Japanese F4, Chinese F4 and the Ligier Junior Formula Championship crowned new champions this weekend. Feeder Series reviews the action from the past few days of junior single-seater racing.

By Feeder Series

As the European junior series racing scene enjoyed a quiet weekend before F3 returns for post-season testing, East Asian and North American single-seater racing got a chance to shine. There were already champions in FRegional Americas and F4 US entering the final round Barber, with only the teams’ title in the former still on the line. In LJFC, however, the smallest class – featuring a record-high three cars – had the most closely contested title battle, one only decided by a few tenths in the final race of the season.

Chinese F4 also ended its 2026 season this weekend at Zhuhai with its smallest-ever margin of victory for the eventual drivers’ champion. Japanese F4 still has one more round to go, but the biggest prize of all was claimed at Autopolis in historic fashion. Read on to find out what happened and why it mattered.

There was one event in Europe – the UCS Formula Cup, which hosted its penultimate round at Circuito de Navarra in Spain. Stepan Suslov came out on top in all three races, as only five cars lined up on the grid for races two and three – the smallest grid since the second round of 2023. In all three races, the podium looked the same, as Suslov was followed by Alan Orzynski and gentleman class driver Frédéric Boillot, who sit in second and third overall respectively.

Additional reporting by Maciej Jackiewicz

FRegional Americas: Golan, Shipman end season with wins at Barber

Brady Golan had already secured the FRegional Americas title following the previous round at VIR, but the Texan returned to his winning ways at Barber Motorsports Park, helping Toney Driver Development clinch the teams’ title and taking his eighth race victory of the year.

Cooper Shipman led the first practice and Evagoras Papasavvas topped the second, but on Saturday morning it was Kekai Hauanio who set the quickest pace, securing pole position with a 1:19.584. Golan joined Hauanio on the front row, ahead of the Kiwi Motorsport duo of Shipman and Harbir Dass. Papasavvas did not set a qualifying lap and began race one from the back of the field.

Race one got off to a messy start, with an incident for Whitney Strickland on the opening lap leading to a lengthy red flag. Hauanio maintained the lead when the race resumed, but Golan was soon on the prowl. The series champion made an overtake for the lead on lap five, for which Hauanio had no response.

Although Hauanio and Shipman closely tailed Golan for the remainder of the race, Golan took the win by 0.496 seconds. After the race, the stewards determined that there had not been enough laps run to award full points, so half points were given out instead.

The opening lap of race two featured drama as well. Golan forced Papasavvas off track exiting Turn 1 and later received a 10-second penalty for the manoeuvre, although both drivers continued.

Shipman was unbothered at the front as the race continued, a brief safety car period for an incident involving Hauanio and Robert Arana Jr doing little to trouble him. Shipman pulled clear at the final restart and saw the chequered flag first ahead of Papasavvas and Christian Bogle. Papasavvas was later penalised for causing a collision with Bogle in Turn 5, which dropped the Ohio resident to fifth position and elevated Luke Powers onto the podium. Golan finished the race eighth after his penalty was applied.

In the end, 57 points separated Golan from Papasavvas in the championship, with Kiwi Motorsport’s Shipman just seven points behind Papasavvas after a strong final weekend. Hauanio finished the season fourth in the standings, 103 points behind Golan, with Bogle rounding out the top five, just 4.5 points ahead of TDD teammate Luke Powers.

Golan had a series-high eight wins and 14 podiums out of 20 races completed. Papasavvas accumulated five wins and 11 total podiums throughout the season. Shipman claimed three victories, as did Kekai Hauanio, who scored nine total podiums, one fewer than Shipman.

TDD held on to win the teams’ championship by 31.5 points over Crosslink, who were unable to close the 14-point gap they had entering the weekend.

