All Revved up: Ismaeel Ellahi's Racing Career

As a young boy, Ismaeel Ellahi of Mountain Lakes watched “Cars” countless times. As a rising racer, he’s living the dream of the protagonist “Lightning McQueen.”

“Life is a highway. That’s my life,” he says, referencing the Rascal Flatts’ reboot of the hit song.

The 19-year-old Mountain Lakes High School alum spent most of his year motoring around Europe making a name for himself behind the wheel of a Porsche GT4.

He was in just as much of a race to finish school as he was in a mind-over-matter race to the finish line—one that eventually landed him a top-three finish. That was last year in Barcelona, where he raced for W&S Motorsport in the the GT4 European series. He raced again this year in Daytona, making his International Motorsport Association debut.

“26 flights and six races,” Ellahi says.

He finished his senior year in 2025, receiving kudos from the principal and valedictorian from overseas. Graduation year aside, 25 also happens to be Ellahi’s racing number.

Start Your Engine

So, how did this second-generation Pakistani—who speaks to the immigrant experience of his parents and grandparents—go from zero to 100 over the course of two years without ever setting foot in a go-kart or even a bumper car?

What he lacked in real-world behind-the-wheel experience he discovered by way of simulation racing—from the comfort of his basement. An honors student and baseball player, his grades never suffered, and neither did his game.

“I was just a regular Mountain Lakes kid hanging out at Hapgood’s with my friends,” he says.

In the sim universe, he was gaining momentum. Soon, he was racing with and even besting the pros. A shift in priorities meant something had to give. “I had to tell my coach that I’m stopping baseball to play videogames,” he says.

He also had to contend with family members, who may have had other career aspirations for him. Mostly, he jokes, in the realm of medicine.

“My grandparents came here from a rural village in Pakistan with $10 in their pockets,” he says. “They were not on board with this.”

But it was too late. He was all in, and at the risk of disappointing family, he had to put himself into the running.

“I had no reason to believe that I could, but I had to find out,” he says.

In late summer of 2024, he tested the track in real time through F4 racing school, and a meteoric rise followed. In 2025, he signed a contract for the Porsche Sprint challenge. Then the big leagues came calling—the GT4 in Europe—where he podiumed second, all in his first year of racing.

He had arrived, and people started talking. A media courtship followed.

On the track front, races are divided into 15-minute sessions, and the lineup is determined by the racer’s fastest lap time against everyone else’s.

“This year I’m doing 45-minute races. but I’m hoping to get into a few four-hour ones,” Ellahi says. “The end goal is 24-hour races.”

With elevated status comes sacrifice, as well as the elements of surprise. “It’s not what I expected,” he says. He spoke of 12-hour late-night drives and a rigid schedule that keeps him awake from 6 a.m. to midnight. “It’s a commitment, but it’s rewarding.”

Life on the Track

There’s also just as much action behind the scenes as there is on the track. “Racing is a business before a sport,” Ellahi says. There’s money required for travel, lodging, and equipment, not to mention the self-promotion aspect of recruiting sponsors like Paul Miller Porsche in Parsippany. The Porsche sponsorship was a natural fit, given the Paul Miller racing legacy, not to mention a showroom packed with the GT4 model.

Landing the sponsorship served as a full-circle moment for Ellahi, who remembered the dealership while growing up.

“It’s a bit serendipitous,” says service director Bryan Barger, who sim races with Ellahi. He seems at home here. He breezes through the door to welcoming nods and high-fives from employees.

Ellahi is currently sponsored by six businesses, including MJ Barber and Salon in the town of Boonton, ValPak ads, and of course his parents’ business, Tire Tech and Auto Repair in Oakland, to name a few.

His helmet is also sprinkled with pink hearts, shoutouts to his Mountain Lake supporters—mostly moms of his friends and teachers—that he lists in an Oscar-awards style fashion: Mr. White, Mrs. Nunez, Mrs. Signore, Mrs. Urriola, and Mrs. Higgins, to name a few. “I grew up around professional parents,” he says. “They were my role models and a huge part of my life, especially the women in Mountain Lakes.”

