Reg Cook

Once met never forgotten. A man larger than life with an indomitable spirit and a ‘Kiwi Can Do’ attitude. Today at 79 year old Reg calls himself the Geriatric, but his spirit is still that of a teenager with the craving to go faster.

Mark Ballantyne

Mark joined the CMR team in early 2000 to help Reg and long-time friend Tony Mattson compete in the NZ rally championship. Working on the Electrical Loom right now.

Read Mark's story

Kevin Redshaw

CMR Fabricator

Pam Saini

CMR Insulation and upholstery

Bruce James

CMR Machines

Katrina Stent

CMR Media/Comms

Damon Gover

CMR- doing a great job building the container Infrastructure.

Brian

CMR Master of all sorts

Pete Crone

CMR Course Quantity Surveyor, Cookie Crew Chief.

Trevor Saran- CMR Wiring & Electronics

Dean Ballantyne

Dean has been around the CMR team for more than 15 years. He was first introduced to the CMR rally team via his brother, Mark. He is now a key member of the crew working on Wairua 2, having spent many hours at the CMR workshop helping prepare the car. He's part of the group traveling to Bolivia in September 2025.

John Provo

Issigonis - Mini 1959 Team! There isn't much John doesn't know about or can't do with a Mini!

Daimon Ellis

CMR IT/Comms
Tuning and Data

About Us

CMR (Cook Motor Racing)is a team of like minded individuals who want to show the global motorsport world what kiwis are capable of. It’s the evolution of Reg Cook’s Cook Motor Racing business. The cars are owned by Reg and built from his South Auckland Workshop.

The design and build of CMR's cars is a collaborative programme with many great minds working together to find the best possible solutions to the challenges of building the world’s fastest cars.

Many challenges have taken place at Bonneville with resulting world record set in various categories.

Requiring a longer track to meet CMR's speed goals, the Team organised and led their own challenge in 2025 at Uyuni Salt Lake in Bolivia. They returned with three further world records and return in 2026 to seek the ultimate goal of 800kph in their 10 metre Streamliner "Wairua 2".

At the heart of the team are several key values.

1. We all work towards a result for the team - and we succeed together.
2. We don’t fail – we only learn what we can do differently next time.
3. Being part of the team means being prepared to sacrifice spare time to be involved.
4. We consider all the options, and quite often step WAY outside the square to find the next level of performance.
5. All of the good ideas in this world aren’t always in the minds in the room.

Our Team

About Us