Report by Owen White

Results	P1	P2	P3
Qualifying	Kekai Hauanio, 1:19.584	Brady Golan, +0.231s	Cooper Shipman, +0.464s
Race 1 (14 laps)	Brady Golan, 29:24.084	Kekai Hauanio, +0.496s	Cooper Shipman, +0.972s
Race 2 (19 laps)	Cooper Shipman, 31:12.805	Christian Bogle, +3.545s	Luke Powers, +3.937s

Standings	Drivers	Teams	Rookies
P1	Brady Golan, 298.5	Toney Driver Development, 589.5	Evagoras Papasavvas, 241.5
P2	Evagoras Papasavvas, 241.5	Crosslink Motorsports, 558	Cooper Shipman, 234.5
P3	Cooper Shipman, 234.5	Kiwi Motorsport, 355.5	Kekai Hauanio, 195.5
P4	Kekai Hauanio, 195.5	Atlantic Racing Team, 75.5	Luke Powers, 172
P5	Christian Bogle, 176.5	Hillenburg Motorsports, 68	Harbir Dass, 121
P6	Luke Powers, 172	Jensen Global Advisors, 14	Alex Bobadilla, 118
P7	Harbir Dass, 121	Momentum Motorsports, 7	Aidan Schuh, 93
P8	Alex Bobadilla, 118	MLT Motorsports, 6	Eric Wiśniewski, 52
P9	Aidan Schuh, 93		Whitney Strickland, 19
P10	James Lawley, 72.5		Aiden Zelaya, 8

Read the previous round’s report here.

F4 US: Huerta claims maiden victory, sweeps weekend at Barber

With the championship already secured by Gastón Irazú in dominant fashion at VIR, the spotlight in F4 US turned to Clemente Huerta, who took not just his first but also his second series victory to complete a weekend sweep at Barber Motorsports Park.

Throughout Friday’s pair of practice sessions, Irazú, Huerta and Caleb Campbell all ran comparable lap times, but it was Campbell who went on to take pole position by just 0.042 seconds over Huerta. Irazú found himself 1.821s behind Campbell’s time and fourth on the grid.

Campbell got off the line well and led the opening few laps, but Irazú was on the charge early. On lap four the series champion made his move to take the lead, but he couldn’t pull away from Campbell or Huerta, the latter of whom moved into second position soon after.

Huerta’s winning move came on lap 13. He started the lap wheel to wheel with Irazú and completed what would be the race’s final lead change. Although Irazú never let Huerta out of his sights, the Chilean would not be denied, securing his first win in the series by just 0.294s. An issue for Campbell later in the race dropped him to fifth position, elevating Ayden Kohut onto the final step of the podium.

Huerta’s fastest race lap was enough to secure him pole position for race two on Sunday ahead of Irazú and Campbell. Unlike the tightly contested race one, the weekend’s second race featured no battle for the lead whatsoever, with Huerta leading every lap en route to completing the weekend sweep.

Fernando Rivera ended his season on a high note, taking a season-best finish of second. Caleb Campbell rounded out the podium, taking just his second podium finish since Mid-Ohio in June, before which he had stood on the podium in every race. Irazú’s fourth-place finish was his first and only finish lower than third this season, but the Uruguayan still finished the season with a 107-point lead over Campbell, who edged out the absent Zach Fourie for second in the championship.

Huerta, with his two wins, climbed to fourth in the standings. Rivera too progressed upwards at the very end, jumping from eighth to sixth overall and surpassing Kohut, who suffered a costly retirement in the final race, as well as Luca Day.

Of the 17 races run, nine were won by Irazú, who also scored six additional podiums. Despite a rocky back half of the season, Campbell finished the year with four wins and five further podiums. Fourie may have missed the final weekend of the season, but he still put together 11 podium finishes from 15 starts, highlighted by a win at Mosport.

After returning to teams’ champions Kiwi Motorsport mid-season, Huerta had an impressive end to his campaign, with six total podiums including the two wins at Barber. Although Cole Medeiros missed two rounds, including the finale, he still finished with seven podiums, among them a fiercely defended win at Mosport.

