Steven Aghakhani Takes Gold on Provisional License, Becomes Youngest Professional Racing Driver in the World
The Youngest Professional Driver… In the World!
Wrap your head around that one. He’s just a teenager but Steven Aghakhani has accomplished what many may never achieve in a lifetime. 16-year-old Aghakhani has found his way to becoming the youngest professional driver in the world. We know what you’re thinking. He’s probably a fringe competitor who barely has a shot at the podium, right?
WRONG!
Instead, Aghakhani has been the most competitive drivers in Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America. In fact, we would insist that he might be one of the hottest names to keep an eye on in all of racing. In the 2019 pursuit of the World Championship, he would become the first driver to ever score a podium in every race without penalty.
Aghakhani (left) pilots his AMG GT3 to a podium during every race at SRO’s Winter Invitational
Last year, we introduced you to a 16-year-old driver who was quickly taking the world by storm. Driving on a provisional license in the Lamborghini Super Trofeo, Steven Aghakhani would make his presence felt. Before he came on the scene, IMSA, the race’s governing body, wouldn’t allow him to race on a full license. Instead, a provisional license would allow Steven to compete with limited room for error. One slip up and he would be done.
With his eventual massive success, the rules have since changed. After watching Aghakhani become the first driver to ever win the World Championship under a provisional license, IMSA’s ex-president Scott Atherton says that they’re going to reduce the minimum age from 17 to 16.
TEaming up with Eidson
After winning the championship, this year Aghakhani will bump up to the Pro class of Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America. With that bump, Steven will be taking on Jacob Eidson as his co-driver. With Aghakhani at 16 and Eidson at 24, their average age of 21 makes them the youngest in the series. Eidson brings his fair share of success to the table as well, taking home 11 victories out of 12 Pro-am competitions last year.
The American drivers will attempt to make a push until the series comes to a climax with the World Final race capping the action in Misano, Italy. Steven is hoping to win another World Championship to become the first driver ever to go back to back.
Racing for the series has been bumped from the original start date and is expected to get rolling at Watkins Glen International on June 25th.
A Tour of Italy
Steven also plans to compete in the Italian GP3 championship this year. Aghakhani will be the only American in the series and again, is slated to be the youngest driver. To do this, he has joined forces with the Vincenzo Sospiri Racing team out of Italy to compete in the Italian GP championship.
Aghakhani spoke on the matter on the team’s website, saying “Racing in Europe has always been a dream and I am very excited to be experiencing it with VSR.”
The racing kicks off May 15th at Monza.
Where Will Aghakhani Go From Here?
In the future, Steven has been batting around the idea of competing in the Rolex 24 next year along with 12 Hours of Sebring. Long term, the overarching goal is to represent Lamborghini and become a factory driver. If the young driver stays on his current trajectory, that goal should be something that we will be reporting on as reality very soon.
Below, we check out Agakhani’s Kobe Bryant tribute livery featured on his AMG GT3.
