10-year-old Anton gets baptism of fire

MANILA, Philippines - After winning the January Touge race car Battle at Clark, Inigo Anton got his feet wet in the karting world during the first round of the Petron Karting series earlier this month at the Carmona Circuit Philippines.

The 10-year-old Anton, racing for the Kart Plaza-Castrol-Yokohama team, took the pole in the time trials of the Formula Cadet Novice class clocking 52.865 seconds, beating out qualifying 2014 champion and now Expert Cadet driver Zach David (53.410) and Constantin Reisch (53.662).

Anton ruled the novice class during the first 10 lap qualifier over Reisch. In the pre-final race, Reisch was able to sneak past Anton for the lead in lap 3 but Anton quickly caught up with Reisch in lap 7 and tried to re-take the lead going into the double apex curve.

The two touched and Anton spun during the incident allowing Reisch to take the pole for the finals.

Reisch led the final race and held the charging Anton back for the entire 15 lap race. “Constantin drove a very good race and he deserved the win,” Anton said. “I did my fastest lap (52.620) but it was still not enough to pass him, I’m happy he is there to push me,” Anton added.

Anton is being mentored by three-time Philippine Karter of the Year Edgen Dy-Liacco and is backed by Works Bell brakes, Mark Young Racing, Kart Plaza, Cars Unlimited, MP Turbo, AutoShack, Special Stage, and JSD Autosport.

“I’m very thankful to Johnny Tan for getting Inigo into a racing Kart and putting up race tracks all over the country. Without him, there would be no racing in the Philippines today,” Anton’s father Carlos said.