Photo: US F4
Kiwi Motorsport’s Cooper Shipman became United States Formula 4 champion after winning both races at Virginia International Raceway on September 20/21.
Alex Popow pipped him to top spot in practice by 0.194 seconds, with Caleb Campbell 1.492s off the pace in third.
Shipman set the pace in qualifying by 0.519s over Popow, and Campbell stayed third but was now 1.687s behind. Kekai Hauanio and Demitri Nolan were marginally slower than him.
Shipman was unchallenged through race one. Hauanio squeezed into second on lap one, but Popow got back past at turn six on lap two. Shipman built a five-second lead before the pace car was called on lap 13 of 15 and the finishing order was all but settled.
Nolan and Clemente Huerta spent most of the race trading a very distant fifth place, and on lap 13 Huerta got past into turn one but spun out. Nolan was then penalised 30s for causing a collision, handing Oliver Savoie fifth.
Shipman’s fastest lap earned him race two pole, and Hauanio started lasted due to a parc ferme infringement. Campbell had an airborne incident by driving over the rear of Savoie’s car on the formation lap, so failed to start.
Hauanio ended up lining up sixth, but got a five-second penalty for weaving at the start, and dived down the inside into turn one for second place.
On lap two, Hauanio spun at turn 10 and Popow went off in avoidance. It promoted Luke Powers to second, but he trailed Shipman by 3.8s, and Hauanio ended the lap in fourth.
He reclaimed third as lap three began, but then Popow and Nolan overtook him on lap four. By the time Popow overtook Powers on lap six, Shipman was 10s clear and he continued to pull away for a dominant ninth win of 2025.
Powers held off Nolan until turn 14 on lap 10, then got back past and held off five more overtaking attempts until Nolan got him into Roller Coaster on the penultimate lap.
In the Ligier Junior Formula Championship for first-generation F4 cars, Harbir Dass was the practice pacesetter then Roman Felber was on top (and eighth overall) in qualifying before his laptimes were deleted due to a technical violation.
That made Drew Szuch fastest, with Alex Berg also losing all of his laps to a technical violation so Beckham Jacir was second on race one’s grid and 0.205s off pole. Three drivers copped grid penalties.
A standing start was used, and Jacir darted into the lead off the line. Szuch reclaimed first place in sector one, but Jacir passed again ending lap one.
A caution period began late in lap three due to Ronan Bray crashing out, and after racing resumed on lap six it was three-wide up front then the lead swapped hands repeatedly between Szuch and title rival Gaston Irazu. Felber got involved too, but when Szuch had an off under pressure it was Berg who emerged in second.
He pursued Irazu and took the lead into turn one on lap 11, but Szuch then led by Roller Coaster and held it thereon. Berg lost second to a 30s penalty for impeding, and Irazu had an off that dropped him to sixth before a five-second penalty for jumping the start then demoted him another spot.
Berg took pole for race two, which began with drama. Irazu sharged down the inside at turn one to take the lead, but was back to third by turn three and then spun by Szuch at turn four. Three other drivers piled into them, with one going airborne, and red flags waved.
Irazu was the only one not to retire and took the restart from last place. The field headed back out behind the pace car for a formation lap, then one race lap before green flags waved.
Jacir tried taking the lead from Berg then, and when Berg went wide at turn 12 it became a three-wide fight. Max Mokarem was briefly second before Berg reclaimed it, then returned to the lead at the end of lap four as Jacir served a drive-through penalty. Irazu also headed to the pits, to retire.
Felber took the lead in the esses on lap five, with Mokarem claiming second there on lap seven. Berg descended further, and retired in the pits at the end of the lap.
The top two positions were decided then, while Dass and Ava Hanssen traded third until the finish where Dass prevailed by 0.031s.
Results round-up
US F4
Race 1 (15 laps)
1 Cooper Shipman Kiwi Motorsport 31m25.587s
2 Alex Popow MLT Motorsports +1.025s
3 Kekai Hauanio Crosslink Competition +1.672s
4 Caleb Campbell LC Racing Academy +2.190s
5 Oliver Savoie Kiwi Motorsport +3.484s
6 Luke Powers Toney Driver Development +3.864s
7 Jonathan Cottrill RASE Motorsports +4.747s
8 Demitri Nolan Crosslink Competition +32.830s
9 Clemente Huerta Kiwi Motorsport +3 laps
Pole: Shipman, 1m52.691s
Fastest lap: Shipman, 1m52.860s
Race 2 (16 laps)
1 Shipman 30m26.433s
2 Popow +15.453s
3 Nolan +28.648s
4 Powers +29.018s
5 Hauanio +51.103s
6 Savoie +1m58.017s
Ret Cottrill
DNS Campbell
DNS Huerta
FL: Shipman, 1m53.009s
Championship standings
1 Shipman 298.5 2 Hauanio 226.5 3 Popow 216 4 Campbell 139 5 Huerta 128.5 6 Nolan 110 7 Ty Arbogast 53.5 8 Powers 53 9 Savoie 32 10 Conor Grant 14
Ligier JFC
Race 1 (13 laps)
1 Drew Szuch Berg Racing 31m01.273s
2 Roman Felber Champagne Racing +1.886s
3 Cash Felber Champagne Racing +4.747s
4 Max Mokarem Momentum Motorsports +4.787s
5 Harbir Dass Berg Racing +8.863s
6 Beckham Jacir LC Racing Academy +9.288s
7 Gaston Irazu Champagne Racing +12.808s
8 Ava Hanssen Ava Hanssen Racing +15.986s
9 Luca Day Momentum Motorsports +21.345s
10 Michael Fatutta Champagne Racing +21.355s
Pole: Szuch, 1m57.093s
Fastest lap: Alex Berg, 1m57.009s
Race 2 (10 laps)
1 R Felber 30m02.330s
2 Mokarem +1.699s
3 Dass +7.852s
4 Hanssen +7.883s
5 Day +22.564s
6 William Rohan Crosslink Competition +23.077s
7 Jacir +25.926s
8 Ronan Bray Berg Racing +35.853s
Ret Alex Berg Berg Racing
Ret Irazu
FL: Jacir, 1m57.704s
Championship standings
1 Irazu 196 2 Szuch 173 3 Dass 130.5 4 Daniel Cara 126.5 5 C Felber 126.5 6 R Felber 100 7 Mokarem 87 8 Jacir 79 9 Hanssen 69 10 Pablo Benites 55