GB3 graduates filled the top-four in the first Indy NXT race of the season at St Petersburg on Sunday (1 March), with Nikita Johnson storming into the early championship lead.
Multiple GB3 race winner Johnson was in just his fourth race in IndyCar's premier feeder category, but looked like a veteran after a blistering start from second on the grid. He powered around the outside of pole sitter Max Taylor at the first turn to take the lead, and never relinquished it.
The 17-year-old American driver claimed victory after 55 minutes of racing, finishing 0.699s clear of Taylor, who has six GB3 starts to his name over the past two seasons, all at Donington Park.
Meanwhile, in his first race event in the USA, Johnson's fellow GB3 race winner Tymek Kucharczyk claimed the final step on the podium with an assured drive to third.
Completing the GB3 clean sweep of the top positions was Seb Murray, now in his second Indy NXT campaign.
Johnson had to deal with multiple restarts and caution periods, with four full-course yellows in total. Taylor's best chance to retake the lead came on lap 20, when he attempted to replicate Johnson's opening lap move, but to no avail.
“I can’t thank the boys from Cape Motorsports enough and everyone from ECR who has been helping us,” Johnson said. “It’s a pretty amazing feeling to get my first win in INDY NXT and Cape’s first win in INDY NXT. I can’t wait to see all my friends and family.”
"It was pretty straight up,” Johnson added. “I reviewed some video from previous years on YouTube, the INDY NXT channel. I knew I wanted to get up front quickly, and I did just that. I went into Turn 1 and knew what he (Taylor) was going to do before he did it and just went around the outside. After that, I kept it pretty simple, tried to keep a nice gap.”
The Indy NXT series races alongside IndyCar, with the next event for the feeder category coming up on 15 March at the Grand Prix of Arlington.
Images Penske Entertainment: James Black/Joe Skibinski/Chris Jones