ALTON, Va. (September 21, 2025) – Roman Felber scored his first-career win in Ligier Junior Formula Championship (Ligier JFC) competition at VIRginia International Raceway (VIR) on Sunday afternoon. Starting the race in eighth, Felber (No. 73 BioLongevity Labs / TownHall / Rebol / DWT / Matrix Mind Water / Phantom Fireworks / Champagne Racing Ligier JS F4) dodged a multi-car pileup in Turn 4 on the opening lap to climb through the field and claim his first win. The race saw several big movers finishing up front, as the second- and third-place starters—who also happen to be competing for the championship title—were both involved in the incident on the opening lap.
With yesterday’s winner Drew Szuch (No. 28 Trend North / TEAM Concept Printing / Berg Racing Ligier JS F4) and championship points leader Gastón Irazú (No. 42 Elia Group / Baly / Canal 4 / Ancap / Champagne Racing Ligier JS F4) both retired from the race, Alex Berg (No. 98 Atna Pharma Consulting / Rohde & Liesenfeld Inc / Easydrift Technologies Inc / Berg Racing Ligier JS F4) lead after the restart, but was overtaken by Beckham Jacir (No. 7 STONICA / BELL / OMP / P1Doks / LC Racing Team Ligier JS F4) and Max Mokarem (No. 46 BFS / District Construction / Don’t Sleep Energy / Momentum Motorsports Ligier JS F4) after dropping two wheels off the racing surface.
Behind them, Felber had climbed from seventh to fourth on the restart lap. On the next circuit, he had climbed up to third as they raced around the final turn, and inherited second when Jacir came down pit lane to serve a penalty. With just 11 minutes left on the clock, Felber took the lead as he made his way around Berg in the esses. Mokarem was the next to make his way around Berg moving into second, and within a few minutes, Berg surrendered his position to come down pit lane to the attention of his crew.
One of the most exciting battles of the day was between Harbir Dass (No. 23 Northcoast Medical Group / Dubby Energy / Dass Psych LLC / Berg Racing Ligier JS F4) and Ava Hanssen (No. 26 NGK-NTK Performance / Chiropractic Center of Elkhorn / Franklin Motorsports / One Powersports LLC Ligier JS F4) during the closing laps of the race. With Hanssen chasing Dass down, the two raced wheel to wheel and nose to tail for the final four minutes of the race. Taking the white flag with just one-thousandth of a second separating them, they crossed the finish line side by side with Dass edging Hanssen by just three-hundredths of a second to claim the final podium spot.
> > REPLAY THE STREAM: Stream Round 13 from VIR
Notes of Interest:
- Roman Felber scored his first-career win with a victory in Race 2 at VIR.
- Max Mokarem scored the best finish of his Ligier JFC career with a runner-up result on Sunday afternoon.
- Finishing third, Harbir Dass scored his fifth podium of the 2025 season.
- Ava Hanssen scored a career-best fourth-place finish in today’s race.
- With a fifth-place finish, Luca Day also scored a career-best result. Previously, his best Ligier JFC finish was ninth.
- Making their series debuts this weekend at VIR, both William Rohan (sixth) and Ronan Bray (eighth) scored career-best finishes on Sunday afternoon, while earning their first points in Ligier JFC.
- The battle for the 2025 Ligier JFC championship title—and a scholarship to compete in F4 U.S. in 2026—will go to the series’ final round at Barber Motorsports Park. Two drivers are still mathematically eligible for the title, with Gastón Irazú leading the standings, and Drew Szuch trailing by 23 points in second place.
“It feels really good to get the win; I’m so happy,” said Felber after climbing from the car. “I was pushing the whole way at the end there, and the whole race really, but we got a really good start. We had to go way off to avoid some contact, but we got through that. After the red flag came out, we were about seventh for the restart, but I got a decent restart and I was able to pass a few cars. I got up to the lead after that, and just pulled away. I have to thank my mom and my dad, all my sponsors—DWT Wealth, REBOL, TownHall, Biolongevity Labs and Phantom Fireworks.”
> > SEE MORE: Round 13 Official Results
Ligier JFC will wrap up the 2025 season next month at Barber Motorsports Park during the Barber SpeedTour, October 17-19. The event, like all 2025 races, will be streamed live on SpeedTour.TV. Additional news and updates leading up to the event will be posted on the series’ Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Prospective drivers looking to learn more about Ligier JFC should visit the series’ website LigierJFC.com.