Kathy Higgins, his best friend’s mom, is one of them. She’s known Ellahi since he was in fifth grade and attests to the determination and character that drives him.

“I recently took my son down to Daytona for the Rolex 24 and we got to see Ismaeel behind the scenes,” she says. “His work ethic truly floored me. This is a kid who personally hand-filled hundreds of $4 rebates to save for his first simulator, and now he’s on the racetrack.”

She also can attest to his off-track hustles: Waking at 6 a.m., cold calling sponsors, and even analyzing track conditions. “Ellahi is running a business so he can keep his car on the track for another year,” she says.

Returning to his Roots

With the community and family cheering him on from afar, he always finds his way back to the ones he loves and the sacrifices they made to give him this opportunity. He reflects on his late grandparents, who immigrated from a rural village in Pakistan, and their hardships. Even his brother, Esa, transferred colleges for a less expensive option. This leaves his parents, Azmi and Zaheer, who have come around in full support of their son, often at their own expense.

“This is a lot of stress on my parents,” he says. “They’re spending more than they have, and I’ll never forget that. They’re the reason I get up in the morning.”

Ellahi recalls having his family in attendance in Barcelona and the overwhelming rush of emotion he experienced upon glimpsing them in the crowd. “And I’m not an emotional guy.”

Instead, he pours his heart into his posts on his high-traffic Instagram account, including: “Need to bring home a trophy for grandma.”

His reels also pay testament to the pedal-to-the-metal lifestyle of a globe-trotting jetsetter, and he’s just getting started. His favorite destination? Austria. “The people are amazing and the scenery….” he says. “In Vienna, I raced in the Alps.”

The collective experiences from solo travel alone have instilled in him a survivalist sense of independence and a fast-track to adulting. “You have to be ready to move on a moment’s notice and be very resourceful,” he says.

With ChatGPT at hand, he has been able to navigate through the occasional language barrier and cut costs by admittedly hitch-hiking and sleeping in workshops.

He is very much living the dream, or as he puts it: “I feel like I’m living someone else’s dream,” he says.

A lonely at the top moment, Ellahi attests to an overwhelming sense of isolation from what is normal for a kid his age. His friends from high school are living their best college lives. Dating is pretty much out of the picture as well, at least for now.

Ellahi is well aware of his anomaly status; he’s done his homework. “There’s only three other Pakistani racers in the world,” he says.

He is also a standout in an otherwise crowded field of seasoned pros with well-lined pockets.

“Racing is a rich man’s sport. Many of them may have been driving since they were four years old. And here I am, getting my start as a 17-year-old kid in my Mountain Lakes basement.”

That alone makes his ground floor entry more meaningful. It’s both family and faith that lift and ground him at the same time.

“I pray five times a day,” he says. In quoting the Quran, his Instagram is a testament to his beliefs: “Indeed with hardship comes ease.” Ellahi actually likens the seconds before a race to somewhat of a spiritual experience, if not a dissociative one. “It is the closest you’ll get to God on Earth,” he says. “It’s just you, like an astronaut in space.”

Looking Ahead

Well, there is college, and much like his senior year in high school, he’s attending online at County College of Morris. While there’s no formal off-season, Ellahi is pretty much terra firma for the remaining winter months.

He is ever in pursuit of sponsors and keeping his fans updated through his Instagram account, and even that had a breakout moment. “I started with 300 or so followers and now I’m up to 35,000 and 24 million views per month,” he says.

All other hours, he will remain in retreat, in his basement, staying on point through sim racing.

Ellahi handles his rising stardom with grace and gratitude, hoping to be an inspiration to others. “The world is changed by passion.”

Stay tuned. This kid is just getting started. Follow him at @ismaeelellahi_racing.

Photographs by Antonietta Henry