pole positions.

In addition to racing, Collins's company Collins Autosport Limited provides precision and stunt driving services, particularly for BBC Television, including Top Gear On 1 September 2010, the BBC was refused a court injunction preventing Collins from publishing an autobiography revealing himself to be the Stig. On 1 October 2010, it was announced that Collins would join Fifth Gear as a presenter. In 2012 Collins joined as co-presenter of Polish TVN's Automaniak. In February 2014, he was added to the 'Drivers Club' of the newly formed Formula E series, but did not compete in the inaugural 2014–15 season.

Personal life

Collins was born in Bristol, but spent the first ten years of his life in California in the US, where his father worked for a distribution company. Collins attended Blundell's School and after studying law at the University of Exeter, he spent around four years serving in the British Army, serving some of his time as a Special Forces driving instructor. His racing career started in 1994.

Collins is a talented pipe organist and plays at Cairns Road Baptist church Bristol.

Racing

right|thumb|Ben Collins driving the No.84 car in the 2003 European [[Stock Car Speed Association|SCSA ]]

Collins has competed in motorsport since 1994. In 1995 he competed in Formula Vauxhall Junior, finishing third overall with two wins and eight podiums. He also competed in the Formula Opel Winter Series, placing second overall driving for Sir Jackie Stewart who commented in Autosport Magazine, "When you see the likes of Ben Collins in Formula One, remember you saw them here first". The following season, he competed briefly in Formula Vauxhall for Martin Donnelly, scoring a second-place finish in the opening round at Donington Park - Martin remarked that "Ben is an aggressive driver with phenomenal natural speed."

thumb|right|Collins's 2004 [[ASCAR Racing Series|Days of Thunder car in the paddock area at Rockingham.]]

Collins moved onto the British Formula 3 Championship in 1996. In 1997, he finished eighth in the standings driving for Fortec Motorsport, and also finished eighth in the Macau Grand Prix. After another year in Formula Three in 1998, Collins raced in the American Indy Lights series in 1999, finishing thirteen in the standings. and undertaken testing of Formula One cars.

In the 2010 Le Mans Series season, Collins was racing for RML AD Group. His first race for the team was the 2010 1000 km of Algarve, finishing fourth overall and winning the LMP2 class. He remained with the team for the next round, the 2010 1000 km of Hungaroring, where they finished fourth in both class and overall.

Collins competed in the final meeting of the 2010 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship, driving a BMW for the Motorbase Performance team. He finished his first race in 14th and bettered that with a 12th in his second. However he retired in the third and he never returned the following season.

In 2021, Collins once again found himself behind a racing wheel as he took part in the Britcar Praga Championship alongside ex-SAS and Who Dares Wins star Jay Morton and Angus Fender. The pair drove the 85 car, nicknamed Blade.

In 2022, Collins took part in the inaugural season of the Praga Cup.

Collins Autosport

Collins is a regular writer for Autosport magazine testing the latest racing cars, has written for The Sunday Times, fronted Sky Sports's televised NASCAR coverage, along with appearances on the British car-focused television programmes Top Gear (BBC Two), Pulling Power (ITV1) and driven (Channel 4). As a precision-driver in the 2008-film Quantum of Solace, Collins drove James Bond's Aston Martin DBS as a stunt double for Daniel Craig in the lead role. He has also worked as a stunt driver on Skyfall and Spectre.

Collins also holds a World Record for the maximum distance of driving a car on two wheels (a manoeuvre called "skiing").

Top Gear

Collins has appeared on the BBC television programme Top Gear as himself, with his company providing drivers and driving services since December 2003. In Series 2 Episode 10, Collins appeared as one member of BBC Top Gear-team in the 24-hour Citroën 2CV racing event. The team finished thirteenth, out of thirty four cars, 24 laps behind the leaders, with Collins setting the fastest lap.

In 2004, Collins made an appearance during the fourth series of Top Gear, alongside parachutist Tim Carter. The stunt involved Carter and an aerial cameraman jumping out of a Cessna light aircraft then landing in the open-topped Mercedes car being driven at a speed by Collins. The open-top car was introduced as belonging to Collins and had earlier been used, driven by The Stig, during a wig test in Series 3 Episode 5.

