A minute with Mad Mike’s Crew.

To run a successful two car drift team across the world with cars in NZ and USA takes a lot more than just driving skill and corporate sponsors. It takes a huge amount of organisation and part of that organisation is having the best people in the business to make the whole operation run like clockwork.

Much of Mad Mike’s organisational duties are taken care of by his partner Toni Cook who not only manages his PR and logistics but also does spotter duties when needed. Along with Toni, Mike has a crew of three trusty mechanics that keep the whole Red Bull/ Need for Speed drift cars buzzing to 9000rpm at every opportunity.

One of Mad Mikes team members is a friendly guy that goes by the name of “Cromey”. He is a qualified engineer who when I asked him what he was doing before he was with Mike he replied “building race cars in Europe”. As this was not the reply I was expecting I then ventured further and asked a few more questions.

Superlap: How did you end up on the crew?

Cromey: I had begun building a car for JT ( Kiwi drift legend Jairus ‘JT’ Wharerau) and he asked me if i would look over Mikes car, so i gave it a once over and got invited to the track, Mike took me for a ride around Pukekhoe and pretty much scared the shit out of me and from that day on I found a whole new respect for drift drivers! I offered to improve the steering lock for him with a couple of mods and have been there ever since!

Superlap: And do you crew on the RX8 as well?

Cromey: Yes, I did for a season and after we built it,  we ran it here and won the NZ drift series on our debut, since then the car has been up in the US for Formula D. I went to the first round but unfortunately work (my real job!) and a mortgage has meant that I can’t get away as much as I would like to.

Superlap: Certainly appears that it has been on a gradual state of improvement and every time it comes back bigger and better over the years?

Cromey: Yes, we are continually upgrading, modifying, improving as we go. As we dial in more performance we have to then deal with the extra stress on the chassis/tyres/drive train, also the visual aspect of the car has to be kept up and Mike is pretty much the “King of what looks sick” and takes care of that side of things, we are not happy to just sit back and not develop things and not to try new ideas.

Superlap: Awesome stuff Cromey, the fans in Australia can’t wait to see Madbul on Australian soil for the first time

Cromey: Yeah we are all really looking forward to this event that is for sure. And don’t worry, you will certainly hear us coming!

Cromey reckons “Red Bull Gives You Wings” (and pretty girls as well by the look of it!)