João Vergara

João Vergara (born 28 May 2007) is a Brazilian racing driver who competes for VRD Racing in the USF2000 Championship.

Personal life Vergara is the nephew of Oswaldo Negri Jr., a fellow racing driver who won the 2012 24 Hours of Daytona.

Career Vergara began karting in 2018. Racing primarily in Brazil, most notably winning the 2020 Copa São Paulo title in the Junior Max rookie class, before moving to the U.S. in 2021.

In 2022, Vergara made his single-seater debut in the Lucas Oil Formula Car Race Series, before winning a scholarship to race in the series full-time in early 2023. In his only season in the series, Vergara took five wins and eight other podiums to clinch runner-up honors behind Hudson Schwartz.

The following year, Vergara moved to Exclusive Autosport to make his debut in USF Juniors. In his first season in the series, Vergara scored a best result of fourth at Road America and eight other top ten finishes to end the year eighth overall. Switching to VRD Racing for the 2025 season, as a finalist for the 2026–27 IMSA Diverse Driver Scholarship, Vergara began the season with a win and a third-place finish at NOLA. After finishing no lower than fifth at Barber, Vergara took both pole positions in the first Mid-Ohio round and scored his second win of the season in race one. In the remaining three rounds, Vergara finished second in both races of the second Mid-Ohio round and closed out the season with a podium in Portland to secure third in points.

Continuing with VRD for 2026, Vergara moved up to the USF2000 Championship. After finishing second on debut at St. Petersburg, Vergara finished no higher than sixth across the following three rounds, before matching his best result of second in race one at Mid-Ohio.

Karting record Karting career summary

Racing record Racing career summary Season Series Team Races Wins Poles F/Laps Podiums Points Position 2022 Lucas Oil Formula Car Race Series 6 0 0 0 0 158 12th 2023 Lucas Oil Formula Car Race Series 15 5 ? ? 13 4292nd 2024 USF Juniors Exclusive Autosport 16 0 0 0 0 158 8th 2025 USF Juniors VRD Racing 16 2 2 1 6 2923rd 2026 USF2000 Championship VRD Racing 13 0 0 0 2 205* 4th*Sources:

American open-wheel racing results USF Juniors (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) (Races with * indicate most race laps led)

USF2000 Championship (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) (Races with * indicate most race laps led)