Jonathan Browne stands in the paddock at the Grand Prix of Toronto on July 15. Browne will race for HMD Motorsports next year in Indy NXT (Gavin Baker Photography/USF Pro Championships)

Jonathan Browne, a 23-year-old Irish driver who has secured podiums in both the GB3 Championship and USF Pro 2000, will only have four tests between now and Indy NXT’s first race in St. Petersburg, Florida to get ready for his career’s next leap.

On Nov. 29, HMD Motorsports announced Browne as their sixth driver for the upcoming season. Due to the timing of this announcement, Browne will not be stepping into the powerful and heaver Indy NXT car until January.

“It’s a huge jump in the performance of the car,” Browne said. “It’s not going to be easy.”

Browne will test the car for the first time at Sebring International Raceway on January 15-16. It’ll mark Browne reaching a level of racing he said he had been dreaming about since he was 8.

Browne’s career back home in Ireland began when he began karting around 15 years ago. After a third-place finish at the Irish Karting Championship in 2016, he continued to race in karting around Britain and Europe before moving into racing Formula Ford cars in 2018.

From his entrance into car racing, Browne immediately found success at the Formula Ford level. However, his career was briefly disrupted when the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

“We missed half of our Formula Ford season,” Browne said. “That also made things difficult on the budget side, so I (also) missed the first half of the next season.”

By the time Browne was back in a car during the second half of 2021, he made his GB3 debut at Silverstone. Browne secured a surprise podium in his very first race and followed it up with three more top-10 finishes across eight races.

The next step in Browne’s career saw him moving to the United States to race in USF Pro 2000 with Turn 3 Motorsport in 2022. Browne described his experience racing in the series as “high-caliber.”

“We’re all so close to INDYCAR,” Browne said. “The level of competition is so high so you have to be at your very best every single weekend.”

Browne’s 2023 season in USF Pro 2000 saw him land on the podium twice, including in the season’s final race at Portland International Raceway.

Browne also had a run from the second race at Sebring to the second race at Road America where he had six consecutive top-10 finishes and an average finish of fifth. He finished the season in eighth place in the standings.

The next step as the season was winding down was to find a way to move up to Indy NXT. Browne began consulting sponsors and teams in attempts to work out a deal.

The team that he landed on was HMD Motorsports. HMD fielded a series-high nine cars in Indy NXT last season and is expected to field a similar number in 2024. The team additionally won the team’s championship.

Despite Browne currently spending time for the holidays in Ireland, HMD has already begun sending information regarding next season along to Browne, and he has been able to virtually meet with the team.

“It’s been really professional so far,” Browne said. “I’m sure we’ll hit the ground running in January with the actual driving side of things.”

Browne’s former team at Turn 3 has developed a reputation for bringing Irish drivers over to the states to compete in USF Pro 2000. James Roe Jr. will compete alongside Browne in Indy NXT at Andretti after Roe Jr. competed in USF Pro 2000 with Turn 3 back in 2021, where he won a race at Mid-Ohio.

Additionally, Turn 3 announced this morning that Adam Fitzgerald would be joining the team in Pro 2000 after competing in the Formula Regional European Championship.

Browne described Turn 3 as a great atmosphere and commended Irish driver and team owner Peter Dempsey for creating an enjoyable environment as he transitioned to racing in America.

“Peter being in the same position as I was in years ago really helps,” Browne said. “He knew what he needed to do to adapt me to that type of lifestyle.”

The attention now turns to the upcoming 2024 season with HMD and the transition to Indy NXT.

Despite the accelerated timeline to learn the car, Browne said he is ready to take the leap and enter the series next season.

“It’s definitely being thrown in the deep end,” Browne said. “But you know, you gotta do these things in your career.”