RESEARCHING stories for V8 Sleuth Magazine often takes us to unexpected places.
Take Issue 2, for example, which includes a feature on Mattias Ekström’s storming wildcard cameo at the 2013 Bathurst 1000.
Then-Triple Eight boss Roland Dane reveals he first came across the Swede back in his Super Touring days, and had been trying to get him into a V8 Supercar for several years before the XBOX-backed wildcard came about.
He also talks about just how legal the car was; a major talking point at the time, given its prodigious performance in a straight line!
It was the search through our AN1 Images archive for photos to accompany the feature that led us to The Stig.
Not that the phenomenally-talented Ekström is The Stig – not as far as we know, anyway.
It was photos of the time that Top Gear’s own tame racing driver came to Morgan Park Raceway.
Speculation abounded in September 2013 when the Warwick circuit was effectively put into lockdown due to the top-secret shoot.
Word had gotten out that Top Gear was coming to town, and – per the rumour – none other than Jeremy Clarkson would drive the XBOX-branded V8 Supercar that Ekström and Andy Priaulx were due to race at Mount Panorama a fortnight later.
This was when Top Gear was at its zenith, its global reach extending beyond the TV show to standalone events like the Top Gear Festival at Sydney Motorsport Park.
Pic: an1images.com / Scott Wensley
“It is one of the world’s most popular television shows, estimated to be watched by 350 million people across 170 countries, and next week Top Gear is set to roll into Morgan Park with a camera crew,” wrote the Warwick Daily News at the time.
“However, the exact day, time, location and reason for their visit has been locked up tighter than Fort Knox and the Pentagon combined.
“While the Daily News has been unable to have it confirmed or denied, metropolitan media reported Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson would be test-driving the new Microsoft Xbox-sponsored V8 Supercar in a deal brokered by former racer Mark Skaife in Warwick sometime next week.
“Morgan Park Raceway president Bill Campbell was able to confirm Top Gear was coming, but said he was unable to say when or why.
“Providing further truth to the rumour is the large order Steele’s Bakery Cafe is preparing for a group of people, who have something to do with Mark Skaife, heading out to Morgan Park on Monday morning.”
History shows that Clarkson wasn’t there. Or if he was, he was well disguised.
Pic: an1images.com / Scott Wensley
But not in The Stig’s signature white racesuit with Simpson diamondback helmet.
The point of the day was to film segments for Top Gear’s role in the upcoming Forza Motorsport 5 game, which the Bathurst wildcard entry was in part to promote.
The Stig – well, technically The Stig’s Digital Cousin – was part of a Rivals event within the game, where players had to try and beat his time around Mount Panorama in the XBOX VF Commodore, while Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May also provided narration for various elements of the game.
The teaser video, filmed entirely at Morgan Park, can be watched below.
Before you ask, no, we don’t know who The Stig was at Morgan Park.
But we do know what car he was driving, and it wasn’t the same car Ekström and Priaulx raced at Bathurst.
Instead, it was Supercars’ own prototype Holden Car of the Future chassis, rebodied in VF Commodore trim.
The car was trackside at Bathurst, where it was used in the TV broadcast within the Tech Centre.