IÑIGO Anton’s mastery of the Tarlac Circuit Hill showed all throughout the 8th leg of the Phoenix National Slalom series held in Tarlac recently.
The 14–year–old Castrol-Yokohama racing phenom bagged the overall best time of the day, the front wheel drive (FWD) best time of the day and five division wins on board his Mark Young-Mohspeed prepared Honda.
Anton, a Baguio Achiever’s School grade 9 student now holds a commanding lead in the FWD championship as the series moves to his hometown of Baguio on September 23.
“Iñigo owns the lap record in this track since he was 12–years–old, so I think it’s safe to say his confidence level here is much higher,” said multiple racing champion and father Carlos.
The young Anton set the best time on his very first run and never let it go, constantly improving and setting quicker times with every run.
Iñigo finally set a blistering 58.3 second time that was 1.6 seconds clear of 2015 FWD champion Richard Gallardo (59) and Slalom King Milo Rivera (59) who rounded up the top steps of the podium.
“It’s great to win in Tarlac again. I really love this circuit and my car really ran well today. Thank you so much to my team who worked thru the night to fix my transmission.” Anton said after the race.
A transmission bearing had broken during Saturday practice in Anton’s car and was not fixed until the morning of the race.
The team now prepares for Anton’s hometown race to be held at the famous Burnham Park Athletic Bowl in Baguio City.
The track will be tight with the limited space but Anton hopes he can still perform at the top level in front of his home crowd and sponsors.
Anton is backed by Castrol, Yokohama, Cars Unlimited, Parts Pro, Car porn racing, Works bell, Fix Stop, Mohspeed, Kilton, Kart Plaza, Special Stage, JSD Autosport, and Autoshack. (Roderick Osis)