Bill Agha
Through all of his life, Bill Agha has had a love for cars of all kinds. It all started with his dad who loved sports cars and passed that love on to Bill by giving him the Hot Wheels and Matchbox toys he would play with throughout his childhood. He quickly became enamored and would collect every magazine he could find with a car in it and read them cover to cover. Soon, just reading about cars wasn’t enough. As he grew up, Bill would beg his dad to take him to World Rally races in the mountains of Lebanon, as well as car meets and shows, until finally he was old enough to learn how to drive on his parents’ Audi. Once he was behind the wheel, the lifelong passion was off to the races.
In 1983, Bill bought his first car: a 1971 Volkswagen Super Beetle. He would spend his free time tinkering with the car, learning the mechanics of what made it work, and modifying everything he could to make it fast and mean. He spent the following 13 years buying and modifying more cars while working a full-time job and raising a family. In 1996, he and his coworker, Tom, bonded over their shared love of cars and Bill was invited to watch Tom participate in an Autocross race. From the moment he arrived at the event Bill was hooked. He was going to become a racecar driver.
Bill raced Autocross for the next 4 years, and in his first year won Rookie of the Year. A racer he met through Autocross, Brian, convinced Bill to get into Shifter Kart racing to experience wheel-to-wheel racing for the first time. Eager to try it out, he bought the cheapest Shifter Kart he could find; and during his 2 years of Shifter Kart racing, he learned a lot more about the craftsmanship of racing and found that he wasn’t performing as well as he expected. This was a low point for him and he almost gave up. But after a fellow racer, Eric, let Bill drive his professional-level Shifter Kart, Bill found that more power and a good setup could make all the difference. He was suddenly a top 3 driver and his confidence was back. During this time, a series that was under the radar was starting to become nationally known: Spec Miata.
Spec Miata was Bill’s chance to transition into a more competitive, budget-friendly race series. In 2003, Bill’s good friend Brian also made the move from Shifter Karts to Spec Miata and helped Bill build his first Miata from the ground up. He started competing in the Spec Miata class and discovered that, just as he had experienced in shifter kart racing, Spec Miata also required a good car to compete. It wasn’t until 3 years later that he had the opportunity to have a pro-built engine installed in his car, made by renowned engine builder Ed. This professionally-made engine moved Bill from the back of the pack to the front; now he was winning races and finishing consistently on podiums.
Since then, Bill has competed in a number of classes with NASA Pro Racing, SCCA, WRL, Champ Car, and Lemons Racing. In these series, he has earned a number of top finishes and wins. He has also won the Gentleman of the Year award multiple times, due to his love of helping others both on and off the track. His instinct to help has been driven by raising two girls, and as a girl dad, he couldn’t let the women he raced with continue to struggle with no help in sight. He offered to coach one or two of these women and help with their cars. Word spread like wildfire that Bill was stepping into a coaching role and suddenly the team was growing. That’s how Black Asphalt Racing was born. It was truly the culmination of all of the love, knowledge, and skill Bill had been building his whole life. Bill loves nothing more than to share what he knows with others, and to see these women take it on with such spirit and drive has been one of the most fulfilling experiences of his life.
Bill currently races in the Harris Hill Raceway Miata Challenge series and Champ Car series and has also taken on a role as Chief of Tech with FARA USA in the Pro Spec Miata series. His passion for building racecars continues to this day. As founder of Black Asphalt Racing, he plans to bring this team of women in further to the world of racing in Spec Miata and more.