Australian Formula 3: Calan Williams takes out championship at 16

DESPITE still one more round to race, Calan Williams has won this year’s Australian Formula 3 Premier Series at just 16 years of age.

The Edgewater youngster travelled to Queensland Raceway – the familiar home track of his Gilmour Racing team – on the weekend for round five of the series.

“My lead in the series going into the event meant that if I secured 26 points from a possible 48 for the weekend, I would secure the title with a round still to go in October,” Williams said.

Starting the event with a “good” practice session on Friday, where he was “very close” to setting the F3 record, Williams said he was “pleased with the preparation”.

Qualifying was a bit more eventful.

“I managed to set a lap of 1:04.5 to take pole position from my teammate and former Australian F3 champion Chris Gilmour,” he said.

“Pushing for an even quicker final lap, I found the limit around 200km/h at turn one and sent the car into a full 360-degree spin on exit.

“I managed to catch the car and after a brief stall, was able to bring it back into the pits for the team to check over.”

The car was cleared for race one where Gilmour took the lead out of the gate but by turn three, Williams had pushed ahead, holding the lead for 15 laps to win the race and 14 points.

“With 12 points then required for the championship, a win in race two would be enough to secure the title,” he said.

Race two was not the same start for Williams, but after a few laps, he was able to make his way through to take the lead.

He went on to win the race, making him this year’s F3 champion.

He still had a third race to run, which was again a battle with Gilmour, with the lead changing several times but Williams proved too strong to take a clean sweep of the round.

Williams said he was “over the moon”.

“It could not have been possible without Errol and all of the team at Gilmour Racing who have provided me with a perfectly prepared car race after race, so it’s not just my win; its ours,” he said.

“There is so much more than racing on the track that goes into this and there is a huge amount of work off the track and so many people who help me with this in so many ways, so thank you to every one of you.”