Sfakia, the historic and imposing region of southern Crete, became the meeting point of two worlds: the raw adrenaline of motorsport and the freedom of flight. Projects like this are among my absolute favourites. What made the project especially exciting was that nothing quite like it had been done before. These never-before-seen concepts have become a familiar part of my career: two athletes, two very different sports, and one remarkable location, all coming together in a single, carefully timed moment.
Drift and motorsport legend Mad Mike and World Paramotor Champion Dimitris Kolliakos joined forces for a spectacular ascent along the Vryses–Chora Sfakia provincial road. Across the eight-kilometre route, both Red Bull athletes were pushed to test their precision, timing, and reflexes.
While Mad Mike attacked the steep, winding roads of Sfakia and showcased his drifting skills below, Dimitris followed from the air, matching his movement from a completely different perspective. At times, they were separated by a considerable distance; at others, they came remarkably close. The most extraordinary moments came when Dimitris flew close enough to touch the roof of Mad Mike’s drifting car with his feet, an astonishing display of precision, timing, and complete trust between the two athletes.
My task was to bring those two stories into a single frame, at the right moment. The final result was spectacular. Sfakia proved to be the perfect setting for a project of this scale, with every image combining speed, height, landscape, and precision. These are the kinds of photographs that make you stop for a moment and look twice, simply to understand exactly what you are seeing.
A ROAD FOR THE BRAVE
The wild and rugged region of Sfakia, set between the steep slopes of the White Mountains and the deep blue of the southern Cretan Sea, is home to one of the most demanding driving routes in Greece. Narrow roads, limited visibility through a succession of tight bends and steep gradients create an unforgiving environment where there is little room for error.
Mad Mike knew exactly what he was facing, and that was precisely why he wanted to be there.
For the Red Bull drift driver, taking a 1,400-horsepower car along a narrow, steep mountain road is not simply an act of courage. It is an exercise in trust: trust in the team that builds and prepares his cars, and trust in the experience he has gained over years behind the wheel.
According to Mad Mike, the greatest challenge was not completing the drifts themselves, but capturing the essential cinematic shots on the first attempt, before the road surface became covered in tyre marks and melted rubber.
He admits that operating on the edge of control is almost part of the job. Behind that image, however, lies a very different philosophy.
“It is not that I do not feel fear. I am searching for the point where fear and adrenaline balance each other and lead to complete concentration – the state commonly known as flow,” he explains.
1400 HORSES ON THE MOUNTAIN
The car Mad Mike used to conquer the roads of Sfakia was far more than a conventional race car. Known as the BULLET, this one-of-a-kind Mazda3 was custom-designed by Mad Mike and built by TCP Magic.
Its aggressive appearance is defined by oversized aerodynamic elements, sculpted air ducts, widened bodywork, and a massive rear wing. Beneath the bodywork sits a four-rotor, twin-turbo engine fitted with two Garrett G40 turbochargers, producing up to 1,400 horsepower.
Behind the wheel of the BULLET, Mad Mike attacked the mountain road with remarkable precision, carving through the tight bends as clouds of tyre smoke followed the car through every drift.
A PARAMOTOR IN THE SKY
From the air, Dimitris Kolliakos experienced the same challenge from an entirely different perspective.
As he flew above Mad Mike’s car, the thick clouds of tyre smoke rising from the rear wheels occasionally reduced his visibility. Yet neither the smoke, the engine noise nor the aerodynamic turbulence presented the greatest obstacle. The real challenge was achieving absolute synchronization between the two athletes. “Everything was planned precisely. I knew exactly the line I had to follow and where the car would be at any given moment.”
The specific wind and thermal conditions around Sfakia demanded even more careful preparation. Most of the flights took place early in the morning or late in the afternoon, when the winds were calmer and thermal activity was reduced, providing the stability required for such a precise manoeuvre.
One of the project’s most remarkable moments came when Dimitris lowered himself onto the roof of the moving BULLET. The image appears almost impossible, yet the team achieved it in only two attempts.
“The feeling was like surfing on top of a car moving at high speed,” he describes.
It was not luck that made the moment possible, but meticulous preparation. Dimitris knew in advance how fast Mad Mike would be travelling and was able to time his approach with remarkable precision, matching the movement of the car closely enough to make contact safely.
ONLY TRUST
Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of the project was that the two athletes had no direct communication during the runs.
Everything depended on preparation. Before each attempt, they walked the route together, studying every bend, reference point, and line they would follow. By the time the action began, every movement had already been discussed and mapped out in detail.
There were no live instructions, no headsets, and no opportunity for real-time corrections. Once the run started, both athletes had to rely entirely on timing, instinct, and the shared understanding they had developed during preparation.
“We may come from different backgrounds, but we are both operators. This helped us understand each other almost intuitively,” says the Greek athlete.
MAD MIKE’S GREECE
Beyond the images, speed, and precision, Mad Mike says the people of Greece are what he will remember most. He was particularly moved by the welcome he received from Greek motorsport fans and spent hours meeting those who had waited for an autograph or a photograph. During the trip, he also had the opportunity to explore more of the country with his family, combining Red Bull Mad Mike tour in Heraklion and Thessaloniki with moments of relaxation.
Even then, however, the search for adrenaline was never far away. As he admitted with a laugh, his time off still included jumping from Crete’s cliffs into the sea below.
At the end of the project, the New Zealand driver spoke enthusiastically about working with Dimitris Kolliakos. He described Dimitris’s flights as “incredible” and thanked him for the collaboration.
That sense of mutual respect may be the project’s greatest achievement. This was never simply a film about a drifting car and a paramotor flying overhead. It was the meeting of two entirely different worlds, united by the same language: precision, trust and the constant desire to push beyond the next limit.
INSIDE THE SHOOT WITH PREDRAG VUCKOVIC
Predrag Vuckovic brought a particularly relevant combination of experience to this unique project. His extensive background in aerial photography includes years of working with paragliding and acro-paragliding athletes, while his motorsport portfolio features numerous drifting projects, many of them with Mad Mike as the central figure.
That familiarity with both worlds proved essential in Sfakia. Understanding how athletes move through the air, how a drifting car behaves on the road, and how both disciplines translate visually allowed Predrag to anticipate the most important moments and bring them together within a single frame.
According to Vuckovic, one of the greatest advantages of projects like this is the time he spends alongside the athletes before the action begins. By following the preparation closely and reviewing every planned detail with them, he develops a clear understanding of their movements, timing, and intended lines. This approach allows him to plan the images in advance rather than simply react to what happens in front of the camera.
Equipment used for this project
Cameras: 2x Nikon Z9, 1x Nikon Z8, 1 x Nikon Z 7 II, 5x GoPro Black 12
Lenses: 180 – 600mm f 4.5 – 6.3, 70 – 200mm f 2.8, 24-70mm f 2.8, 14-24mm f 2.8, 35mm f 1.2, 50mm f 1.2, 135mm f 1.8
Remote controls 5x PocketWizard
Drone DJI Mavic pro 5 Mini,
Given the complexity of coordinating a drifting car and a paramotor on a narrow mountain road, detailed planning and precise organisation were essential. They provided the foundation for Predrag to capture the photographs he had envisioned while preserving the scale, intensity, and precision of the project.