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Original YouTube video.
A row has erupted over a Channel Nine TV segment on Tuesday night...
... in which A Current Affair appealed to the public to help them catch a hoon ‘before he kills somebody’.
Wednesday night's A Current Affair appeared to backpeddle from their Tuesday night story that they were seeking the public's help to identify a young man in alleged hoon footage.
After the Tuesday night story, claims surfaced that the so-called ‘exclusive’ hoon footage had in fact been edited down from a clip on Youtube, which was one of the 2007 audition tapes for Australian Top Gear. Channel Nine secured the rights to Top Gear last last year – around the same time the footage was posted on Youtube by somebody calling themselves ‘Mr Anonymous234’. It is the only video Mr Anon has posted.
Despite ACA reporter Tom Steinfort asking the public to help find the driver he referred to as ‘Crazy Carlo’, the Youtube footage shows the young driver introducing himself with: "Hi everybody at Freehand (the producers of Top Gear Australia), my name is Carlo Arena and I would like to be your Stig."
Comments running through online car forums cast doubt on the validity of the video – while still condemning the driving “It is stupid and irresponsible … even stupider to video this act and paste it on the internet, now that’s exactly what I SHOULD be saying if this guy pasted the video up! After finding the FULL video that was NOT edited by ACA, it does appear that the guy was doing the video for Top Gear Australia Auditions to become the next Stig. He actually introduces himself so where is the mystery,” asked Beau Jones on DriftKulture.com.
“Does sound plausable (sic) that tabloid journalists would of got hold of it, "leaked it onto youtube" then put it on ACA instead of admitting they got it through their Top Gear deal,” Sicarius123 wrote on performanceforums.com “If they have his Plate number and full name wouldn’t the police be able to track him,” evilvids commented on youtube.com.
ACA spotlighted the vehicle’s number plate as part of their ‘hoon hunt’ but comments on the forums suggested the car was sold shortly after the audition tape was shot, and has since been deregistered for use as a race car.
In the follow-up story on Wednesday night, A Current Affair admitted they knew the driver's identity and also knew that the footage ... far from being an exclusive ... was an audition tape.
“We thoguht it would have been unfair to splash the driver's full name ... with that in mind, we withheld a portion of the video in which he does indeed name himself and claims he wants to be a stunt driver on SBS's local version of Top Gear,” Steinfort said in Wednesday's follow-up piece.
