Title Fight Goes to Finale as Anderson Edges Clear

Photo: Mustang Cup Australia

The battle for the inaugural Motorcraft Mustang Cup Australia series title will go down to the wire at Sandown Raceway in November after a tense penultimate round at Sydney Motorsport Park last weekend.

Young Triple Eight protege Oli Wickham and series leader Josh Anderson claimed the two race wins, but there were plenty of stories up and down the field as the pressure mounts toward crowning the inaugural champions at Sandown in November.

Title protagonists Anderson and Joe Fawcett were rarely far from each other on the track, and the pair will enter the final round separated by just 44 points.

While some Sydney focus was on the title chase, Wickham was setting the pace — the 17-year-old secured the Ford Insure Pole Award for both races, earning a bonus $2000 incentive from Driving Solutions for achieving the feat.

Wickham capitalized on his front row slot in Saturday’s Johnson Cup race, claiming a lights-to-flag victory, resisting the consistent efforts of Ford Racing Driver Development Team driver Cameron McLeod.

Fawcett finished third, executing a great pass on series leader Anderson, who came home fourth ahead of brothers Josh and series debutant Pat Trappett.

In Sunday’s Ambrose Cup race, Wickham started from pole and led much of the race until Anderson made a move at the halfway point of the race.

Despite some trailing bodywork from earlier encounters, Anderson built a margin and held on until the end. Wickham crossed the line second ahead of Pat Trappett, recording an amazing third place finish in his Mustang Cup debut.

Meanwhile, Fawcett battled with a gearbox glitch that caused him to finish fourth, giving away precious points to title leader Anderson that he could ill-afford.

In the Dark Horse Legends class, Ben Dunn won both of the weekend’s races despite category debutant Ben Kavich taking the class pole position for both races.

As with the outright championship fight, the battle for the Dark Horse Legends title is set to go all the way to the final race at the historic Sandown Raceway as part of the Shannons SpeedSeries season-closing event on Oct. 30-Nov. 1.

Source: Sports Car 365