Callum Williamson fights his way through the pack to claim third at Pro Sprints Championship

Geraldton’s Callum Williamson claimed third place at the Australian Pro Sprints Championship after fighting his way up the grid from 10th place on Saturday night.

The Pro Sprints took place at Murray Bridge raceway in Victoria with qualifying and heats taking place across Friday and Saturday culminating in a 40-lap feature for the title.

Williamson was on the back foot early caught up in one of the many instances in racing on night one and had to retire because of some minor damage.

It left him 11th on points after night one but fortunately, the team was able to turn the car around and get it ready for night two.

Despite avoiding trouble in the final round of heats Williamson was unable to improve much on his starting position qualifying 10th for the feature.

Mark Caruso was crowned the champion after passing pole-sitter Rusty Hickman with five laps to go after Hickman made a mistake rounding turn four.

Due to multiple restarts Williamson was able to keep tabs on the front runners and picked his way though the field to work his way into a podium position.

Williamson was delighted with the result after starting from 10th on the grid.

“I’m pretty happy about this result after starting so deep in the A-Main. To get through a few cars and end up where we were is pretty good considering on the first night we got tangled up and didn’t get to finish,” he said.

“We just slowly made our way through the field, we ended up having a great dice with Lachy (McHugh) but I managed to get past him after that last restart. This is just a great result for this race team.”

Williamson’s third placing made him the first driver since the introduction of the Australian 360ci/Prosprints Championship in 2004 to record a podium result in both Australian Championships (410ci/Prosprints) in the same season mirroring his third placing at the Perth Motorplex in February.

It was not easy run into the finish with former national champion Ryan Jones hitting the wall in turn four while he was involved in a titanic battle for the final podium spot with Williamson and Lachlan McHugh.

It left a five-lap sprint to the line between Williamson and McHugh for the final podium position with Williamson coming away with the trophy.