Gurbanguli Berdymukhamedov drove to the track in the capital Ashgabat in a green Bugatti sports car to watch.
Suddenly asking to take part, he changed to a Turkish-made Volkicar and won the time trial challenge.
Correspondents say the apparently choreographed display seemed designed to enhance the president’s image as a man of action.
The winning car will be given to the desert country’s national sports museum.
Mr Berdymukhamedov, a former health minister, came to power following the death of his predecessor, Saparmurat Niyazov, at the age of 66, in 2006.
Sporting ambition
He was first elected president in 2007 with 89% of the vote and was returned to power in elections in February with 97% of the vote.
His choice to travel to Saturday’s race in a Bugatti was in stark contrast with his preferred mode of transport during the elections, when he drove to a polling station with his family in a cramped Soviet-era Lada – a car much derided in the West for its unreliability.
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