Niko Palhares

Niko Palhares (born February 24, 1966) is a Brazilian former racing driver.

Palhares began in Formula Ford and won the Formula Ford Festival in 1989. He moved to the British Formula Three Championship in 1990 competing in 6 races but not scoring. He moved to Italian F3 the next year and finished 11th in points. He was second in Italian F3 in 1992 with 2 race wins. In 1993 he competed in four Japanese F3 races and finished 12th in points. After taking 1994 off from high-level racing, he competed in the American Indy Lights series in 1995 for PacWest Racing for the first four races of the season with a best finish of 8th at Phoenix International Raceway and finishing 20th in points. That was the end of his professional racing career.