Some say that if you put two Stigs on the same racetrack, they will attack each other. Some say they will get in their cars and race. All we know is a head-to-head between two Stigs was an opportunity we couldn’t resist.
True, both worked only as temporary Stigs — stand-ins for the Top Gear television show’s faceless, white-clad racing driver — when the regular Stig was unavailable. But, psyched up for The Sunday Times’s Hot Laps challenge, both showed levels of aggression of which their full-time counterpart would have been proud.
Most of this seemed directed at each other as they burnt off the grid with a roar of supercharged engines, narrowly avoiding a collision on the first bend.
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As the two Stig-driven Jags — one red, one white — screamed round the Silverstone circuit, cones flew and tyre smoke billowed from under the wheels.
And instead of a friendly handshake, they celebrated their near-photo finish by drinking what looked like neat petrol, and then began to fight.
“He’s pushing me,” grumbled Tiff Needell as they posed back to back for photographs. “But he’s leaning on me,” complained Julian Bailey.
Needell, the host of Channel 5’s Fifth Gear, filled in as Top Gear’s Stig this year after the abrupt exit of Ben Collins. He coached the film director Danny Boyle for the show’s Reasonably Priced Car slot. Bailey’s involvement came after the first Stig — Perry McCarthy — was fired off an aircraft carrier and then fired. A replacement was suddenly needed.
Needell and Bailey have raced in Formula One and became team-mates in 1998 when they competed in the British GT championship, driving a Lister Storm. The rivalry returned, though, as they took to the track last month.
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The occasion was the launch of this year’s Sunday Times Hot Laps challenge, the competition that gives readers the chance to test themselves against one another on one of Britain’s most famous racing circuits and win the loan of a Jaguar for six months.
We’re looking for the readers who can set the fastest time over two laps of Silverstone’s 1.08-mile Stowe circuit in a 510bhp V8 Jaguar XKR. The competition is open to anybody who meets the terms and conditions set out on the Sunday Times website and composes one of the wittiest responses to the tie-breaker. They will be invited to Silverstone, where they will follow in the tyre tracks of Needell and Bailey and have their laps captured on video.
By the end of the summer, the readers heading the leaderboard will be invited back for a showdown to decide the winner of this year’s Hot Laps title. And don’t worry — Needell and Bailey were there only to set the pace. They aren’t eligible to win.
The Stowe circuit, in the shadow of Silverstone’s new Wing pit complex, is being used in our competition for the first time this year. It may be more technical, tight and twisty than the one used for the past three years, with the cars seldom going above third gear, but winners will still nudge 100mph on the main straight and they will have to be even more precise than ever.
Don’t be too scared — Sunday Times readers will be given advice by senior instructors at Silverstone’s driving school.
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“Listen to them,” Needell advises. “They will help you to get the best from your abilities and to avoid common mistakes such as going too quickly through the slow corners and too slowly through the fast ones.”
Bailey adds: “It’s better to take it easy at first. Steadily build up your pace to make sure that your quickest laps are at the end of the day.
“Mind you, I tell myself that but then I get in the car and straight away I want to go fast.”
The competition may be just for fun, but to Needell and Bailey it was obviously a grudge match. Watching intently from the pit lane during his rival’s timed lap, Needell thought he saw Bailey cutting the last corner. “Disqualify him,” he shouted.
As the two of them lined up to be told their times, the bickering grew worse and the explanations were plucked straight from the racing driver’s official handbook of excuses. “The tyres and brakes got too hot,” grumbled Bailey. “The sprinklers made the track too wet for me,” protested Tiff.
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Both times were blisteringly fast, a testament to the skill and stamina of both drivers. Tiff had it by a whisker — a result, said Bailey, of the red car that he drove being covered in flies attracted to the paint colour. That resulted in several pounds of insect debris weighing down his car (excuse No 471).
We’re not expecting Sunday Times readers to match their times, but Bailey modestly declares that a good amateur driver could get close.
“Good luck to them,” he says. “If you are determined to beat our times, it’s not impossible.”
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Stig 1
Tiff Needell, 59
Career high: Knowing all the dedication had been worth it when I raced in the Belgian Grand Prix in 1980.
Career low: Being replaced after just two grands prix. I never got the chance to prove myself.
Hot Lap time: 2min 10.12sec
Stig 2
Julian Bailey, 49
Career high: FIA GT Champion in 2000, 6th in the San Marino Grand Prix in 1991.
Career low: Ending up in Norwich and Norfolk hospital in 1980 with seven broken bones and having to have skin grafts after a Formula Ford crash at Snetterton, where another car came onto the track in my path.
Hot Lap time: 2min 11.78sec
Click here for instructions on how to enter
Silverstone Track Days: Drive your own car on our track This year's Hot Laps competition is run in association with Silverstone Circuits. If you fancy taking your own car around Silverstone, go to www.silverstone.co.uk/track/track-club/