Fareham’s James Wren took another step closer to the frontrunners in the Castle Combe Formula Ford 1600 Championship in the May Day bank holiday round of England’s toughest regional motor racing series.

Returning to the circuits after a two-year enforced absence (due to an unfortunate combination of a heavy accident and the pressures of finishing an engineering degree), Wren secured a breakthrough result in April’s second round of the championship, charging from 21st on the grid to a points-paying ninth position. Running on a tight budget with his small family-based Dalmeny Racing team, James is trying to make progress this season while chasing the moving target of rivals with professional teams behind them and state-of-the-art cars underneath them. Nevertheless, Monday’s qualifying session saw another step forward, Wren putting himself 17th on the 37-car grid.

“Qualifying was better for me this time,” admitted James, who has traditionally struggled to get in the psychotic frame of mind required for practice and thus given himself too much to do in the cut-and-thrust of the race, where he truly excels. “I was being more aggressive than previously and the times were much better, although I could certainly have gone up to a second faster but for some situations with traffic and warning flags. Still it’s always nice to have more cars behind you than there are in front.”

That elusive second would have put Wren in the top ten, but as it was he was hoping to rely on a lightning getaway to vault his lustrous green Van Diemen up with the frontrunners. Aided by recent starting practice in his road car (the only option for a driver whose budget restricts his testing mileage), James stormed past the surrounding cars on the run to the first corner, only to be edged towards the grass and see all his hard work negated.

“The start was really good, but unfortunately Nick Parsons kept coming across the road towards me and I had to put two wheels on the grass,” he explained. “Obviously it’s hard to keep on the power when one of your driven wheels is off the road, so I lost all my momentum and was about 21st by the time I got going.

“I made some places back in the usual first corner melee, but unfortunately after that it turned into one of those uneventful races, mainly because I was stuck behind Andrew Miles for nearly seven laps. He was slower than me but being very aggressive in his positioning of the car. His defensive driving was actually slowing him down, and we were building quite a train of cars behind us.”

Still somewhat reluctant at this stage in his comeback to try desperate manoeuvres on the obstructive, Wren remained frustrated in the traffic jam behind Miles until the closing stages. Taking superlative speed through the fast and daunting Camp corner (“I’m sure I’m a match for the leaders through there!”), James finally got a run on Miles and took the position on the outside of the flat-out Foley kink, a move strictly for the courageous.

“Miles was still jinking towards me even then, so once I was ahead I made sure there was no room for him to come back at me and by the end of the lap he was a long way behind,” said Wren. “I was catching the next group quickly but ran out of laps and had to settle for 15th.”

Although the final result may have been slightly disappointing, his times were closer than ever to the leaders’ pace, suggesting a swift return to his former position in the thick of the top ten action. In the meantime, a new challenge awaits James as he takes on some ‘away’ races on the famous Silverstone Grand Prix circuit and at the awesomely fast Thruxton track.