Report by Owen White

Results	P1	P2	P3
Qualifying	Caleb Campbell, 1:26.116	Clemente Huerta, +0.042s	Fernando Rivera, +1.429s
Race 1 (17 laps)	Clemente Huerta, 25:00.108	Gastón Irazú, +0.294s	Ayden Kohut, +34.073s
Race 2 (21 laps)	Clemente Huerta, 30:24.656	Fernando Rivera, +6.742s	Caleb Campbell, +44.842s

Standings	Drivers	Teams	Rookies
P1	Gastón Irazú, 339	Kiwi Motorsport, 578	Gastón Irazú, 339
P2	Caleb Campbell, 232	Champagne Racing, 339	Zach Fourie, 223
P3	Zach Fourie, 223	MLT Motorsports, 166	Cole Medeiros, 166
P4	Clemente Huerta, 206	Crosslink Motorsports, 135	Fernando Rivera, 127
P5	Cole Medeiros, 166	Momentum Motorsports, 100	Ayden Kohut, 119
P6	Fernando Rivera, 127	Speed Factory, 54	Luca Day, 100
P7	Ayden Kohut, 119	RASE Motorsports, 32	Ben Ramirez, 32
P8	Luca Day, 100	Vmax Motorsport, 28	Jeremiah Thomas, 18
P9	Ben Ramirez, 32	Team Roberts, 18	Zain Khan, 5
P10	Robert Soroka, 28	USNG Racing, 5

Read the previous round’s report here.

Ligier JFC: Kennedy seals Gen 2 title, Jacir sweeps both races to end dominant Gen 1 campaign

Following a season-long battle with Jack Speth, Edward Kennedy became the inaugural Gen 2 champion in Ligier Junior Formula Championship’s Barber finale, as Beckham Jacir concluded his title-winning Gen 1 campaign by adding two more wins to his scorecard.

Eventual champion Kennedy began the weekend by taking pole, a staggering 0.876 seconds ahead of Gen 1 pole sitter and already crowned champion Jacir, who started on overall pole.

Against all the odds, Speth had the upper hand in race one – albeit only on the last lap. A late-race caution bunched the field up, and Speth made the pass for the lead at Turn 6 to win by 0.085s and close the gap to Kennedy in the Gen 2 standings.

Jacir was third overall as he took another dominant win in Gen 1. Rounding out the class podium were Ava Hanssen and AJ Abdullah, as Alexander Savage finished fourth ahead of Lázaro Bainotti, who ran wide at Turn 17 on the penultimate lap while in second.

Despite starting on pole for race two, Champagne Racing’s Jacir was overtaken at the start by Bainotti, who led most of the early stages in Gen 1. The reigning champion got back past on lap eight and led until the end, securing his 13th win of the season and eighth in a row ahead of the Argentine driver and Ava Hanssen.

Short of a retirement for Kennedy, Speth needed to win the Gen 2 contest to take the title, but he was denied by 0.374s. Kennedy took his 11th win of the season to seal his long-awaited title ahead of Speth, as Ben Ramirez took his maiden class podium after retiring from the first race.

While Jacir and Bainotti clinched first and second in Gen 1 last time out at VIR, Hanssen’s seventh class podium of the season meant she closed out her second LJFC campaign with third place on 183 points, 19 ahead of AJ Abdullah.

In Gen 2, Kennedy’s dominant stretch of wins, only hampered by skipping Road America, earned him the title by 13 points over Speth. Curiously, Kennedy also has a thunderstorm to thank for his title, as had the scheduled third race in Road America not been rained out, Speth would have won the title so long as he finished the race.

