Ava Dobson

Ava Dobson
Nationality	American
Born	(2008-06-09) June 9, 2008 (age 17) Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States
GB4 Championship career
Debut season	2024
Current team	Arden Motorsport
Car number	55
Former teams	Velocity Racing Development
Starts	15 (15 entries)
Wins	0
Podiums	0
Poles	0
Fastest laps	0
Best finish	17th in 2024
Previous series
2023–24 2023 2023	USF Juniors USF2000 Championship Formula 4 United States Championship

Ava Dobson (born June 9, 2008) is an American racing driver ^[1] who competes in the 2025 GB4 Championship for Arden Motorsport. ^[2] She previously drove for Velocity Racing Development in the 2024 GB4 Championship. ^[3]

Racing career

Formula 4 United States Championship

After being one of five female drivers awarded with the Parella Motorsports Holdings Powering Diversity Scholarship in 2023, Dobson would make her car racing debut in the 2023 Formula 4 United States Championship driving for Jay Howard Driver Development. ^[4] She joined for the third round of the championship, the first after her fifteenth birthday, following an extensive testing program. ^[5] She would finish 31st in the championship with a best finish of 11th.

USF Juniors

2023

Towards the latter part of the 2023 USF Juniors season, Jay Howard Driver Development entered the series; Dobson joined them for their first round at Road America. ^[6] She had a best result of 11th in race three and finished 16th in the championship. ^[7]

2024

On September 22, 2023, Dobson announced that she would be returning to USF Juniors to run a full season in 2024 with Jay Howard Driver Development. ^[8] In race one at the second round at Barber Motorsports Park, Dobson suffered a high speed accident in which she collided head on with Bruno Ribeiro. ^{[9] [10]} Dobson suffered injuries to her chest, back, and pinkie finger. ^[11] She also suffered a severe concussion, which caused sickness while training. ^[12] As a result of this crash, she was not cleared to race for the remainder of the round, and she did not return to the championship.

GB4 Championship

2024

In July 2024, Dobson announced that she would make her debut in the 2024 GB4 Championship at the second Silverstone round driving for VRD Racing. ^[3] This would mark her return to racing following her crash at Barber Motorsports Park. She took a best result of ninth in race two at Silverstone, recovering well from a stall on the grid. ^[13] She finished the season in 17th place overall.

2025

Dobson returned to the championship for the full 2025 season, switching teams to Arden Motorsport alongside Leon Wilson. ^[2] She took her first top-ten finish of the season in race two at Donington Park, finishing tenth, and improved her best finishing position to eighth in race one at Oulton Park. ^[12]

F1 Academy

On April 29, 2025, it was announced that Dobson would be the wildcard driver for the Miami round of the 2025 F1 Academy season. She would compete for Hitech TGR with Morgan Stanley as the car's sponsor. ^[14] She started race one from the back of the grid, having been given a three-place penalty for colliding with Lia Block in free practice two. ^[15] However, she avoided incidents in the race to finish thirteenth, the season-best result for a wildcard driver. ^[16] Race two was cancelled due to adverse weather conditions. ^[15] It was rescheduled to take place in Montreal, and Dobson was unable to return, as participating in more than one round counts towards the two-season entry limit. ^[12]

Karting record

Karting career summary

Season	Series	Team	Position
2019	SKUSA - Supernationals	N/A	32nd
2021	SKUSA - Supernationals	Merlin	24th
2022	SKUSA - Supernationals		19th
Sources: [17] [18]

Racing record

Racing career summary

Season	Series	Team	Races	Wins	Poles	F/Laps	Podiums	Points	Position
2023	Formula 4 United States Championship	Jay Howard Driver Development	12	0	0	0	0	0	31st
	USF Juniors		3	0	0	0	0	28	16th
	USF2000 Championship		3	0	0	0	0	15	32nd
2024	USF Juniors	Jay Howard Driver Development	3	0	0	0	0	10	31st
	GB4 Championship	Velocity Racing Development	6	0	0	0	0	40	17th
2025	GB4 Championship	Arden Motorsport	9	0	0	0	0	47*	22nd
	F1 Academy	Hitech TGR	1	0	0	0	0	0*	19th*
	F4 British Championship	Chris Dittmann Racing

* Season still in progress.

