Nikita Johnson will make his European racing debut in the GB3 Championship this year after extending his relationship with VRD Racing. 

The 15-year-old was the 2023 USF2000 vice champion with the team, claiming eight podiums including a season-opening victory in his hometown St Petersburg, Florida.

While finishing his USF2000 campaign, the Florida resident also made an instant impression across the final five races in the top-tier USF Pro 2000 Championship with a historic win at the Circuit of the Americas and another win at Portland. Nikita added to his two wins with two further podium finishes for a 100% podium record in the four races he finished. With the COTA win, he became the youngest race-winner in the series’ history and the only driver to win at all three levels of the USF Pro Championships. In addition to GB3, Nikita will also race in the USF Pro 2000 series this year as part of a dual programme in the USA and the UK/Europe. 

Johnson won the YACademy Winter Series title in 2022 with three wins from six races and two additional podium finishes. He added to this successful winter campaign with third place in the USF Juniors Championship with three victories and seven further podiums. At the end of the year, he made his debut in USF2000 with VRD at Road America and placed second at Portland.

His association with the team commenced with a F4 testing programme in 2019, when aged only 11, and he entered the YACademy Winter Series for the first time in 2020. With a victory in the series at the start of 2021, he became the youngest-ever winner of a race for contemporary F4 machinery at just 12-years-old. 

In addition to his success in single-seaters, he was crowned the 2021 Legends Road Course World Champion and finished third in the Legends Asphalt Oval USA National Championship. In 2020, Nikita was vice champion in Legends Dirt USA Nationals. 

Prior to racing Legends cars, he’d enjoyed a glittering karting career, with titles in the National, Midwest and Florida Micro-ROK Championships in 2016. He was the winner of the Florida Winter Tour Mini-ROK Ocala Gran Prix in the following season, and raced in WSK in Europe for two seasons. In 2018, he won the Ocala Grand Prix Junior Championship and a paid university scholarship before moving into car racing. 

He’s now gearing up for his first venture into European competition having first sampled GB3 machinery over a year ago in Barcelona. He’s slated to make his series race debut at Spa-Francorchamps in June, once he has turned 16, and completes VRD Racing by Arden’s all-American line-up.