WE’RE THE BONNIE & CLYDE OF DRIFTING
The car-mad couple area driving force!
There’s a special moment that stands out in the mind of professional drifting sensation Drew Donovan, even 14 years on. He was on a gravel road in Northland, hitchhiking with a friend, when a car barrelled past.
Skidding to a halt using the handbrake, it spun around to pick them up and Drew noticed a pretty young blonde sitting in the driver’s seat. It was Jodie, 30, his now-wife and New Zealand’s highest-ranked female drifter. It’s a sport in which the driver intentionally oversteers a vehicle to cause loss of traction in the rear wheels or all tyres.
“It was such a wild experience, and I was pretty impressed and shocked at the same time,” laughs Tauranga-based Drew, 32. “You could say it was love at first sight.”
The two are now the world’s only professional drift couple, competing together in their prized Toyota Supra drift cars, affectionately dubbed Bonnie and Clyde.
While Drew ranks eighth in NZ, Jodie was the first female to ever enter the motorsport, now competing alongside her beau. They’re two peas in a pod, best friends and lovers, whose passion for cars started young.
“From the moment I could push around a Matchbox car, I was drifting them and had big dreams of owning a go-kart or motorbike,” tells Drew, who grew up in the remote bush, in a house without power or a flushing toilet. “There wasn’t any money around for a go-kart, but I hung on to that dream, and when I left school, I put all my money into go-karts and cars.”
Drew’s childhood involved police raids and armed-offender callouts, along with rowdy all-night parties when his father wasn’t in prison. But in spite of what he calls an unorthodox childhood, Drew credits his beloved late dad for igniting his passion for cars.
“Despite it all, he was a super-loving guy. Dad was a hard man but didn’t shy away from telling you he loved you or was proud. He bought my first car at 11 and let me take it out on the back roads.”
On another Northland farm, Jodie grew up watching her mechanic father repair cars. She rode motorbikes with her older brother Michael, never afraid to try anything.
“Michael’s a year older and because he didn’t have a brother to kick around with, I became the substitute,” Jodie laughs. When he started drifting for fun as a teen, so did she.
“When I left school and drove to work at a dairy farm, I’d use the gravel roads to my advantage, sliding around corners and practising hand-braking, much to the neighbour’s horror!”
At 16, Jodie met Drew and when he purchased his first drift car at 21, it wasn’t long before she took the keys. “I got so hooked that the next day, I sold my normal car and found the closest thing to a drift car.”
Together the couple ran track days that attracted up to 50 cars per event and filled their spare time for three years. In 2010, Drew landed his first season of professional drifting before quickly making the rankings. Not long after, Jodie competed and progressed to the same level in 2015.
“I was super-proud of Jodie and still am,” Drew beams. “I always wanted to be where we are – this couple competing at the highest level all around the world.”
As one of just a handful of women competing at pro level internationally, Jodie enjoys seeing fans’ reactions when she removes her helmet.
“I love when that penny drops and people realise there’s a woman in there! They’re not expecting to see women going toe to toe with the guys.”
When the couple married in Tauranga last year, it was inevitable their drift cars were part of the ceremony. “It wouldn’t have been right if we left them out because they’re part of the family,” Drew says. “We built a burnout pad at the venue and tied the cars together with a gnarly rope, then did a burnout between the two cars, pulling the knot tighter.”
Kids aren’t on the radar at the moment for the couple, who are happy pouring all their time and money into the sport
they love. “It’s not cheap,” says Drew. “For a competition weekend, we’ll take up to 80 high-performance tyres with us, depending on the track. They only last two laps, so you chew through them.”
Drifting full-time thanks to sponsorship, the pair say they wouldn’t want it any other way. “A few years ago, I realised what a contrast my life is now to what it was or could have been,” Drew tells. “I went to my old college and told the kids my story. I said I was where they are now and that with the world we live in these days, you can make a career out of anything.”
Jodie couldn’t be more proud of what she and her hubby have achieved. “We’re best mates and really lucky to have each other,” she smiles. “There’s nothing better than a day on the track and he’s out there with me. It’s good to be doing it beside your partner in crime.”