CASSEY Watson stormed into third place in the 750 motorclub's SAXMAX championship last weekend after claiming her first podium finish of the season to add to a sixth place finish in the two rounds held at Pembrey in South Wales.

In Saturday's first race, contact in the first corner dropped 14-year-old Vale racer down to 13th place. But, by mid race distance, she had worked her way back up to eighth only for the race to be halted due to an incident.

At the restart, Watson was forced to start in 12th but, in the space of just five laps, the teenager had made her way back through the field to finish sixth of the 23 Citroen Saxo VTRs.

Sunday's race saw the Vale teenager line up fifth on the grid following a strong qualifying performance.

An exciting and closely-contested battle then took place over 11 laps with Watson finishing third in the race and more importantly moving into third spot n the championship.

"I am thrilled," she declared. "This is only my fifth ever car race and, to already be in this position is beyond my wildest dreams.

"Unfortunately, it is already almost impossible to win the championship as the leader has won every round but I am now only seven points behind second and that has to be my goal."

The Evesham driver is the youngest driver in the top five with the other four rivals all 16 or 17.

She is also the highest placed girl in every round band added: "I am not a girl driver, I'm a racing driver, so I have to beat everybody!"

Watson will be back on the track this weekend after accepting an invitation to race in the Sony Playstation Junior Ginetta Celebrity Car in the British festival at Silverstone.