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DRIFT RACING LEGEND GIVES TOUR OF FUN HOME BACKING ONTO HAMPTON DOWNS TRACK.

Drift racing legend “Mad” Mike Whiddett is one of the world’s biggest motorsports personalities and the custom built house the New Zealander designed with wife Toni is the subject of the latest fun Red Bull Backyards video tour.

Here is all you need to know:

  • Whiddett grew up riding motocross bikes in New Zealand, however a succession of injuries and meeting Toni saw him switch up to drifting just when the sport was becoming popular around the globe.
  • Encouraging early results in Japan, USA and Singapore saw him pick up sponsorship and resulted in his Red Bull-branded, specially-modified 515bhp ‘MADBUL’ Mazda RX-7 and rotary-engined ‘BADBUL’ RX-8.
  • Results got better leading into winning the 2018 Formula Drift Japan title, while the 40-year-old from Auckland has also built a huge global following after starring at the UK’s infamous ‘Magic Roundabout’ and 2019 Goodwood Festival of Speed in a converted Lamborghini Huracán.
  • For this Backyards episode, Whiddett shows fans exactly what his hard-earned success has bought his family with the home he designed with Toni overlooking the Hampton Downs Motorsport Park in Waikato.
  • With a swimming pool, pit bike track and ponies in the garden, he also had the ultimate man cave built outside to house his Mazda REPU B2000 stadium truck ‘RUMBUL’, bikes, helmets and remote-controlled cars.
  • Not only that, Whiddett and son Lincoln get to spend their rainy days battling it out in a special room equipped with cutting edge drift racing simulators where they can duel with each other or fans online.
  • Over at Hampton Downs, Whiddett reveals his new Mad Lab 2.0 where fans can see the restoration of a Mazda RX-2 called ‘FURSTY’ and the modified Huracán LP580-2 Drift Lamborghini he raced at Goodwood.
  • He also gets to race specially designed drift karts around the Waikato track with Japanese drifter friend Takeshi “Tuxx” Teruya before chilling out in his pool with a unique Kiwi diving tradition.
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