Formula Ford 1600 racer James Wren, from Fareham, had his hopes of a points finish dashed at Castle Combe on Monday, forced to complete his qualifying laps on an oil-soaked track thanks to the thoughtless actions of a rival.

Fareham’s James Wren again displayed top ten potential in round seven of the Castle Combe Formula Ford 1600 Championship, but his chances of a points finish were wrecked by the selfishness of another driver.

Wren had made several changes to his car since the last race, and had to spend the first four laps of qualifying bedding-in a new set of brake pads while his rivals were able to put in fast laps right from the start of the session.

Just as James prepared to go for a quick time, newcomer Peter Chambers suffered a massive engine failure, and chose to drive around the whole circuit rather than pulling straight off the road. Inevitably, this coated Castle Combe with engine oil, turning the circuit into a skating rink.

“I don’t want to go finding excuses,” insisted James, “but the circuit was so slippery. I can’t believe he didn’t pull off, he must have realised what he was doing.”

Wren was left in 21st on the 32-car grid, a respectable result given that his best lap was achieved on an oil-drenched track. Experienced drivers suggested that the oil spill was costing them 4-5s every lap, so Wren could have qualified as high as eighth.

The Combe series is the most competitive regional Formula Ford championship in the country by a long way. This is only the third race James has contested in 1999, and his limited budget does not allow him to test between meetings. Many of his rivals work at the circuit racing school, so have virtually unlimited access to the track.

In such difficult circumstances, it was always going to be hard to make any impression from 21st on the grid. Wren made a good start to move up to 19th, and then held the position for the rest of the race.

Normally you can rely on carnage amongst the frontrunners at Combe, but they were extraordinarily well-behaved on this occasion, so James had to be content with winning a tense battle with Gavin Rissone for the 19th spot. Not what he had been expecting, but hardly a disaster.

“It was a good race. I was quicker than Rissone, but I kept making mistakes and letting him catch me again,” James explained. “When you’re running in a pack of cars, you tend to get dragged along with the group, but it’s hard to go that quickly on your own. Qualifying higher is the key, I just need more time in the car. I lost a lot of time early on and although I was going as fast as a big group of cars in front of me, I was too far behind them. Anyway, the car is going better all the time and there’s still more to come. We should be scoring points before the end of the year.”