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Stig, unmasked

10:42 UK time, Thursday, 29 January 2009

Some say his Twitter feed has its own tinted helmet. All we know is that he's called Stig and he enters the Caption Competition. Well, that WAS all we knew...

thestigbbc.jpgTop Gear's mystery test driver The Stig has been allegedly unmasked as Ben Collins, a 33-year-old former racer from Bristol. Or Heikki Kovalainen, a Finn who apparently drove a Renault F1 car in 2004. Or Chris Goodwin, Julian Bailey, Terry Grant or Russ Swift. Or perhaps Dan Lang. Or maybe a man called Will. All depending on which newspaper you read.

But how about the Monitor's very own masked man? Since late 2004, a character known only as Stig - and, more recently, Stigmondo - has built up quite a following for his fast lap times and tight cornering in the Magazine's Caption Competition and now-defunct Lunchtime Bonus Question.

Some say his captions arrive at Television Centre in their very own limousine. And some say he and Top Gear's always-helmeted Stig are one and the same.

But now, inspired by The Stig, our Stig unmasks himself as...

richard_thestig.jpgName: Richard Jenkinson

Age: 50

Occupation: "Director and co-owner of a financial research company, based in the City of London. Yes, it's been an interesting year, why do you ask?"

Relationship status: "Married (to Mrs Stig). And not to someone called Sue, as more than one letter to the Monitor has strangely alluded to. Caused me no end of steely looks over the dry toast, those. I have two children that now enter the caption competition, and are dangerously close to beating their father."

Why Stig? "It was given to me in the Army, but my room wasn't exactly regimentally uniform in its tidiness. So Stig of the Dump it was."

Favourite caption: "My for the air guitar."

What next? "Stig is to have his own version of being launched off the back of an aircraft carrier in a banger. He'll enjoy that. As for me, I have more than one identity on the Monitor, and the non-Stigmondo ones are proving quite successful."

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