Photo: Gavin Baker Photography
Nikita Johnson will race in Britain’s GB3 this year in addition to a full USF Pro 2000 campaign in the USA.
The 15-year-old was confirmed as doing the latter two months ago, and he will race for Velocity Racing Development. That team will also be involved in his GB3 entry, since he joins Arden whose cars are co-run by the American outfit.
Last year Johnson was USF2000 championship runner-up with VRD, and became the series’ youngest ever winner at the opening round. He contested the last two USFP2000 rounds with the team and won on his second start in the third-tier series, then again in the season finale to come 17th in the standings.
“I look forward to racing with VRD and Arden in the GB3 championship which provides the opportunity to compete on four F1 tracks at Spa-Francorchamps, Silverstone, Zandvoort, and the Hungaroring,” said Johnson.
“Although the GB3 and USFP2000 cars are very similar, the schedule is very demanding because both series have me racing on different continents every week. But that’s okay as I like to push myself. I would like to thank my family, Dan [Mitchell, the VRD team boss and Johnson’s long-time career mentor], VRD and Arden for their unwavering support.”
VRD had already revealed to Formula Scout that Johnson was set to join the GB3 field once he turns 16 in May, and Mitchell was working on to find a way for him to debut before then. The announcement of Johnson’s seat in the series however confirms that he will miss the first two rounds due to being underage, and the team is now planning on fielding another drive in his car for those events.
“We’re really excited to bring Nikita over to the UK to enter GB3 this year,” said Mitchell. “He has a habit of making instant impressions in every series he races in, so I’m sure he will get up to speed very quickly. His record speaks for itself and hopefully he can challenge the front-runners before too long.”