🇱🇹 John Paul Southern Jr

John Paul Southern Jr. is a semi-professional driver rated 3,454, placing him in the competitive amateur to semi-professional band where wins come in pro-am and one-make classes and mid-pack finishes among full professionals are the norm. Across 33 starts spanning 2018 to 2025, Southern has taken two podiums in Formula Regional Americas without a win anywhere in his record. His most consistent competition came in that single-seater series during 2018 and 2019, where he averaged P12.6 against a field that included Dakota Dickerson, the 2019 Formula Regional Americas champion; Southern finished behind Dickerson in nine of their eleven shared races but ahead of him twice. He has raced sporadic campaigns in GT and stock car categories since then, including four ADAC GT Masters rounds in 2023 and five GT World Challenge Europe starts for Paul Motorsport beginning in 2025, without scoring podiums in either.[1]

Southern's head-to-head record shows him competitive at his own level but outmatched by drivers a tier above. He beat James Roe Jr. in eight of eleven races and holds a winning record against Logan Cusson in nine starts, both semi-professional rivals. However, he finished behind Jacob Abel, an FIA Silver rated professional, in seven of nine races and struggled against Dickerson consistently. Notably, Southern has isolated single results against much stronger drivers: he finished ahead of Kamui Kobayashi, Alessandro Pier Guidi and other established professionals once or twice in endurance or pro-am fields, though these represent outlier moments rather than competitive patterns against drivers rated well above him.[2]

Southern remains active in 2025 with Paul Motorsport in GT World Challenge Europe, a team that has yet to record a race win across its index. His career pattern shows movement between single-seaters, stock car and sportscar racing without establishing a dominant category or breaking through to consistent victories anywhere.