Report by Marco Albertini

Results	P1	P2	P3
Qualifying	Edward Kennedy, 1:25.891	Beckham Jacir, +0.876s	Lázaro Bainotti, +0.919s
Race 1 (16 laps)	Jack Speth, 27:30.211	Edward Kennedy, +0.085s	Beckham Jacir, +2.323s
Race 2 (21 laps)	Edward Kennedy, 30:34.019	Jack Speth, +0.374s	Beckham Jacir, +18.224s

Standings	Gen 1			Gen 2
	Drivers	Teams	Rookies	Drivers
P1	Beckham Jacir, 355	Champagne Racing, 355	Lázaro Bainotti, 250	Edward Kennedy, 311
P2	Lázaro Bainotti, 250	Berg Racing, 343	AJ Abdullah, 164	Jack Speth, 298
P3	Ava Hanssen, 183	Speed Factory, 250	Alexander Savage, 134	Michael Fatutta, 18
P4	AJ Abdullah, 164	Ava Hanssen Racing, 183	Tyler Wade, 118	Ben Ramirez, 15
P5	Alexander Savage, 134	G Tech Motorsport, 148	Ella White, 91
P6	Tyler Wade, 118	Kiwi Motorsport, 30	Truly Adams, 51
P7	Ella White, 91	Jensen, 6	Will Franklin, 30
P8	Truly Adams, 51		Zachary Lewis, 6
P9	Will Franklin, 30
P10	Michael Fatutta, 14

Read the previous round’s report here.

Japanese F4: Shirasaki clinches historic title as Hamabe, Kumagai secure maiden wins at Autopolis

The penultimate round of the 2026 Japanese F4 championship was one of firsts. Kageyama Racing’s Ryo Shirasaki became the first driver to win the title without backing from Honda or Toyota in a historically manufacturer-dominated racing scene, while Masaki Hamabe and Kenta Kumagai took their first wins in the series.

Hamabe had taken pole by only 0.021 seconds over Kumagai, but with a superior start he quickly drew out a much larger gap by the opening lap. Kumagai nearly conceded second place to Ryutaro Sakai at the first corner but held on, with title hopeful Shirasaki dropping from fourth on the grid to sixth. Rival Ryo Sakai qualified only 14th and rose to 12th by the end of the first lap.

As the gaps stretched, Kumagai found himself more concerned with the chasing Ryutaro Sakai, just a few tenths behind for much of the race as they fought for second. Seventh-placed Masana Muto meanwhile ran in a provisional second in the championship standings with Ryo Sakai struggling to breach the points-paying top 10. He did not progress further than 11th.

Up front, Hamabe’s gap over Kumagai settled at just over a second as they set similar lap times. Hamabe took his first win by 1.703s over Kumagai and Ryutaro Sakai, while Shirasaki’s sixth place meant he was that little bit closer to the title with a 65-point advantage over Muto and a 68-point advantage over Ryo Sakai.

The pressure was now all on the latter two. To keep the fight going into Motegi, they had to reduce the gap to 49 points or fewer by the end of the weekend’s second race. But with Shirasaki starting three places in front of Muto and Sakai also starting outside the top 10, it wasn’t going to be easy.

Kenta Kumagai stormed into an early lead from pole, while Shirasaki was immediately handed a stroke of luck when Ryutaro Sakai pulled over into the pit exit as the field roared away from the grid. With a slick move on Hamabe into the first corner, Shirasaki was up to second behind Kumagai, while Muto and Ryo Sakai were seventh and 15th, with both time and the lap counter against them already.

After four laps, nothing had changed, but on lap five, Sakai made a mistake and dropped outside the top 20. When Muto’s subsequent excursion on lap 10 dropped him to 13th and teammate Yuzuki Miura’s spin a few corners later brought out the safety car with three laps to go, it became clear that the title would be Shirasaki’s with a weekend to spare.

As Kumagai crossed the line to become the second first-time winner of the weekend, Shirasaki did so 1.231s behind to become the Japanese F4 champion of 2026. The teams’ title will be decided in Motegi, as TGR-DC Racing School hold a 30-point lead over Kageyama Racing with just two races remaining.

In the Independent Class, back-to-back wins for “Kentaro” means he has pushed the title fight all the way into the finale at Motegi in November, albeit by a small margin. Despite being absent from this weekend, “Hirobon” still leads by 40 points, with 50 still on offer. Yutaka Toriba, 48 points behind, could also clinch the title if he wins both races and Hirobon scores no more than one point.

