Iñigo Navarrete Anton, one of the country’s rising stars in auto racing, was recently invited at the ASIA Auto Gymkhana Competition (AAGC) in Taiwan. The purpose was for him to showcase his skills behind the wheel and prove that with love and dedication for the sport; even a kid can go head-to-head with the big names on the fast lane.
Iñigo, 13, is the proud son of Filipino auto racing champions Carlos Anton and Karen Navarrete-Anton. He’s hailed as the youngest ever to enter professional racing in the Philippines, starting off at the tender age of 7.
Of note, the kid boasts a roster of achievements that includes 1st place victories in remote control car racing, a couple of bronze medal feats in piano competition, and 3 silver medal wins in swimming competition. He’s a consistent honor student, as well at the Baguio Achiever's Academy, Inc., and a sharp competitor in Mathematics Teachers Association of the Philippines, Inc. (MTAP) competitions.
During the AAGC event, Iñigo wasn’t counted as an official competitor due to his very young age. But nonetheless, this very young kid, who’s just new to the world of gymkhana competition, displayed awe-inspiring qualifying times that closely matched even the top racers including his dad Carlos and fellow Filipino racer Milo Rivera. The kid had a fiery determination that he even outclassed drivers from such countries as India, Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, Macau, Korea, Singapore, Nepal, Malaysia and Thailand.
There were a total of 13 countries that battled it out for the win. The 9 countries that Iñigo outclassed, our country the Philippines, and other countries namely Indonesia, Japan, and Taiwan the host country. The good news is that as the Philippines' official representatives, Carlos Anton and Milo Rivera bagged 2nd place overall in the double knock-out team event, thus earning the country a silver award. The 1st place winning country was Taiwan.
Here are a couple of video clips from Iñigo’s runs. (Photo courtesy of Iñigo’s official Facebook page)
