It didn’t quite have the same impact as the ‘push-to-pass-gate’ scandal that rocked the IndyCar Series earlier this year. Yet the penalties handed out to VRD Racing and driver Nikita Johnson by the USF Pro 2000 organisation last week are an unusual occurrence on the ladder formerly known as the Road to Indy.

By Jeroen Demmendaal

Initially, series organisers Andersen Promotions did not explain why they decided to strip Johnson of his win in race two at Indianapolis and deduct 30 points from his total for 2024, choosing to simply update the race and championship standings on its website.

Earlier this week, however, the series finally confirmed in a press release what Feeder Series had learned the week before: the penalties were the result of a technical infringement.

Johnson has had an outstanding season thus far, claiming four wins and two additional podiums in eight races. His worst finish so far has been a fourth place in the season opener on the streets of St. Petersburg, and if it wasn’t for his disqualification at IMS, the soon-to-be 16-year-old would have five wins from eight.

Yet in a series of one-on-one conversations with Feeder Series in recent days, several rival team owners described a growing sentiment among their ranks that something was off with Johnson’s VRD-entered machine.

While none were willing to speak on the record, several explained to Feeder Series that on Saturday morning at IMS, a number of teams noticed that Johnson’s car was missing a metal mesh inside the air inlet above the driver’s head. Such a mesh must be installed on each USF Pro 2000 car, and driving without one would present a small but not insignificant power advantage, multiple team owners said.

This observation led to further investigations by VRD’s rivals. To support their argument, one team owner sent photographs to Feeder Series that showed Johnson’s VRD car at the season’s previous round at NOLA without a mesh inside the air inlet. Several team owners also expressed their suspicion that Johnson had also driven without the mesh in St. Petersburg, though this allegation could not be confirmed.

An impromptu meeting between VRD’s rivals during the IMS race weekend led to informal protests with race organisers, which eventually coalesced into a formal protest by one team. While the mesh was reinstalled on Johnson’s car ahead of race three at IMS, the protest eventually led to the decision to issue Johnson the penalties, which were applied on Wednesday, 15 May.

The disqualification of Johnson, VRD’s sole driver for the round, promoted rookie Liam Sceats to the race win. Johnson’s points lead was cut from 235 to 172, leaving him 24 points ahead of nearest rival Hunter Yeany – who has vacated his seat for the upcoming race after hitting financial trouble – and 28 ahead of Lochie Hughes.

When reached for comment by Feeder Series, VRD Racing owner Dan Mitchell declined to offer further details about the penalties or the claims made by his rival team owners.

“Winners win, Nikita is a fantastic driver,” Mitchell wrote, quoting a phrase frequently used by the team on social media. “This will not change but may prolong the end result.”

Johnson declined to discuss the matter on the record.

Other team owners are still not pleased. At least two of them explicitly said they considered the penalties handed out by Andersen to be relatively mild and that stronger sanctions would have been warranted.

The next USF Pro 2000 event will be held 24 May at the Lucas Oil Raceway outside Indianapolis. It is the series’ only oval race of 2024.

Header photo credit: Gavin Baker