LEEDS, Ala. — Jack Speth kept his championship hopes alive with a Race 1 win in the Ligier Junior Formula Championship (Ligier JFC) Gen. 2 class at Barber Motorsports Park.
Completing a last-lap pass to overtake his championship rival, the Kiwi Motorsport driver moved within six points of the championship lead with one race remaining in the season.
The fight for the Ligier JFC Gen. 2 championship will go down to the final race of the season with Jack Speth narrowing the margin to just six points, as Edward Kennedy continues to lead the standings.
Jack Speth scored his fourth win of the 2026 season with a last-lap pass at Barber Motorsports Park.
Beckham Jacir won his 12th race of the season. Already confirmed as the 2026 Ligier JFC Gen. 1 class champion, Jacir has won every race since Round 9 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in June.
Ava Hanssen tied her career-best finish with a second-place result at Barber. Hanssen is third in the championship standings ahead of tomorrow’s season finale.
Finishing third, AJ Abdullah earned his fourth podium of the season.
Both Team Championships will go down to the final race of the season, with MLT Motorsports currently leading Kiwi Motorsport by six points in the Gen. 2 class, and Champagne Racing leading Berg Racing by just seven points in the Gen. 1 class.
Starting from the pole, Beckham Jacir (No. 7 Stonica / Bell / OMP / P1DOKS / Behind the Wheel / Champagne Racing Ligier JS F4) pulled into the point position as soon as the lights went out. Behind him, third-place starter Ava Hanssen (No. 26 One Powersports / Chiropractic Center of Elkhorn / NGK / Badger Mats Ligier JS F4) pulled wheel to wheel to challenge second-place starter, Lazaro Bainotti (No. 11 Fundacion Fangio Rus seguros Cordoba deportes / Speed Factory Ligier JS F4), but Bainotti held on to the position as they raced through Turn 1. While the front three settled into position, Gen. 2 drivers Edward Kennedy (No. 30 MLT Motorsports Ligier JS F422), Jack Speth (No. 07 Kiwi Motorsport Ligier JS F422) and Ben Ramirez (No. 32 U.S. Air Force / RASE Motorsports Ligier JS F422) worked through the field, with Kennedy passing Jacir to take the race lead before the completion of the fifth lap.
Kennedy, the Gen. 2 championship leader, had opened up more than a five-second gap before a full-course caution regrouped the field. With everyone stacked up nose to stern and less than three minutes left on the clock, the two-lap dash to the finish line teed up plenty of drama before the checkered flag waved. Racing toward the white flag, Bainotti went wide exiting Turn 17, dropping a wheel off the racing surface, allowing Hanssen, AJ Abdullah (No. 21 Freedom Detox / Grid State Digital / Berg Racing Ligier JS F4) and Alexander Savage (No. 33 KymaBoats.com / Triple Aim Medical Solutions / Nature Coast Health Care / G Tech Motorsports Ligier JS F4) to drive by. In the Gen. 2 class, Kennedy led as they took the white flag, but Speth wasn’t going down without a fight. Applying pressure through Turn 1, he hit his marks for the next few turns before sending it into Turn 6 to overtake the lead.
As the checkered flag waved, Speth led Kennedy in the Gen. 2 class, while Jacir led Hanssen and Abdullah in the Gen. 1 class.
“It was a very eventful race,” said Speth. “I tried to put the pressure on in Turn 1, but it didn’t work, so I just focused on the exit of 2 and 3 and figured I had nothing to lose going into the hairpin. So, I decided that I’d either go out with a bang or just go home—go big or go home. I sent it into the hairpin and it stuck. [The championship] is all coming down to Sunday. I have to thank my mom—she finally made it out this weekend—my dad, and the entire Kiwi Motorsport team, especially Brock and Jackson.”
“Barber Motorsports Park is a great track,” said Jacir after climbing from the car. “It’s definitely one of my favorites. Compared to this morning’s qualifying, the weather was a little hotter. I knew tire management was always going to be a part of the game in this race. We had a good start and took over the pace. There was a full-course yellow, so I tried to keep my tires clean during that. We didn’t get the best restart after that, either, so I had to do some defending, but we got it, though. It was a good race.”
