Chantal van der Sluis raced in the early and mid 1990s, in the Netherlands. She was a race-winner in one-make series and a popular figure at the time.
She was introduced to karting at the age of thirteen, by her then-boyfriend. For three years, she steadily gained experience, competing up to European level. Her first senior season was in 1991, when she entered the Citroen AX GT Cup. For her first race, she qualified in fifth place, but went off at the first corner trying to out-manoeuvre her rivals.
This would not be the last of Chantal’s offs. At Zandvoort in 1992, she managed to vault her car over the armco barrier, although she was not hurt. Despite these mishaps, she became one of the star drivers of the series in 1992, winning two races outright and finishing third in the championship. She won the Ladies’ Cup, ahead of Sandra van der Sloot. This was Sandra’s debut year, and she looked up to Chantal as her earliest female role model. The two later became friends. The Ladies’ Cup was quite hotly contested that year, with at least seven female drivers racing in the series.
That year, she tested an Alfa Romeo 155 Cup car, alongside Allard Kalff and Ton Roks. She was almost as fast as the experienced Allard Kalff. Her other activities included posing for some pictures in Dutch Playboy.
The following year, she moved to the Renault Clio Cup and was on the pace in her new car straight away. Her best finishes were two second places and she was sixth overall.
In 1994, she drove in some rounds of the European Renault Clio Cup, although she was not as successful. It was this year that she crashed very spectacularly at Zandvoort, sending her Clio over a crash barrier and through an advertising hoarding. Her season was not all about crashes, however; she did manage a third place at Spa, behind Allard Kalff and Jip Coronel.
1994 was her last season of competition. She died in 2008, aged 38, after a long struggle with cancer.
(Image from www.autosport.nl)
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