Niko Palhares (born February 24, 1966) is a Brazilian former racing driver. Palhares began in

Formula Ford Formula Ford, also known as F1600 and Formula F, is an entry-level class of single seater, open-wheel formula racing. The various championships held across the world form an important step for many prospective Formula One drivers. Formula For ...

and won the

Formula Ford Festival The Formula Ford Festival is an annual meeting of Ford-powered single-seat racing cars which is held at the end of the British racing season, at the Brands Hatch motor racing circuit in the county of Kent, in Southern England. The events are hel ...

in 1989. He moved to the

British Formula Three Championship British Formula Three Championship may refer to: *British Formula 3 International Series, a class of auto racing for Formula 3 open wheeled single seater racing cars, which took place from 1951 to 2014 *BRDC British Formula 3 Championship Th ...

in 1990 competing in 6 races but not scoring. He moved to Italian F3 the next year and finished 11th in points. He was second in Italian F3 in 1992 with two race wins. In 1993 he competed in four Japanese F3 races and finished 12th in points. After taking 1994 off from high-level racing, he competed in the American

Indy Lights Indy NXT, previously Indy Lights, is an American developmental automobile racing series sanctioned by IndyCar, currently known as Firestone Indy NXT Series for sponsorship reasons. Indy Lights is the highest step on the Road to Indy, a program ...

series in 1995 for

PacWest Racing PacWest Racing was a Champ Car racing team owned by Bruce McCaw founded in 1993. The team's first full-time season was the next year, 1994, with drivers Dominic Dobson and future Indy Racing League co-champion Scott Sharp. In 1995, the team swi ...

for the first four races of the season with a best finish of 8th at

Phoenix International Raceway Phoenix Raceway is a 1-mile, low-banked tri-oval race track located in Avondale, Arizona, near Phoenix. The motorsport track opened in 1964 and currently hosts two NASCAR race weekends annually including the final championship race since 2020. P ...

and finishing 20th in points. That was the end of his professional racing career.

External links

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Niko Palhares Indy Lights stats
at ChampCarStats.com 1966 births Brazilian racing drivers Formula Ford drivers British Formula Three Championship drivers Italian Formula Three Championship drivers Japanese Formula 3 Championship drivers Indy Lights drivers Living people {{Brazil-autoracing-bio-stub PacWest Racing drivers