After another charging drive from a lowly grid position Fareham’s James Wren scorched through the field to take 16th place despite a troubled qualifying session in the third round of the Castle Combe Formula Ford 1600 Championship.

After the success and promise of the first round Wren was finding the going tough. Poor qualifying performances were still hampering him, James leaving himself too much to do in the short sprint races by starting well down the field in his Fareham Van Hire-backed Van Diemen.

Wren qualified only 21st on the 30-car grid in qualifying after again not being able to realise his pace in qualifying. With some changes being made to the car to try to solve some of the problems that qualifying had shown, the race began well. An excellent start and an aggressive first few laps saw Wren fast moving up the order.

"I’d made a pretty good start and I was able to pass several cars, but I lost some time dicing with them. When I’d managed to get though the group I was in I had about 5-6 seconds to make up to the next car. I caught the next two cars in about 3 laps, but by this point there were only two laps left. I was about to make a move on the first of the two cars but as I did he made a mistake going into camp corner and spun. I had no where to go but off the track to avoid him, when I rejoined I had no chance to catch up again.

Wren has again shown his ability to put in the fast laps and pass cars when the opportunity arises.

"We’re definitely moving in the right direction and making progress. I just need to work on qualifying so I don’t keep giving myself too much to do in the races. We are going testing as soon as possible to try to solve the poor qualifying performances. We have in listed the help of some top drives for this problem, we should be able to solve with their help"

That is easier said than done, for Wren’s tight budget means that he cannot afford to test as regularly as the frontrunners. Most of the top drivers spend a full day at the circuit practising immediately before the meeting, allowing them to fine tune their cars in advance, whereas James’ finances will not stretch that far, forcing him to rely on educated guesswork for a qualifying set-up. As his spectacular charges up the order in the first three races this year has proved, Wren lacks nothing in speed and aggression, he just needs more luck, experience and sponsorship.