In 2004, Collins featured in the second episode of series five, driving a Lancer Evo VII and then a Bowler Wildcat vehicle in a race against mountain boarding world champion Tom Kirkman

At the start of series six, Collins appeared with other British Touring Car Championship racing and stunt drivers for a Five-a-side football game using a fleet of Toyota Aygo cars.

The sixth episode of series seventeen of Top Gear featured a team of amputee soldiers training driving a Bowler Wildcat and being trained by Collins to take part in the Dakar Rally.

Collins also appeared in the Top Gear Special, '50 Years of Bond Cars', on the set of Skyfall. Collins, who worked as a stunt driver on the film was interviewed by Richard Hammond.

On a separate occasion, following an accident involving Richard Hammond in September 2006, the Health & Safety Executive report into the event recorded that Collins had "worked closely with Top Gear as a high-performance driver and consultant" and had prepared a briefing for Richard Hammond preceding the event.

The Stig

right|thumb|The Stig

On 19 January 2009, British newspaper The Daily Telegraph ran a story claiming that they had "outed" Collins as being one of the people behind the white-suit incarnation of The Stig, at the same time noting that "Collins, from Bristol, has always denied being the Stig".

The Times, in a follow-up article, stated that the "identity of the white-suited Stig ... has been an open secret within the motoring world for some years, with newspapers refraining from publishing his name, to uphold the spirit of the programme" which concluded that "a newspaper broke with the convention to out Mr Collins, 33, after following up a story in a Bristol newspaper".

Similar allegations were repeated by The Sunday Times during August 2010.

Two Bristol-based local newspapers had published articles a week before The Times in January 2009, on the basis of information leaked from a local art gallery. Collins had previously commissioned a Clifton-based business in September 2008, to produce a limited-edition run of poster prints.

The signed poster image showed a salt flat scene, with The Stig positioned standing on it.

Autobiography publication

During August to September 2010, the BBC started legal proceedings against Harper Collins, with the BBC attempting to obtain a High Court injunction to prevent the publishing of a book entitled The Man in The White Suit, apparently authored by Collins. The injunction was quashed by the High Court, allowing the possibility of the book being published on its intended release date of 16 September 2010 in the United Kingdom and 1 October 2010 in Australia.

In an exclusive interview with WitneyTV recorded on 3 September 2010 and broadcast on 7 September 2010, Top Gear-presenter Jeremy Clarkson confirmed that Collins had worked as The Stig, and that Collins was "history as far as we're concerned, he's sacked". On 7/8 September 2010, The Guardian and other papers re-reported Clarkson's assertions in the interview that Collins had been fired from his role on the television show.

In the fifteenth series Christmas special, Top Gear presenters referred to the Stig as "The Splitter" and publicly ridiculed the Stig, using the picture of the Stig for drive-by shooting targets.

During Collins's appearance with the military amputees broadcast in July 2011, Collins was introduced and acknowledged by Top Gear-presenter Richard Hammond as "ex-Stig ... Ben Collins". Introducing him, Clarkson joked Collins was "living rough", in a racing track paddock, as Collins was shown to be sleeping on cardboard with a shopping trolley with books and Daniel Craig face cuttouts for his possessions. Collins's role was identical to his previous one as the Stig, except wearing an open face helmet and he was referred to as "The Ben Collins" by Clarkson. He has written a second book, How To Drive: The Ultimate Guide, from the Man Who Was The Stig, published in 2014.

Collins served as a consultant during the development of Project CARS and Project CARS 2.

In 2007, Collins started a career as a stunt driver in National Treasure: Book of Secrets. This followed by multiple films for the James Bond franchise and other blockbusters including The Dark Knight Rises, Solo: A Star Wars Story, Jack Ryan, and Mission Impossible. He had a dual role as a stunt driver and actor in Ford v Ferrari / Le Mans '66 in the role of Denny Hulme and the 2023 film Ferrari as Stirling Moss.

Since 2022, Collins currently serves as co-host of the DriveTribe YouTube channel, alongside main hosts Richard Hammond and his daughter, Izzy Hammond.

Collins also runs two YouTube channels of his own, Ben Collins Drives and Ben Collins Gaming, with the former being an automotive channel, and the latter being a channel focused on sim racing.

