Felber earns first career win at VIR; Ligier JFC championship battle heads to Barber

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.