By alley - Jan 30, 2015, 3:01 AM ET

F3: Cassidy gets top Japan drive

Macau Grand Prix podium finisher Nick Cassidy has secured a top drive in the Japanese Formula 3 Championship. The 20-year-old New Zealander will drive for the Toyota-backed and powered TOM'S team in his first full season of F3.

Cassidy came to the attention of TOM'S thanks to his Macau performance in just his fifth competitive F3 outing, at the wheel of an NBE-powered Dallara run by the small British T-Sport team, he narrowly lost a battle for second with Lucas Auer. He won the Toyota Racing Series in New Zealand in 2012 and '13 and was runner-up in '11, beating drivers including Daniil Kvyat, Alex Lynn, Raffaele Marciello and Auer.

"I'm delighted to be asked to drive for a team as respected and successful as TOM'S and look to make the most of this opportunity in 2015," said Cassidy. "I'm ambitious and take in a lot of confidence after my result in Macau last year – it's been the culmination of a lot of support. A big thank you to everyone that has helped me in my career to date."

TOM'S boss Susumu Koumi added: "We are very pleased to have Nick in our F3 team. It will be his new challenge this year not only in racing, but also working in a completely different culture and environment, but these will be his assets for his future career as many ex-TOM'S F3 drivers have been proving."

TOM'S F3 achievements:

Japanese champions

1991 Paulo Carcasci
1993 Tom Kristensen
1994 Michael Krumm
1995 Pedro de la Rosa
1997 Tom Coronel
1998 Peter Dumbreck
1999 Darren Manning
2003 James Courtney
2005 Joao Paulo de Oliveira
2006 Adrian Sutil
2007 Kazuya Oshima
2008 Carlo van Dam
2009 Marcus Ericsson
2010 Yuji Kunimoto
2013 Yuichi Nakayama