Racing career

Complete American open-wheel racing results

(key)

Indy Lights

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; font-size:85%"

! Year

! Team

! 1

! 2

! 3

! 4

! 5

! 6

! 7

! 8

! 9

! 10

! 11

! 12

! Rank

! Points

! Ref

| 1999

! nowrap| Johansson Motorsports

|style="background:#CFEAFF;"|MIA

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"|LBH

|style="background:#CFEAFF;"| NAZ

|style="background:#EFCFFF;"|MIL

|style="background:#CFEAFF;"|POR

|style="background:#CFEAFF;"|CLE

|style="background:#EFCFFF;"|TOR

|style="background:#EFCFFF;"|MIS

|style="background:#EFCFFF;"|DET

|style="background:#CFEAFF;"|CHI

|style="background:#EFCFFF;"|LAG

|style="background:#DFDFDF;"| FON

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"|13th

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"|50

24 Hours of Le Mans results

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; font-size:90%"

! Year

! Team

! Co-drivers

! Car

! Class

! Laps

|align="left" nowrap| Team Ascari

|align="left" nowrap| Werner Lupberger Harri Toivonen

|align="left" nowrap| Ascari A410-Judd

| LMP900

| 134

| DNF

|align="left" nowrap| Team Ascari

|align="left" nowrap| Werner Lupberger T. J. Bell

|align="left" nowrap| Ascari KZR-1-Judd

| LMP1

| 17

| DNF

|align="left" nowrap| RML

|align="left" nowrap| Mike Newton Thomas Erdos

|align="left" nowrap| HPD ARX-01d

| LMP2

| 314

| 12th

| 4th

|align="left" nowrap| Krohn Racing

|align="left" nowrap| Tracy Krohn Niclas Jönsson

|align="left" nowrap| Ferrari 458 Italia GT2

| GTE Am

| 325

| 30th

| 10th

!colspan="8"|

2CV 24 Hour Race results

{| class="wikitable" style="font-size:90%"

! Year

! Team

! Co-Drivers

! Car

! Laps

! Ref

|- style="text-align:center;"

! 2003

|align="left" nowrap| BBC Top Gear

|align="left" nowrap| Simon Butler Fasta Rasta Richard Hammond

|align="left" nowrap| Citroën 2CV

| 24

| 14th

|- style="text-align:center;"

Complete British GT Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position in class) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap in class)

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; font-size:85%"

! Year

! Team

! Car

! Class

! 1

! 2

! 3

! 4

! 5

! 6

! 7

! 8

! 9

! 10

! 11

! 12

! 13

! Points

| 2005

! nowrap| Embassy Racing

! nowrap| Porsche 911 GT3-RSR

! GT2

|style="background:#DFFFDF;"| DON 1

|style="background:#FFFFFF;"| MAG 1

|style="background:#FFFFBF;"| KNO 1

|style="background:#DFFFDF;"| KNO 2

|style="background:#DFFFDF;"| THR 1

|style="background:#DFFFDF;"| THR 2

|style="background:#FFDF9F;"| CAS 1

|style="background:#DFFFDF;"| CAS 2

|style="background:#FFFFBF;"| SIL 1

|style="background:#FFDF9F;"| MON 1

|style="background:#FFDF9F;"| MON 2

|style="background:#FFDF9F;"| SIL 1

|style="background:#DFDFDF;"| SIL 2

!style="background:#DFDFDF;"| 2nd

!style="background:#DFDFDF;"| 70

| 2023

! nowrap| Raceway Motorsport

! nowrap| Ginetta G56 GT4

! GT4

| OUL 1

| OUL 2

| SIL 1

| DON 1

| SNE 1

| SNE 2

| ALG 1

| BRH 1

|style="background:#EFCFFF;"| DON 1

! NC

! 0

!colspan="19"|

Complete FIA GT Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; font-size:85%"

! Year

! Team

! Car

! Class

! 1

! 2

! 3

! 4

! 5

! 6

! 7

! 8

! 9

! 10

! 11

! Points

| 2005

! nowrap| Embassy Racing

! nowrap| Porsche 911 GT3-RSR

! GT2

| MNZ

|style="background:#FFFFFF;"| MAG

|style="background:#DFDFDF;"| SIL

| IMO

| BRN

|style="background:#DFFFDF;"| SPA

| OSC

| IST

| ZHU

| DUB

| BHR

! 12th

! 17.5

!colspan="17"|