Fahey secures Australian FF1600 title while Buchan wins round on debut

Queenslander Dylan Fahey overcame the odds to become the 2018 Australian Formula Ford Champion in the FF1600 class over the weekend. “We came into this weekend, we knew we had an opportunity to take the championship and we sort of were a little off the pace. But we got better and better throughout the weekend and we ended taking it out, so that’s great", said the newly crowned Kent champion. Fahey defended his points buffer by staying consistently ahead of Robert Rowe and Jason Liddell, who eventually finished second and third in the championship respectively. Rowe and Liddell relentlessly gathered points all year long and were rewarded for their efforts. Tim Hamilton had a shocking run of luck all weekend, after coming into the final round at Sydney Motorsport Park as a true title contender. Hamilton had a wild moment into the first corner in race one, which then left him without the nose of his Spectrum, killing his straight-line performance for the remainder of the race. In race two, he suffered a brake failure on the opening lap and hit the barriers on the outside of turn two. Hamilton climbed out of his car under his own steam and was uninjured. His Spectrum, though, was a little worse for wear after the impact, meaning the Gold Coast-based driver would have to sit on the sidelines for race three, evaporating his 2018 title hopes. Dylan Fahey is the second Queenslander to win the FF1600 title, after Mitch Maddren last year. Despite all the attention around the title race, Josh Buchan was the standout performer all weekend in the FF1600 class. The Listec Race Cars driver dominated proceedings to clean sweep his debut round in the national field. Buchan demonstrated that he will be one to watch in the future, with his raw speed and consistency. "We knew we would be fast, so the plan was to hit the ground running, knowing that those guys [Fahey and Hamilton] probably had the championship on their mind rather than the round win, which was in mine!", said an elated Buchan. Buchan's stellar performance was also the maiden round win for a Listec Formula Ford at national level, a major milestone for Sydney-based manufacturer Paul Liston, who has been building Formula Ford race cars for decades. The Australian FF1600 Championship will return in 2019 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Formula Ford racing in Australia. The FF1600 class will kick off the year at the Bathurst 12 Hour event in February, with over 50 cars expected to hit the mountain.

2018 Australian FF1600 Standings (top five) Dylan Fahey - 140 pts Robert Rowe - 120 pts Jason Liddell - 105 pts Tim Hamilton - 100 pts Josh Buchan - 61 pts