Report by Thomas Groves

Champion class
Results	P1	P2	P3
Qualifying	Masaki Hamabe, 1:52.404	Kenta Kumagai, +0.021s	Ryutaro Sakai, +0.094s
Race 1 (13 laps)	Masaki Hamabe, 24:35.400	Kenta Kumagai, +1.703s	Ryutaro Sakai, +2.186s
Race 2 (13 laps)	Kenta Kumagai, 25:47.717	Ryo Shirasaki, +1.231s	Masaki Hamabe, +2.002s

Independent class
Results	P1	P2	P3
Qualifying	“Kentaro”, 1:53.943	Yutaka Toriba, +0.434s	“Dragon”, +0.640s
Race 1 (13 laps)	“Kentaro”, 29:11.984	Yutaka Toriba, +3.735s	Makio Saito, +15.085s
Race 2 (12 laps)	“Kentaro”, 30:55.241	Yutaka Toriba, +0.936s	Isao Nakashima, +3.648s

Standings	Champion class		Independent class
	Drivers	Teams	Drivers	Teams
P1	Ryo Shirasaki, 194	TGR-DC Racing School, 232	“Hirobon”, 201	Team 5Zigen, 201
P2	Masana Muto, 111	Kageyama Racing, 202	“Kentaro”, 161	Field Motorsport, 161
P3	Ryo Sakai, 108	OTG Motor Sports, 106	Yutaka Toriba, 153	Kageyama Racing, 153
P4	Kenta Kumagai, 106	Bionic Jack Racing, 72	Masayoshi Oyama, 82	B-Max Engineering, 137
P5	Masaki Hamabe, 102	Mitsusada Racing, 70	Nobuhiro Imada, 81	Akiland Racing, 115
P6	Buntaro Igarashi, 78	HFDP with B-Max Racing, 68	“Dragon”, 80	Rn-sports, 102
P7	Soichiro Shioda, 72	Ponos Racing, 51	Shoichiro Akamatsu, 70	Eagle Sports, 70
P8	Ryutaro Sakai, 70	Akiland Racing, 37	“Ikari”, 65	Bionic Jack Racing, 65
P9	Syo Momose, 62	B-Max Engineering, 36	Makio Saito, 59	Helm Motorsports, 48
P10	Megumu Suzuki, 51	Eagle Sports, 18	Isao Nakashima, 57	Zap Speed, 30

Read the previous round’s report here.

Chinese F4: Shagaliev clinches championship title in season finale at Zhuhai

Timur Shagaliev clinched his first title in single-seaters in Zhuhai, finishing just nine points ahead of rival Kimi Chan after the pair won two races apiece this weekend.

Shagaliev dominated both qualifying sessions. The lap that secured him pole for race one was 0.383 seconds faster than Chan’s, with Yu Yan eight hundredths behind. In the second session, Shagaliev took pole ahead of Chen Sicong by just 0.045s, with Sun Anzhe, making his Chinese F4 debut this weekend, completing the top three.

Shagaliev took a lights-to-flag victory in the first race to widen the gap between him and Chan, who started second but was overtaken by Yu and Chen at the first corner. Chan re-passed Dai at Turn 7, and from there the top three remained unchanged, with Shagaliev taking his fifth win of the season.

Ethan Liu started from reverse-grid pole for race two. Multiple cars ran wide and into the run-off area in the opening corners. The safety car was brought out, but just beforehand, Liu had fallen down the order and Zhao Zijun, who started from fourth on the grid, inherited the lead.

When the race resumed, Zhao led heading into the first corner, but second-placed Liu Shangqing was facing a challenge from Chan, who had made up seven positions since the start. Chan got the move done at Turn 4 and set his sights on Zhao.

Not long after, the race was once again neutralised following a multi-car collision at Turn 4 involving Qi Diqin, Chen Zhuyuan and Yang Kaiwen.

