Fareham’s James Wren came from the back of the grid to finish 17th in the Midlands Formula Ford race at Silverstone on Sunday. It was his first experience of both wet weather racing and the Silverstone National circuit.

Fareham’s James Wren braved wet conditions to come from the penultimate row of the grid to 17th in the Star of the Midlands Formula Ford race on Sunday. It was the first time he had raced in the rain since his karting days.

Wren’s main objective was to finish the race and earn another signature on his competition license. All new drivers have to finish a certain number of races before they can upgrade their license and take part in higher forms of motorsport. No heroics were expected therefore, especially as James had never driven on the Silverstone National circuit, but he still had no idea just how difficult qualifying would be.

“It was nice and sunny so I just concentrated on finding my way around the track at first,” he recalled. “Then I realised that the car was bouncing around a lot, and the brakes kept locking. I worked out I must have a puncture so I cruised round to do the regulation three laps that you have to do to qualify for the race, then pitted. The tyre was as flat as a pancake, and by the time we’d checked the car, there was no time to get out again.”

Despite being effectively on three wheels, Wren qualified his Fareham Van Hire-backed Van Diemen 30th on the 32-car grid. Not ideal, but very respectable in the circumstances. Incidentally, when he came in to check the tyre, he stopped in the same pit box used by Damon Hill in this year’s British Grand Prix.

A downpour just before the race soaked the ‘Home of British Motor Racing.’ Wren’s only experience of his Dalmeny Racing Van Diemen in wet conditions had come in a brief test in 1998, so he was now really up against it. In his karting days however, James was renowned as a wet weather specialist and he duly made an excellent start.

“I got ahead of a few people off the line, but then visibility was absolutely zero in the first corner so I lifted off a bit,” he said. “I got through okay and saw this pile of cars on the left. There had been a nine-car accident so I was glad I backed off. I passed a few more people on the first lap but then they stopped the race.”

Although he had made it up into the top twenty, the restart was based on qualifying order, so James was back in 30th on the grid. With the race shortened to eight laps he had little time to make progress but still fought his way through to 17th place.

“I know every racing driver says this, but I really could have gone quicker,” James said after the race. “I’m racing at Castle Combe next weekend so I didn’t want to risk the car, especially after driving past that big accident. Some of the cars were wrecked so I’m really pleased I avoided it. I don’t really like racing in the rain, simply because you can’t see and you get soaked in the car. I’m quite happy to race on a slippery track though, and the racing itself was good fun. I realised that if you put people under pressure they spin off, which is a tactic I hadn’t tried in FFord before. We’ve learnt a lot about racing in the wet as well, so I’ll be quite confident if it rains at Combe on Saturday.”