Life in the Fast Lane

Unless you’ve been following Philippine motorsports, the name Iñigo Anton might not ring a bell to you. This story is my humble attempt to try and change that.

We at ALL-STAR believe that this outstanding young man deserves to be a household name as much as his more popular contemporaries who are engaged in individual sports — Alex Eala, Bianca Bustamante, Carlos Yulo, to name a few.’

As you can probably already tell, I absolutely love everything about this guy. Well, almost everything. I can’t do anything about the fact that he calls me “Tito”.

Iñigo Anton recently turned 21 last June. For 13 of those years he has already been competing and dominating the local car racing scene. If we try to list down all of the tournaments he’s won as well as the other accolades, we’d run out of paper, metaphorically speaking.

As of late, he has set his sights on a various international tournaments in Australia and the SEA region to see how he stacks up against foreign talent. There, he found himself standing on podiums, collecting more medals and trophies, and even securing an overall championship amongst all rookies that competed in the most recent F4 SEA tournament.

If you found that impressive, well, he’s not quite done convincing you yet. He also won won P3 overall for the same F4 tournament — as a rookie!

Not to overhype, but if like me, you followed the tournament closely, an even better overall performance was within reach given some adjustments, changes, and learnings here and there. 

The Anton family Racing DNA

Being the first-born son of Carlos Anton, one of the OGs of Philippines racing, one would think that getting into racing was just a matter of time for Iñigo. Surprisingly, I learned that it was not.

“My dad has over a thousand trophies (probably more). When my mom was pregnant with me, they really didn’t want me to be influenced  by my dad’s racing trophies. So, they decided to hide most of them, leaving only a few on display at home. They didn’t want me to grow up as a racer, because as parents of course, they were worried about the risks involved.” Iñigo shares with ALL-STAR.

On the the other hand, his mom, Karen Navarrete-Anton, who is more known nowadays as a being dance coach and one of Baguio’s top entertainment people, also contributed to Iñigo’s racing pedigree.

“My mom also won the Ferrari challenge back in 2007, before she ultimately decided to focus on being a dancer teacher.”

His younger brother, Alonzo, is already an up and comer on the SIM racing and karting scene as well.

Even with his parents prestigious racing backgrounds and their strong racing DNA, Iñigo still faced roadblocks as a young kid growing up when it came to pursuing his formula racing dreams.

As he was growing older, naturally, his dreams were getting bigger. However, at the same time that this was happening, certain realities also began looming in.

Racing is anything but cheap. And even for someone like Iñigo who comes from a well-off family, the sheer amount of funding required to even consider formula racing as a career costs just too pretty a penny to be realistic back then.

“I remember that I was crying really hard and even told them that they were taking away my dream!” Iñigo laughed as he recollects that serious moment.

As Iñigo would, he silently lit a roaring fire under his belly. One that no one could see. Not even those closest to him. Not even his family.

Little did anybody know that there was no stopping the boy whose first utterance as a baby was the sound “broom-broom” and whose first real word was “car-car” from fulfilling his potential one day.

The Prodigy Story Begins

“I started learning how to drive on the race track when I was just seven years old, and I joined my first race at eight.” he joyingly recalls and shares that it was a Time Attack event in Clark that he participated in where he was also only minor aged competitor.

Out of the 110 participants, he finished 103rd which means that he beat 7 other racers.

“Then, in my second race that year, I already managed to get a podium finish—third place. That was kind of the start of everything for me, and from then on, I just kept doing pretty well in racing.”

Talk about a learning curve.

“I began with racing cars in time attack, then moved to slalom and autocross. I realized pretty early on that I was actually good at racing. I didn’t think I was the best or anything like that, but I knew I always wanted to win, and I hated losing.” he continues.

He might have had early success competing in time attacks but Iñigo had a sputtery start when he transitioned to karting.

“The first time I lost in go-karting I felt like my world was crumbling. During practice, my race coach said I was quite talented. Then came the race—my whole family and some relatives came to watch. I was so nervous, and I remember being fast but I didn’t know how to race against other racers because I was just so used to time attack races in cars. I remember crying after I lost.”

A self-confessed pikon, he shares that one thing he’s always hated was losing—no matter what it was that he was doing. For us sports fans, this narrative is one that just sounds all too familiar. This is how “monsters” are made. Only this time, the monster is somewhere underneath this angelic-smiley-smiley face.

“It was a tough moment, but it also made me realize that it’s okay to lose and it pushed me even harder to improve.”

The Decision to Turn Pro

“Despite them hiding the trophies, my world just revolved around cars and racing. I remembered I’ve always been into toy cars or anything that looked like a car. Honestly, I never liked playing with balls or other toys—just cars.”

According to him, it was when he turned 16 that marked a new phase of his life. He remembers training harder than ever, balancing home school, sim racing, and circuit racing. He knew deep down that this was what he was meant to do—from the moment I first held a steering wheel.

Despite the fact that turning pro was almost a non-decision, an unexpected twist of fate might have contributed to who he is today as a racer.

“The (COVID-19) pandemic was a strange time for everyone. But for me, it was a pivotal moment. I started doing online sim racing competitions and learned that I was quite good at it. At that time I got picked up by former F1 racer Alex Yoong to join his team in the 24 hours of Lemans Virtual and we ended up 4th in the world, against the best teams in the league. Even Max Verstappen was racing in that event.”

“I started participating in Circuit races , gathering experience, and pushing my limits. It was a period of intense growth—both mentally and physically.” he continues

Proven Prodigy

For people like me who has followed this young man’s impressive career, this is where it almost feels poetic to be witnessing the next chapters unfold this point. 

Impressive as his 13-year run has been, and without taking anything away from Iñigo himself, to me, it seems as though that’s the end of the journey for the dreams his parents could fathom for him. In other words, his journey as a prodigy, as a boy. 

Now, at 21 years old, after having achieved his formula racing goals and proving that he belongs at that level of competition, I cannot help but think that we’ve only just begun to scratch the surface of what this young man can really do. In some ways. This is where his own dreams as Iñigo Anton, the man, begins. 

To end, here’s a Semisonic reference from Closing Time that I hope Iñigo won’t find too “Tito” to understand. 

Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end. 

Still too Tito? I knew it. Oh, well.