Out of the track for almost a year now, teen racing sensation Inigo Anton found himself virtually behind the wheel again as he finished fourth over-all against opponents from other countries.
“It’s official!!! After 16 unforgettable virtual races around the world, we clinched 4th,” announced the 16 year old son of former premier Baguio car racer Carlos Anton and dance instructor and Pilipinas Got Talent finalist Karen Navarrete Anton.
The young Anton took US$2,000 (roughly PhP100,000) in the E1 Championship where he competed against “racers” from all over the world.
In his post over Facebook, the young Anton thanked his family, his race mentors and friends including classmates from the Baguio Achievers Academy “who keep me up until 4AM every day playing Valorant.”
Malaysian Naquib Aslan took the “top podium” in the Season Zero of the E1 Championship.
Ayman Aqeem made it a 1-2 finish for Malaysia after ending as bridesmaid, while Mikko Nassi of Singapore completed the top three finishers.
Another Malaysian, Mika Hakimi took fifth place, behind Anton.
To win the race, Azlan finished with 358 points and was virtually unchallenged with Aqeem coming in with 291 points, just 25 off Nassi.
Anton wound up with 213, just four off Hakimi.
At sixth place is Kalen Chin of Blachwolf and ahead of Troy Eiman, Yevan David, Ariff Azmi and Colin Lee.
Eimann, Azmi and Lee are all Malaysian, giving the Southeast Asian country six top 10 finishers.
The young Anton won in 2019 the Philippine Autocross Championship over-all title by beating father and chief rival Carlos.
As he started his title defense last year by going fastest over-all in two of the first three rounds, the coronavirus pandemic struck and motorsports was suspended.
That did not frustrate the scion of restaurateurs as he found again himself in front of the monitor and did car racing virtually.
In an interview with Motoring Today, the young Anton said that he has “been racing virtually all my life – just video games. But I’ve never really taken it seriously. It was just there (to use) to have fun.”
He added: “But since the lockdown happened, there are no more races. The races I can join are virtually.”
