Drifting star ‘Mad’ Mike Whiddett has told The Checkered Flag that he is keen to compete in Red Bull Global Rallycross.
The New Zealander was subject to an article we published earlier in the year called ‘Five drivers we’d like to see in Red Bull GRC‘ in which we listed drivers we’d like to see race in the series that haven’t to date.
Whiddett is one of drifting’s biggest stars and in recent years has taken to off-road and GT racing. At the Goodwood Festival of Speed he responded, and was extremely positive about the possibility of competing in rallycross in the future.
“Oh yeah! I’d love to do it but each year, there’s all the programmes; drifting of course is my number one, and then I’ve been fortunate enough to get my feet wet in GT racing,” he said. “I’ve been doing some GTs and I’ve actually been doing really well, we haven’t finished out of the top 10, qualified in seventh at the last one, so I’ve been really enjoying that aspect of actually racing.”
‘Mad’ Mike Whiddett in action at the Goodwood Festival of Speed last weekend – Credit: Dominik Wilde
Whiddett revealed that while drifting is the most enjoyable form of motorsport for him, it has its pitfalls, and that rallycross could potentially be the perfect discipline for him as it encompasses everything he’s done in his career to date.
“Drifting is the most exciting way for me to drive a car but it’s frustrating because it’s a judged sport so with any judged sport there’s a natural human error, [and] politics that come with it so you can only handle so much of it, hence why I’ve got the off road truck to start doing some stuff that’s different,” the Red Bull-backed driver said. “I’ve done some cool video shoots, but yeah I’d love to jump in a rallycross car and I think, y’know my skills from the motorcross when I was young to drifting, and we’ve picked up the track really fast…”
“We got a wildcard into Robby Gordon‘s Stadium SuperTrucks – I met Robby Gordon here at Goodwood Festival of Speed and he got me in his widcard,” he added. “I went out there and qualified second, I hadn’t even raced an off road truck before and we were up against the top talent out of the States! We’ve got this (the off road truck) for a bit of a toy, but yes, rallycross for sure is definitely something I’d love to do. One day.”
Were he to make the move to Red Bull GRC, Whiddett would be following in the footsteps of fellow Formula Drift competitors Rhys Millen and Tanner Foust, who have both won multiple events in the championship.
