04 – Chris Vlok
2012 Rookie
Country of origin: New Zealand
Date of birth: 17th September 1992 (19)
Race number: 4
Sponsors: Gulf Oil, Miles Toyota
Chris Vlok describes himself as an ‘entrepreneur’ and he has certainly got his own racing career off to a bold start. The Christchurch TRS rookie recently returned from his first single seater racing season – in Canada – and is keenly anticipating his first ‘slick and wings’ event.
The Vlok (pronounced ‘Flock’) family live at Darfeild, just outside Christchurch. Chris was only a toddler when his parents moved to New Zealand from Cape Town in South Africa.
Chris has always been into cars. He started racing when he was 15 after slowly building his own E30 BMW while still at school (St Andrews followed by Darfeild High). Without prior experience in karting or any other form of motor racing, he made a good early impression with the BMW saloon.
Chris had a solid debut season in the South Island BMW competition taking multiple pole positions, race wins, podiums and fastest laps. But he missed one of the rounds which meant that he fell back to fourth in the championship.
In mid 2010 Chris tested a Formula Ford for the first time and took part in two of the six rounds of the New Zealand Formula Ford Championship at Ruapuna and Timaru. He finished mid field both times as he stepped up to competition at a National Level.
His parents travelled to Canada for six months in 2011 so Chris signed up with a Formula Ford Team to compete in the Quebec Formula Tour. With six rounds spread across Quebec at famous tracks including Mont Tremblant, the Trois Rivieres street race and the Gilles Villeneuve Formula 1 Circuit. Chris had a promising season in Canada wrapping up fourth place and taking home the Rookie title with five podiums and one win.
