Brady Golan’s hunt to seal the 2026 FR Americas championship came down to the final lap of the weekend at VIR in September, in a moment that was the culmination of a season underlined by increased consistency and relentless pace. Feeder Series sat down with Golan just days after he won the title to discuss his FR season, his experiences in other series and the dramatic overtake that led to his crowning as champion.

By Owen White

From Brady Golan’s debut weekend in Formula Regional Americas competition last year, it was clear that the Texan had the pace to run with the best. He scored his maiden victory in just his second race at NOLA Motorsport Park – the first of two wins and five total podiums throughout his rookie campaign.

Golan’s sophomore season in the series with Toney Driver Development was defined by a quest to find consistency, a trait he perfected throughout a dominant summer stretch. With that, he became a force to be reckoned with, running away with the championship and clinching it with a round to spare.

“Last year we showed a lot of pace throughout the year and we showed lots of highlights, but we also had a lot of lowlights,” Golan told Feeder Series. “This year was much more polished. Our worst days were a lot higher than our worst days last year.”

Indeed, Golan’s five podiums in 2025 were offset by nine results outside of the top five, leading to a championship finish of fifth. By contrast, Golan has had only four results lower than fifth in the 2026 season so far, including only one since the championship’s second round in May.

Golan’s rapid summer, which included five wins and six further podiums in a 13-race span, was headlined by a sweep of the weekend at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in June.

“This year was about polishing our season from last year, pretty much, and I think that this year’s Indianapolis was a polished version of last year’s Indianapolis,” Golan said.

Although the swing in points in Golan’s favour occurred that weekend, the Texan insisted that the speed had been there since the beginning. There was no change in pace shown, but rather more consistency.

“I wouldn’t say we particularly had a momentum shift,” Golan said. “We were able to elevate our low days into being higher than the other guys’ low days.”

Golan’s ability to turn even his weaker performances into solid finishes played a crucial role in his championship hunt. After Indianapolis, he chased down and surpassed title rival Evagoras Papasavvas, who was plagued by five non-scoring results in the eight-race span from New Jersey Motorsport Park to Virginia International Raceway that followed.

It was there at VIR that Golan entered with a chance – albeit a slim one – to clinch the title before even arriving at the final round at Barber. Entering the penultimate weekend of the season, he led by just 10.5 points, but his second-place finish in race one, along with Papasavvas’ non-scoring finish as a result of contact, stretched the gap to 28.5 points. Although Papasavvas passed Golan early in race two, he later crashed into the barriers at Turn 12, turning Golan’s unlikely opportunity into a realistic one.

The stage was set perfectly as race two progressed, with Golan needing to win to clinch the championship and only Papasavvas’ teammate Kekai Hauanio separating the Texan from the top position. If that wasn’t dramatic enough, a subsequent caution period meant that the race would be decided in a one-lap shootout. Golan picks up the story from there.

“I remember trying to get a good restart, and we had a decent run out of the final corner. I remember seeing the green-and-white flag thrown at the same time, so I knew it was one lap left and I needed to win to clinch for Barber. And I remember having a run on [Hauanio] and popping out to the outside of Turn 1, and then as soon as he went to defend, I faked to the inside and lunged on him on the brakes, and then I was able to hold him off for the rest of the lap and come home leading the race and ultimately clinched the championship.”

The final race before Golan went from contender to champion was not streamed. Although TDD kept Golan aware of the championship situation as the laps ticked down, the result still came as a joyful surprise to both Golan and his team, who hadn’t come in expecting to be crowned champions before the season’s closing round.

“We knew that it was a possibility to go and leave the weekend as champions, but obviously we didn’t expect it,” Golan said. “I remember being a bit scared getting out of the car because if the race isn’t green for more than half of the laps, there’s a chance that the race is only half points, and I remember we weren’t sure if the race was going to be half points or not. I wanted to celebrate, but I also didn’t want to celebrate too soon and have the championship taken away.”

Those were, for two hours at least, wise words. An hour after the chequered flag flew, it was announced that Crosslink Motorsports had filed a protest on Hauanio’s behalf against Golan and TDD. A penalty headed Golan’s way would have delayed the celebrations until the Barber round. But one hour after that, at 17:01 local, the protest was withdrawn, erasing any remaining doubt regarding the security of Golan’s championship.

Alongside the title-winning FR campaign, Golan also competed in USF Pro 2000 throughout the year with Turn 3 Motorsport, scoring a best finish of fifth place on two occasions, including in the Freedom 90 at Lucas Oil Raceway en route to a ninth-place finish in the championship. Golan, who has spent four seasons on the IndyCar ladder across all three USF series, finished ninth in the championship.

The schedules aligned well for Golan to run all FR Americas events and all but  the first Road America event of USF Pro 2000, which clashed with the Indianapolis round he swept. Still, he emphasised the difficulties with running multiple full-season programmes simultaneously.

“We had a mid-season test in Road America and I had to leave a day early to go to Mid-Ohio in Formula Regional,” he said. “Whenever you do two programmes, one ultimately has to be the priority and one ultimately suffers a little bit, and I think we’ve definitely seen that this year in Pro 2000.”

Golan’s time behind the wheel wasn’t limited to open-wheel machinery, however. The 19-year-old also got the opportunity to drive an LMP3 car in the IMSA SportsCar Challenge with TDD in January at Daytona International Speedway under the guidance of team owner Nathan Toney, who has served as an engineer and strategist for Inter Europol Competition in the past two years.

Golan finished second in the first race and nearly won race two before a late incident took him out of contention. Still, he took away positives from the experience.

“Knowing that we can be quick in whatever we were in at TDD,” Golan said, ”helped build some confidence going into the first round at NOLA,”

Among the three cars, it wasn’t the two open-wheel cars that Golan found to be the most similar to drive, but rather the FR car and the prototype.

“The Pro 2000 and Formula Regional cars are very, very different, and I think that’s something that I’ve struggled to balance shifting back and forth between,” he said. “The LMP3 and the FR were pretty similar, so I thought they were complementary to each other.”

With a successful season now almost in the rear-view mirror, Golan has already begun to look forward to 2027, now aided by the $100,000 FR Americas scholarship prize. Although Golan wasn’t able to share his exact plans yet, he assured Feeder Series that he would be back in a car next year.

In the meantime, one final round remains in the FR Americas season at Barber this weekend For Golan, it will serve as a victory lap of sorts to cap off a superb season with TDD, whom he credited for his success.

“I’m really happy. All of the guys at TDD have worked insanely hard over these last two years to build such a great programme and help develop a lot of guys,” Golan said. “They deserve the world.”

Interview by Michael McClure

Header photo credit: Gavin Baker