Chris Vlok

Chris Vlok (born 17 September 1992) is a professional racing driver from New Zealand.

Chris Vlok
Chris Vlok 2013
NationalityNew Zealander
Born (1992-09-17) 17 September 1992
Cape Town, South Africa
Previous series
2008-09
2010
2011
2011
2012
2012
2012
2013		E30 BMW Series NZ
New Zealand Formula Ford
Quebec Formula Tour 1600
South Island Formula Ford
Toyota Racing Series
Australian Formula 3
JK Racing Asia Series
British F3
Awards
2011Quebec Formula Tour 1600 Rookie Of The Year

Career

E30 BMW Series NZ
Vlok BMW Timaru

Vlok began racing in 2008 at the age of 15 after buying and selling second hand cars to make money, building his own E30 BMW into a race car - all while at high school. His first race was at the final round of the New Zealand E30 Series where he finished mid field. He raced at five of the six meetings in 2009, finishing fourth overall after recording several wins, pole positions, podiums and fastest laps.[1]

Formula Ford

Vlok moved to single-seater racing in 2010 in a Formula Ford, competing in the Christchurch and Timaru rounds of the New Zealand Formula Ford Championship where he finished mid pack. He competed in the third round of the 2011 South Island Formula Ford Series, taking three race wins from pole position.[2][3]

Quebec Formula Tour 1600
Chris Vlok GP3R Grand Prix Trois Rivieres

Also in 2011, Vlok competed in the Quebec Formula Tour 1600 for Brian Graham Racing.[4] He finished fourth overall and was awarded Rookie Of The Year.[5] In a series involving over 30 cars, Vlok had one win and five podiums.

Chris Vlok win ICAR Quebec Formula Ford

Toyota Racing Series

At the start of 2012, Vlok signed to race in the Toyota Racing Series (TRS) for Victory Motorsport, with team mates Michela Cerruti, Dmitry Suranovich and Damon Lietch. He finished mid field at most events, his best race being tenth at Manfeild.[6]

Formula 3 Australian Drivers' Championship
Vlok at the Adelaide F3

At the end of the 2012 Toyota Racing Series, Vlok competed for Team Astuti Motorsport in the opening round of the Formula 3 Australian Drivers' Championship at Adelaide. Driving a Dallara F307 Sodemo-Renault, Vlok qualified ninth and finished seventh and sixth respectively, but retired while running fourth in the third race due to an accident.[7]

JK Racing Asia Series

In June 2012 Vlok drove for EuroInternational in round three of the JK Racing Series (formerly known as Formula BMW Asia) at Circuit Paul Ricard, finishing tenth and ninth respectively.

European F3 Open
Vlok at the Hungaroring 2012 F3 Open

On 20 August 2012 Vlok replaced injured Luca Orlandi for Team West-Tec at round six of the 2012 European F3 Open at the Hungaroring, finishing fifth and eleventh in class respectively.

British Formula 3
Vlok in British F3 at Silverstone

Vlok drove for Team West-Tec in the national class in the 2013 British Formula 3 championship in a 2012 Dallara-Toyota. He achieved eight podiums, and won the penultimate event of the year at the Nurburgring.[8][9]

European GT4
Vlok in British F3 at Silverstone

In 2016, Vlok drove for the German Racing team Reiter Engineering in the GT4 European Series, as part of the Reiter Young Stars program. [10] [11] Vlok achieved two podiums during the season, with a second place finish at both the Pau Grand Prix and Hungaroring within the Young Stars championship.[12][13] Vlok narrowly missed a win in round 3 at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, after leading for a long time, Vlok was forced to retire due to a mechanical failure with only a handful of laps left.[14][15]

