With the blue sky peering through one moment only to be interrupted by side-blowing wind and sudden snow storms, the weather conditions changed every second. The person who flew into Onuma, which is famous for a lake where swans fly and come by, was Mike Whiddett, also known as “Mad Mike”, who is the top drift driver in New Zealand, accompanied by Toshiki Yoshioka, also known as “Toshi-king”, a Japanese drift driver with experience in drifting on the ice who joined the project as an adviser for Mike, who had never attempted drifting on ice.
The vehicle used in this project was RX-7, which Mike was used to driving. The vehicle was a reproduction of Mike’s RX-7 in New Zealand and was transferred from Kobe to Wakkanai by land and sea over the course of an entire day. As he rode the vehicle, Mike demonstrated his smooth and powerful driving, as if he had experienced driving on the ice many times. The drivers demonstrated ice drifting on FR (front-rear drive) instead of 4WD and chased one another in their two vehicles, making this project an unprecedented event.
Mike, who experienced ice drifting for the first time, said: “This project was really great. Absolutely, it was the biggest challenge in this year, no, in my whole career, including motocross and drifting. I was able to succeed because the best team helped set up the vehicle, and the choice of tires was optimal for drifting on the snow and in the climate of this cold region. Although I have tried to express what it is like to drive on the ice, I cannot exemplify or compare it to anything. It requires a technique completely different from driving on a paved roadway. I experienced the traction of spike tires for the first time, but four days of driving helped me get used to driving on the ice and I was able to speed up on the fourth day. I really enjoyed it.”
The temperature at Wakkanai at this time of year was below -6°C in the center of the city and even lower at Onuma, which is located on the city outskirts and had changed into a snow field throughout the entire surrounding area. On the lake, which forms ice with a thickness of 60 cm or more, and once a year, a driving course for vehicles is set and the “Onuma Snow Attack” trial race on the ice is held.
As indicated by his nickname “Mad”, Made Mike demonstrated indescribable drifting techniques, scraping by the shooting cranes and camera crew. With his collaboration with Yoshioka, they demonstrated perfectly coordinated twin drifting, showing us the strong chemistry between the two drivers. Mike, who loves Japan, where drifting originated, and is knowledgeable about Japan and has Japanese food once or twice a week in New Zealand, really enjoyed drifting in Japan and met all of the harsh demands of the filming session without showing any reluctance toward all of the various requests made by the filming crew.
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