Fareham’s James Wren had one of his most spectacular races to date at Castle Combe last weekend, but the Formula Ford 1600 driver was left frustrated by a tyre problem in race two.

Fareham’s James Wren again showed plenty of potential in the final rounds of the Castle Combe Formula Ford 1600 series last weekend, but did not get the results that his speed merited.

Although Wren qualified 18th in Saturday’s practice session, he was pleased to note that he had set his fastest lap times to date around the 1.9-mile Wiltshire track.

“It’s a good time, but this is when it gets really hard,” he said. “We’re nearly there, the car’s working and I’m getting back into it, but those last couple of seconds are the hardest to find.”

He made rapid progress in the early stages of the race and got as high as 14th before errors at the Esses and Camp dropped him back down the order. An oil spill in the closing stages hardly helped matters, and Wren would have to be content with holding off Alan Slater for 17th position.

“It was an exciting race anyway,” James said. “But I had a big lock-up at the Esses and then had another off at Camp. I’ve been more aggressive with the car this weekend, but I just managed to fill my car with grass that time. I would have been much happier if I had been able to hold onto 14th, but I made the mistakes so I can’t complain.”

Sunday’s race was more disappointing, as Wren found himself struggling badly with his tyres early on, losing places in the opening laps as he fought for grip.

“We wondered if it might be some reaction in the rubber to the oil that went down yesterday,” he explained. “It was like driving on really cold tyres, I had no grip at all for the first few laps, then they gradually started working properly. I was too far behind by then though.”

Luckily for James, attrition among the frontrunners allowed him to finish 15th overall, or 10th in his class. He was unable to achieve his aim of scoring points by the end of the season, but had come close enough to suggest that all he required to do so was a little good fortune.

Richard Carter won the overall FF1600 title in Sunday’s race, but four years ago he had been struggling to break into the top twenty, and that was after he had done nearly a decade of racing. James Wren has yet to complete his first full season in car racing and is already knocking on the door of the top ten. His time will surely come sooner rather than later.