With less than eight minutes on the clock after the safety car period ended, Chan immediately put the pressure on Zhao. He snatched the lead at Turn 3, and the pursuing Shagaliev took second away from Zhao as they entered Turn 4. Zhao then collided with Liu Shangqing on the 10th lap, and under the safety car conditions that followed, Chan secured his eighth win of the season ahead of Shagaliev and Yu.

Shagaliev started on pole for the third race and led into the first corner. However, the session was quickly red-flagged after Wang Zejun made contact with multiple cars, spun into the run-off area and flipped over. With the assistance of marshals, he emerged from the car unhurt.

When the race resumed, Shagaliev once again maintained the lead heading into the first corner ahead of Chen Sicong, Sun and Chan. Behind them, Yu challenged Feng Jiaxi for fifth, with Alfred Lao also joining the battle. Yu came out ahead and set his sights on Chan.

With six minutes left, the safety car returned as Ken Chow had beached his car in the gravel near Turn 9 while battling with Law. The race resumed with just over two minutes to go, and Shagaliev held on to take his sixth win in the series. With Chan finishing fourth, Shagaliev had a 34-point margin, enough to clinch the championship title. Joining Shagaliev on the podium was Sun, who finished second to take his first podium on his debut weekend, and Yu.

Yang Kaiwen started from reverse-grid pole for the final race of the season. Liu Shangqing, who started second, overtook Yang for the lead at Turn 3. Chan, starting ninth, was on a charge and had made up seven positions to run second by the end of lap one. On the third lap, Chan overtook Liu for the lead, while contact between new champion Shagaliev and Chen Sicong at the first corner caused both to retire and brought out the safety car.

Chan held the lead at the restart and kept his position until the end, winning the final race of the season. Yu came home second, while Liu finished third to take his and T-1 Racing’s first podium in the series.

Consistency was key for Shagaliev, who finished the season with 374 points, 19 podiums and six wins. Second-placed Chan took nine wins, four further podiums and 365 points, while Yu scored two wins, 12 further podiums and 305 points.

Champ Academy and Black Blade Racing both scored 554 points, but Champ clinched the teams’ title with 12 wins compared to Black Blade’s four. Asia Racing Team RFN rounded out the top three, just five points behind them.

Report by Kaylene Lau

Results	P1	P2	P3
Qualifying 1	Timur Shagaliev, 1:38.966	Kimi Chan, +0.383s	Yu Yan, +0.463s
Qualifying 2	Timur Shagaliev, 1:38.986	Chen Sicong, +0.045s	Sun Anzhe, +0.451s
Race 1 (18 laps)	Timur Shagaliev, 35:12.402	Yu Yan, +0.462s	Kimi Chan, +1.444s
Race 2 (12 laps)	Kimi Chan, 34:53.597	Timur Shagaliev, +0.317s	Yu Yan, +0.913s
Race 3 (15 laps)	Timur Shagaliev, 29:40.002	Sun Anzhe, +0.350s	Yu Yan, +2.124s
Race 4 (17 laps)	Kimi Chan, 32:26.972	Yu Yan, +5.056s	Liu Shangqing, +6.108s

Standings	Drivers	Teams
P1	Timur Shagaliev, 374	Champ Academy, 554
P2	Kimi Chan, 365	Black Blade Racing, 554
P3	Yu Yan, 305	Asia Racing Team RFN, 549
P4	Chen Sicong, 249	Blackjack Racing RFN, 227
P5	Chen Zhuyuan, 210	Pointer Racing, 113
P6	Zhao Zijun, 189	Black Blade GP, 72
P7	Josh Feng, 175	Kai Fei Academy, 69
P8	Yuanyang Zeshi, 75	T-1 Racing, 52
P9	Alfred Lao, 69	Black Blade Junior Team, 43
P10	Zhang Jun, 67	Kai Fei Motorsport, 34

Read the previous round’s report here.

Header photo credit: Gavin Baker Photography