After nearly a year away from racing, Fareham’s James Wren returned to action in the Castle Combe Formula Ford 1600 series on Sunday and showed no loss of speed despite his lengthy absence.

Wren’s last race had been in September 1998. The inexperienced driver had made an enormous amount of progress during the season but his Van Diemen RF92 had been extensively modified by a previous owner and James wanted to return it to its original specification. If he was to make the final leap forward and become a top ten contender, Wren had to be sure he understood the car.

Therefore, for the past nine months, Wren and his Dalmeny Racing team have been going back to basics, not only returning the car to RF92-spec, but giving it a thorough rebuild in the process.

Backed by local company Fareham Van Hire, James qualified 22nd in the 30 car field, an encouraging performance after nine months away. It was also his first race at Castle Combe since the circuit layout was modified over the winter. The changes haven’t been popular with everyone, but Wren had no complaints.

“I like the new chicanes,” he said after qualifying. “It’s harder to overtake now but there’s a lot more going on, you’re always working away at the steering.”

He avoided the chaos on the first lap to move up to 19th place, and drove a consistent race. His best lap time was a full five seconds quicker than his fastest qualifying lap, proving that all James needed was more mileage in the car.

He eventually finished 18th, just 0.2s behind Mike Lynch after a close battle in the dying stages. More importantly, James had finished the race without any problems and avoided being lapped.

“The plan for today was to go steady and see if anything fell off the car,” Wren admitted. “At least now we understand the car better and know what we’re working with. We can build up from here.”

The Castle Combe series is the most competitive Formula Ford 1600 championship in the country by a long way, and it won’t be easy for James Wren and Dalmeny Racing to break into the top ten. However, judging by the incredible amount of work they have carried out over the past nine months, both James and his team are ready for the challenge. On present form, it won’t be long before the immaculate Fareham Van Hire-backed Van Diemen is hassling the old hands at the front of the field.