Racing record

Career summary
Season Series Team Races Wins Poles F/Laps Podiums Points Position
2008 E30 BMW Series NZ CVM 3 0 0 0 0 0 NC
2009 E30 BMW Series NZ CVM 12 4 2 7 9 115 4th
2010 New Zealand Formula Ford Championship CVM 6 0 0 0 0 150 12th
2011 Quebec Formula Tour 1600 Brian Graham Racing 12 1 0 0 5 340 4th
South Island Formula Ford CVM 4 3 4 4 4 79 NC
2012 Toyota Racing Series Victory Motorsport 14 0 0 0 0 371 15th
Formula 3 Australian Drivers' Championship Astuti Motorsport 3 0 0 0 0 9 20th
JK Racing Asia Series EuroInternational 2 0 0 0 0 0 NC
European F3 Open Team West-Tec 2 0 0 0 0 0 26th
2013 British Formula 3 National class Team West-Tec 12 1 0 0 8 123 2nd
2016 GT4 European Series RYS Team InterNetX 9 0 0 0 2 9 26th

Personal Life

Vlok is involved in technology business globally, and is frequently featured in interviews relating to this. [16][17][18][19][20]

gollark: Bees are available from the new HTech™ computational apionics facility.
gollark: Bees.
gollark: https://mobile.twitter.com/Iinux/status/1509749288242401281
gollark: What? Yes you can. GTech™ arbitrary emotion inductors™ exist.
gollark: Although I vaguely assumed they could have multiple circuit-y things going on at once...

References
  1. "Toyota Racing Series". Driver Profiles. TRS. Retrieved 22 August 2012.
  2. "SIFF". points. Siff. Archived from the original on 8 February 2013. Retrieved 22 August 2012.
  3. "Tulloch-has-good-day-as-Teretonga-hosts-more-top-racing". Stuff news.
  4. "Vlok Signed for Formula Tour BGR". Flag World. Archived from the original on 26 August 2014. Retrieved 22 August 2012.
  5. "Rookie of the year for Vlok". Flag World. Archived from the original on 26 August 2014. Retrieved 22 August 2012.
  6. "Vlok Signs With Victory Motorsport". NZ Racer. Archived from the original on 17 February 2013. Retrieved 22 August 2012.
  7. "NZMOTORRACING". NEWS. NZMotorRacing. Archived from the original on 19 February 2013. Retrieved 22 August 2012.
  8. "Race 2 results - British F3: Silverstone Circuit 2013". GP Update.net. Retrieved 16 August 2013.
  9. "Race 2 results - British F3: Silverstone Circuit 2013". West-tec. Archived from the original on 5 October 2013. Retrieved 3 October 2013.
  10. "Chris Vlok on Instagram: "My office for the 2016 season 😁 super stoked to announce I'll compete the first ever season of Reiter Young Stars with KTM and Reiter…"". Instagram. Retrieved 1 April 2019.
  11. "Reiter Young Stars Cup starts into 2016 season with presentation in Salzburg – RYS Team InterNetX.eu". Retrieved 1 April 2019.
  12. "Reiter Young Stars showed strong performance at challenging street race in Pau – RYS Team InterNetX.eu". Retrieved 1 April 2019.
  13. "Reiter Young Stars proved their potential at DTM event – RYS Team InterNetX.eu". Retrieved 1 April 2019.
  14. "Reiter Young Stars Cup meets Endurance Racing at Spa Francorchamps – RYS Team InterNetX.eu". Retrieved 1 April 2019.
  15. Vlok, Chris. "July | 2016 | Chris Vlok Motorsport". Retrieved 1 April 2019.
  16. Everett, Seth. "Formula E Ratings Impressive As Fourth Season Concludes". Forbes. Retrieved 1 April 2019.
  17. "Vincent Gaillardot And Chris Vlok Discuss The Importance Of Data In Racing". 20 July 2018. Retrieved 1 April 2019.
  18. Love, Dylan (11 November 2017). "Move over, drivers: The real star of Formula One is computer data". Business Insider Australia. Retrieved 1 April 2019.
  19. "Asia Pacific Security Magazine, Nov/Dec 2017". Issuu. Retrieved 1 April 2019.
  20. "15 Years Acronis x Formula E Zurich | SwissGlam.ch". www.swissglam.ch. Retrieved 1 April 2019.
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