Complete Formula 4 United States Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	DC	Points
2023	Jay Howard Driver Development	NOL 1	NOL 2	NOL 3	ROA 1	ROA 2	ROA 3	MOH 1 24	MOH 2 24	MOH 3 24	NJM 1 14	NJM 2 20	NJM 3 17	VIR 1 11	VIR 2 18	VIR 3 Ret	COA 1 19	COA 2 16	COA 3 13	31st	0

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)

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	DC	Points
2023	Jay Howard Driver Development	SEB 1	SEB 2	SEB 3	ALA 1	ALA 2	VIR 1	VIR 2	VIR 3	MOH 1	MOH 2	ROA 1 12	ROA 2 12	ROA 3 11	COA 1	COA 2	COA 3	16th	28
2024	Jay Howard Driver Development	NOL 1 18	NOL 2 15	NOL 3 DNS	ALA 1 21	ALA 2 DNS	VIR 1	VIR 2	VIR 3	MOH 1	MOH 2	ROA 1	ROA 2	ROA 3	POR 1	POR 2	POR 3	31st	10

USF2000 Championship

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

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	DC	Points
2023	Jay Howard Driver Development	STP 1	STP 2	SEB 1	SEB 1	IMS 1	IMS 2	IMS 3	IRP	ROA 1	ROA 2	MOH 1	MOH 2	MOH 3	TOR 1	TOR 2	POR 1 13	POR 2 16	POR 3 19	32nd	15

Complete GB4 Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	DC	Points
2024	Velocity Racing Development	OUL 1	OUL 2	OUL 3	SIL1 1	SIL1 2	SIL1 3	DON1 1	DON1 2	DON1 3	SNE 1	SNE 2	SNE 3	SIL2 1 13	SIL2 2 9	SIL2 3 11	DON2 1 14	DON2 2 14	DON2 3 15	BRH 1	BRH 2	BRH 3	17th	40
2025	Arden Motorsport	DON 1 12	DON 2 10	DON 3 23	SIL1 1 21	SIL1 2 14	SIL1 3 134	OUL 1 8	OUL 2 Ret	OUL 3 19	SNE 1 18	SNE 2 19	SNE 3 145	SIL2 1 15	SIL2 2 19	SIL2 3 19	BRH 1 11	BRH 2 13	BRH 3 C	DON2 1	DON2 2	DON2 3	20th*	85*

* Season still in progress.

Complete F1 Academy results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	DC	Points
2025	Hitech TGR	SHA 1	SHA 2	JED 1	JED 2	MIA 1 13	MIA 2 WD [a]	CAN 1	CAN 2	CAN 3	ZAN 1	ZAN 2	SIN 1	SIN 2	LVG 1	LVG 2	19th*	0*

* Season still in progress.

Notes

1. Dobson was legally withdrawn as a Wild Card driver when Miami 2 was moved to Montreal.

References

1. "Ava Dobson (R)". www.usfjuniors.com. Archived from the original on 2024-11-05. Retrieved 2024-09-16.
2. "Ava Dobson to Race with Arden Motorsport in the 2025 GB4 Championship | Arden Motorsport". www.arden-motorsport.com. Retrieved 2025-03-17.
3. "VRD Racing returns to GB4 Championship with Ava Dobson at Silverstone". gb-4.net. Retrieved 2024-09-17.
4. A, Ashleigh (2023-02-20). "PMH Powering Diversity Scholarship Expands to Assist Five Female Racers In 2023". F4 U.S. Championships. Retrieved 2024-09-17.
5. Wood, Ida (2023-02-22). "Kart star Hannah Greenemeier wins diversity scholarship for US F4 move". Formula Scout. Retrieved 2025-05-11.
6. Media, R. T. D. (2023-08-08). "JAY HOWARD DRIVER DEVELOPMENT ENTERS USF JUNIORS EVENT THIS WEEKEND WITH THREE DRIVERS". RTD Media. Retrieved 2024-09-17.
7. RACERS (2023-08-14). "Ava Dobson makes USF Juniors debut battling for the top-10 at Road America". Racers. Retrieved 2025-05-11.
8. "Ava Dobson Joins Jay Howard Driver Development for 2024". www.usfjuniors.com. Retrieved 2024-09-17.
9. USF Juniors - Race 1 - Barber Motorsports Park . Retrieved 2024-09-17– via www.youtube.com.
10. Maher, Thomas (2024-04-27). "Terrifying on-board footage emerges of US junior series crash in freak incident". PlanetF1. Retrieved 2025-05-11.
11. "Instagram". www.instagram.com. Retrieved 2024-09-17.
12. Sanderson, George (2025-06-05). "The untold story of Ava Dobson's crash, recovery, and F1 Academy call-up". Feeder Series. Retrieved 2025-06-06.
13. RACERS (2024-07-30). "Ava Dobson scores top-10 on GB4 debut". Racers. Retrieved 2025-05-11.
14. Grimault, Alexandra (2025-04-28). "Ava Dobson to be wild card for F1 Academy's Miami round". Motors Inside. Retrieved 2025-05-11.
15. Lau, Kaylene (2025-05-06). "F1 Academy Miami review: Pin takes sole win on offer after Sunday race cut". Feeder Series. Retrieved 2025-05-11.
16. Whitfield, Steve (2025-05-03). "Pin holds off Palmowski for second F1 Academy win of 2025". Formula Scout. Retrieved 2025-05-11.
17. "Dobson Ava". Kartcom. Retrieved 2025-04-02.
18. "Driver: Ava Dobson | Driver Database". www.driverdb.com. Retrieved 2025-04-03.