Nikita Johnson ends USF Pro 2000 season with his 10th series win

Photo: Gavin Baker Photography

Velocity Racing Development’s Nikita Johnson ended the USF Pro 2000 season at Portland with his eighth win of the year and 10th of his career.

Johnson started on pole, for the seventh time in 2024, and led every single lap. He had to hold off Turn 3 Motorsport’s champion Lochie Hughes into turn one on the opening lap then managed a small gap up front.

Pabst Racing’s Jace Denmark and Simon Sikes ran in third and fourth, with Jay Howard Driver Development’s Frankie Mossman in fifth through the early running after passing Pabst’s Glenn van Berlo.

Liam Sceats (TJ Speed) and Tyke Durst (Turn 3) lost ground on lap two by flying off track at the penultimate corner but both being able to rejoin.

Van Berlo repeatedly pressured Mossman in an attempt to reclaim fifth, and got very close starting lap 13 but then had a lock-up that gave Mossman a brief reprieve. The emphasis was on brief, as later in the lap van Berlo was finally able to sweep past to get back into his starting position.

At the halfway point of the 30-lap race, Johnson had a 0.77-second gap up front, with Denmark three seconds behind and with Sikes on his tail. At this point Johnson pushed a little more, and finally grew his lead to over a second on lap 17.

Van Berlo also extended his gap to Mossman, and by lap 21 he was over four seconds ahead and now DEForce Racing’s Jorge Garciarce was bringing Mossman into his sights.

Hughes got back within a second of Johnson on lap 23, and three laps later Sikes took third from Denmark at turn one.

There was 0.55s between the top two with two laps to go, and that gap was continuing to shrink until Hughes overdid it into turn one on the final lap and it enabled Johnson to break free again and win by 1.559s.

Sikes put two seconds between himself and Denmark before the chequered flag, and Mossman was free of pressure at the end due to Turn 3’s Danny Dyszelski attacking Garciarce.

Race results (30 laps)