Photo: Gavin Baker Photography
Nikita Johnson is the biggest name among the many recently announced additions to the 2025 Formula Regional Oceania grid.
The 16-year-old American, whose career is guided by Infinity Sports Management, will race for M2 Competition as he begins his fourth year of single-seater racing.
In 2022 he debuted in the YACademy Winter Series aged 13 (racing in Formula 4 underage) and took the title with three wins, then came third in USF Juniors thanks to a late run of form including three victories. He was also 18th in his half-season in USF2000.
Last year he was USF2000 runner-up, with one victory and seven other podiums, and when he stepped up to USF Pro 2000 for two rounds he won twice and claimed four podiums.
For 2024, Johnson combined USFP2000 with a part-time GB3 campaign at Velocity Racing Development by Arden. He won eight races en route to being USFP2000 runner-up, and won two reserved-grid races in GB3 to come 11th in the standings.
Next year will be his first away from VRD, since he follows FRegional Oceania with a second GB3 season spent with Hitech GP.
Also joining M2 are Enzo Yeh and Matias Zagazeta. Yeh, from Taipei, made the Ferrari Driver Academy’s Scouting World Final and was seventh in F4 South East Asia as a rookie in 2023, and last year was 14th in F4 United Arab Emirates with one podium, 23rd in Italian F4 and 25th in Euro 4 with R-ace GP.
Zagazeta was British F4 runner-up in 2021. Since then, the 21-year-old Peruvian has done 48 FRegional races in the European and Middle East championships, with a second place finish in the latter his sole podium. He stepped up to FIA Formula 3 late in 2023, coming 17th in the Macau Grand Prix and 25th in this year’s championship with one podium. He has signed with DAMS to spend 2025 in F3 too.
Kiwi Motorsport has added Jett Bowling and James Lawley to its FRegional Oceania line-up.
Bowling did did two thirds of the 2023 United States F4 season, scoring one point, then had a busy 2024 in FRegional. The 19-year-old came 12th in Oceania, third in FRegional Americas with a big haul of podiums, did two European championship rounds (the American’s first races with a team other than Kiwi) and the Macau GP.
He already knows Lawley, as the 21-year-old Canadian came 23rd in US F4 last year and ninth in FRegional Americas in 2024 with Atlantic Racing Team. Lawley will remain with them for a sophomore season.
MTEC Motorsport has announced Shawn Rashid, who came fifth in the 2022 BRSCC National Formula Ford 1600 season and has one podium from two GB3 campaigns, while Giles Motorsport has signed Tommy Smith to race at Manfeild and Teretonga when its high-profile signing Will Brown will be absent.
The 22-year-old Smith competed in FRegional Oceania (and the preceding Toyota Racing Series) in 2019 and ’24, is an FIA F3 points-finisher, GB3 race-winner and is Indy Nxt-bound in 2025.