Fareham-based racing driver James Wren endured atrocious conditions and staggering official pedantry as he made his motorsport comeback at Silverstone on Sunday – seven months after a large aerial accident at Castle Combe that left the Formula Ford 1600 racer facing a winter of soul searching and repair work.

Few racing drivers have suffered the level of misfortune that dogged Wren in 2003. Having taken two years out to finish his degree and repair damage his Dalmeny Racing Van Diemen RF92 sustained in early 2001, James was extremely eager to get back on track last season. He returned to his habitual place in the top ten within just two races, only to twice get caught up in substantial and destructive accidents that were not his fault. The second and most galling incident came at Combe in September. Having just finished rebuilding his car after being put into the barriers at Thruxton, James was tipped into a violent roll at the circuit’s Bobbies chicane. As well as the expensive repairs his Van Diemen inevitably required, James had a few health concerns of his own in the aftermath of the incident. Although he briefly contemplated the prospect of stopping racing, his enthusiasm for FF1600 brought him and his family back to the paddock this weekend, their green Van Diemen resplendent once more.

“It would have been a knee jerk reaction to stop,” he said. “Undergoing the medical tests was a little scary and my family were very concerned, and all the weekends and evenings spent rebuilding the car weren’t easy, but we knew in our hearts that we enjoy FF1600 racing too much to walk away.”

After all that he had gone through to get to Silverstone, it was brutally unfair that James was then twice excluded from the meeting before being allowed to race. The FF1600 event was a guest event on the prestigious British Formula Three programme, so the drivers were dealing with a different group of organising officials to the British Racing and Sports Car Club representatives who normally look after their interests. The unfamiliar scrutineers repeatedly misinterpreted the technical regulations before the race, not just illegally excluding James and other racers for technical changes that were not in fact against the rules, but also treating the drivers (their customers) in a demeaning and sometimes aggressive manner. Assistance from the BRSCC and Ford finally resolved the situation, but this was a regrettable incident that will discourage many FF1600 competitors from racing at Silverstone again.

“I can’t say enough about how good the Ford representative was, and the BRSCC staff were also excellent,” said James. “But the F3 race is the best chance for the Silverstone people to show how big, powerful and important they are, and we really think that is what they were doing. We were polite, listened to what they had to say, and they treated us forcefully and aggressively. It was a shame to have to go through all that hassle just to be allowed to race.”

With this distressing backdrop it was easy to forget that the teams were there to actually race. Heavy rain and strong winds made Silverstone extraordinarily difficult last weekend, and James played himself in gently during qualifying to secure 19th on the grid.

“The car actually handled really well and functioned beautifully, but I didn’t try and push too hard because after last year I just wanted to get a race under my belt for now,” he said.

The weather flirted with improving during the afternoon, only for the rain to return with a vengeance just before the start. Conditions got so bad that the whole meeting was abandoned immediately after Wren’s race, but the FF1600 competitors did themselves proud by producing a clean and exciting contest.

“I made up a couple of places off the line, but then halfway down the main straight it became obvious just how bad the conditions were,” James recounted. “At first I lost sight of the other cars’ safety lights, then the track itself and finally I couldn’t see my own hands on the steering wheel!

“Passing is very difficult in these conditions as it’s hard to overtake a car when you can’t see where it is! We were going two abreast round the fast Copse corner without even knowing we had… Even with our fully wet set-up it was difficult to put the power down even in a straight line.”

James eventually finished a promising 15th – not what he had become accustomed to before the recent accidents but a good result on such a difficult day and one that bodes well for the rest of his comeback season.

“We learnt a lot, and picked up some things that will help us with speed in the slow corners when we get back to racing at Castle Combe. The race was actually a really exhilarating and enjoyable experience. It was great to see such an excellent field, and that the racing was so clean – everyone was giving each other plenty of space in the conditions.”

To be able to draw positives from such a tricky weekend is a tribute to Wren’s approach to racing, and also makes it doubly sad that the officials treated him in such a disrespectful manner. The biggest threat to the health of UK motorsport is the current drop-off in competitor numbers (thankfully not in FF1600), the organising clubs can ill afford to offend diehard enthusiasts such as James and his team.

With the tribulations of Silverstone behind him, Wren is now looking forward to returning to Castle Combe for the Spring Bank Holiday meeting, where hopefully he will be able to show the form that took him to 11th (out of 50+ entrants) in the 2000 championship.