After a busy few weeks for everyone here at NAG, we took a few moments this past weekend to do something wholly different but oh-so-meaningful.
Those of you who stopped by the NAG stand at rAge to say hi will probably remember the epic Cooler Master Dyn X sim racing rig that was set up. While it brought a lot of fun to many people, it directly impacted a young real world racer.
While at rAge, the NAG team got introduced to Chloe Stuart when she sat down to try the rig for herself, and then we learned that not only was Chloe excited to try something new, but that she was soon to be a part of TC Racing, a motor racing team founded by herself and Tjaden Tromp, both young Motorsport Rising Stars.
Chloe and Tjaden are fourteen years old and have more accolades than in years of being alive. After talking to Chloe about her racing, it was clear NAG wanted to get involved in any way that we could, and that materialised in NAG gifting Chloe her very own professional sim racing rig.
The idea behind helping Chloe get into the fascinating and exhilarating world of sim racing is to allow her a safe and controlled space to not only hone the craft she is already excelling at but also help show her how intertwined the world of real-world and sim racing can be and how one can only help the other.
At the launch of TC Racing, we not only got to see Chloe and Tjaden’s brand new Formula SuperVee single seater race-cars, but we also got the exciting opportunity to talk to the two of them about their racing, what led them to this point and what they hope to achieve in the future.
Here is that conversation. We hope you enjoy it and are as excited about this fantastic duo as we are:
Arielle: Hey guys, firstly, I’m so excited to meet the two of you and get to chat. Can you tell our readers about yourselves and why you got into racing?
Chloe:I’m Chloe Stuart, and I love racing so much. It’s my passion and something I’ve loved since childhood. When I was 18 months old, my dad got me my first battery-operated car, and I drove it everywhere.
I even remember putting paper down on the floor to drift around with the car. Fast forward a few years, and my dad got me a quad bike. One day, I was riding on it with my dad and ended up slamming on the brakes so hard my dad almost flew off, and it’s like I just knew. So I turned to my dad and said, ” Dad, I want to race”.
My dad looked at me, said what do you mean? And I told him I wanted to race on a track, and after a moment, he was like, okay, cool. If you come back to me in one month and you’re still serious, I’ll take you to the track.
One month later, on that exact day, I went up to my dad and said it was time to go to the track, and the rest is history.
Tjaden: I’m Tjaden Tromp. I’ve been racing for four years, and I hope it continues for a long time. Everything started for me one day when I was on my phone. My dad called me and said let’s go to Formula K to do rentals, then, after a couple of sessions, I decided that this was me. We got a cart not long after, and I began racing.
Chloe: I enjoy racing more than I ever thought it would. I love it so much; it’s my passion and something I want to pursue as a career. I can’t believe I’ve gotten so far already, and I don’t know what I would do without it.
Since Chloe and Tjaden started on this journey of theirs, this is only some of what the wonder duo have achieved:
Tjaden was the champion of the F200 Karting Championship in 2022. The same year, he came in 2nd in the Tillotson T4 Championship.
In Formula M Class C 2022, Tjaden also placed 2nd, and in 2023, he won the first race he entered in the Stock Rod 1660 Oval track racing.
Chloe is the youngest driver to get early dispensation to race a class B Formula M car and the only female monoposto (single-seater) driver in Gauteng.
In 2022, Chloe came first in the Formula M, Class C race, the Formula M Index of Performance All Classes race and was crowned the Formula M Driver of the Year.
Then, in 2023, she placed 2nd in the Formula M, Class B race and came first in the Libre Invitational CT.
On what Tjaden plans to do next year:
Tjaden: I plan on going to the SuperVee League or Formula Libra and work with Chloe on our new team, TC Racing. If I could give one piece of advice to other young kids who want to get into the world of racing, know it’s a lot of practice, and practice really does make perfect.
On the topic of Chloe’s new and exciting journey into the world of sim racing:
Chloe:I’m so excited to get into sim racing. It’s a way for me to practice all the local tracks and even get the chance to practice on some overseas tracks so that when I eventually go and race there, I already know what to expect.
It will be a way for me to get a whole new feel for this exciting new world of racing, which I honestly can’t wait for.
I also think it’s incredible that this can empower more women to get into the sport because I love seeing women in racing, and I think there just aren’t really enough, and we need more women to prove men wrong.
We here at NAG couldn’t be more excited to follow Team TC Racing closely over the next few years and see what the future has planned for these two fantastic young racers.
It’s not every day that someone manages to find something they’re genuinely passionate about. Yet, that is precisely what Chloe and Tjaden have managed to do at only fourteen years old.
This path they’ve both on requires not only great commitment but also dedication, time and a fearless passion that one can only be born with.
If you want to learn more about either Chloe or Tjaden you can follow along with them on the links provided.
And if we could give the two of them any advice for their journeys ahead, it would be our motto to remember always to game on and geek out. Follow the link here to learn more about Team TC Racing.
