Team Pelfrey announced that Luke Gabin of Perth, Australia, will drive one of its cars in the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda.

Gabin, 19, won the 2013 Skip Barber Racing Karting Scholarship Shootout and used that as a springboard to additional success, winning the 2014 Skip Barber Racing Summer Series and the SBRS Championship Shootout to earn a place on the MAZDASPEED Motorsports Development Program and another scholarship prize to graduate to USF2000 for 2015.

“Moving up to USF2000 is a really important step for me to continue my career in the USA and to start on the Mazda Road to Indy,” said Gabin. “I'm extremely thankful for the MAZDASPEED Scholarship as this enabled me to compete in the series. I'm really excited to sign with Team Pelfrey. Their outfit is extremely professional and their results in the surrounding classes prove this.”

Gabin will join Ayla Agren, from Oslo, Norway; Nikita Lastochkin, from Moscow; and Garth Rickards, from Mechanicsburg, Pa., with Team Pelfrey. They will contest the Cooper Tires Winterfest, a six-race preseason series with three races Feb. 19-20 at NOLA Motorsports Park and three races Feb. 25-26 at Barber Motorsports Park.

The regular-season championship will kick off on the streets of St. Petersburg, Fla., just a few miles from the team’s base in Palmetto, in conjunction with the Verizon IndyCar Series race weekend on March 27-29.

“It is fantastic news and a real privilege for Team Pelfrey to have been selected to provide a car for a MAZDASPEED scholarship driver of Luke Gabin's capabilities,” said Team Pelfrey’s Nigel Tuckey. “He has been blindingly fast in pre-season testing and has already showed himself to be a true team player. Besides that, he is an all-around great person and fun to be around. All of us at Team Pelfrey are excited about the year ahead.”