Ben Warren

**Ben Warren**

Superleague Career
Nationality	British
Active Years	2
Team(s)	Constant Racing, ST Racing, Triple-Double Racing, Nijo Racing
Grand Prix	7
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podium finishes	0
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0
First Grand Prix	Mexico 2010 Superleague
First Win	0
Last Win	0
Last Grand Prix	Italy 2011 Superleague

Ben Warren is a British sim-racer from Oxfordshire, England, and is founder of the Triple-Double Racing team.

Ben is currently a test/reserve driver for Nijo Racing in the Superleague and previously competed for Constant Racing, ST Racing and Triple-Double Racing. He is also currently driving for Nordsjoen Racing in the Supercup.

Beginnings

Warren began his online racing career in 2008, racing in some smaller leagues hosted at GPRO using EA's 'F1 Challenge 99-02', along with current and former GPVWC drivers such as Tom Parker, Chris Williamson, David Jundt, Simon Cattell, Tim-Oliver Wagner and Scott Bennett. Warren and company then progressed to rFactor for future seasons, and still race using various different mods today.

Warren was born with a rare disability called Sacral Agenesis, meaning the bottom of Warren's spine did not form properly before birth, leaving him paralysed from the waist down, and is a full-time wheelchair user. Despite his disability, Warren uses a Thrustmaster RGT FFB Wheel, which has four paddles on the back of the wheel, two of which are progressive paddles which he uses for the throttle and brake, and uses the other two paddles for shifting gears. Despite his difficulties, Warren is a proud disabled sim-racer, and prides himself on being able to race his able-bodied counterparts to the best of his abilities.

GPVWC

Megane Winter Series 2009/10

Warren discovered the GPVWC league just before the beginning of their Renault Megane Winter Series in late 2009, and promptly entered a three-car team called Triple-Double Engineering, with himself driving alongside Tom Parker and Nikos Evangelidakis. Warren himself competed at Ahvenisto, Mo-I-Rana and Imola, and thoroughly enjoyed competing in the large, competitive fields, and enjoyed some good racing.

Masters Series 2010/11

Warren competed once again for Triple-Double Engineering in the GPVWC Masters Series in 2010 which used the BMW E90 mod, partnered again with Nikos Evangelidakis. Warren was only able to compete in the last two events at the A1-Ring, and Silverstone. At Round 10 (Feature race), Warren qualified 13th of the eighteen car field, but made a great start, finding himself up to 7th place about halfway round Lap 1. However, he was hit from behind by Gavin Thomas, and dropped a few positions. After some great battles with Pavel Loknovski and Kieran Ryan, Warren found himself defending his 10th place position from David Jundt and Jason Muscat. Muscat found his way through, but he was able to fend off Jundt for a solid 11th place finish in his first Masters race. The Round 11 Sprint race was disastrous for Warren though, and after accidentally jumping the start and earning himself a drive-through penalty, some contact from other cars left his car heavily damaged, he was forced to call it a day.

Ben's 2011 Masters Series livery for Triple-Double Engineering.

Moving to the final two races of the season at Silverstone, Warren was disappointed with qualifying for the Round 12 Feature race, lining up 16th of the nineteen runners, almost a second slower than his free practice time. Warren made a good start, but was forced to slam on the brakes hard to avoid a slow starting Mal McKee, sending Warren down to dead last, before making his way past both Draig Racing cars before the end of Lap 1. Warren had found his pace again during the race, and duly set about chasing down some of the cars ahead of him, making his way past team mate Evangelidakis, Luke McKee, and Adam Smith before the end of the race. However, he just missed out on points, finishing in 13th place, three seconds behind Gavin Thomas. Warren started 7th for the reversed grid Sprint race, but made a mediocre start, and found himself passed by a few cars during Lap 1. However, Warren again made his way past a few slower cars, and found himself running in 9th place, in good contention for a solid haul of points. With two laps to go, Warren was slowly closing in on Mark Fuller for 8th place, but also had the faster duo of Ojay Clark and Jason Muscat closing in on him. Warren was able to fend off the faster cars behind, and pounced on a second to last corner error from Fuller to take 8th place in the sprint, and his best finish in a GPVWC race to date.

Warren finished 23rd in the Drivers standings after competing in just two events, and Triple-Double Engineering finished 11th in the Constructors standings.

Masters Series 2011/12

Warren plans to contest a full programme of GPVWC Masters for the 2011/12 season, and will be competing for Nijo Racing alongside Chris Williamson and Pavel Loknovski.

Superleague 2009/10

With the Megane Winter Series over, Warren was looking to make the step up to securing a role in the Superleague. After being approached by co-team owners Joe Consiglio and Mark Stanton, Warren became the reserve and test driver for Constant Racing. He took part in all the pre-season tests for the team, and was set to make his Superleague début for the team in Round 2 at China, but unfortunately Ben's racing wheel stopped working, meaning Constant could only field one car for that race, and Warren would have to wait to make his Superleague début.

Warren started the season as the reserve driver for Constant Racing.

Before Round 12 in Mexico, Warren was approached by ST Racing boss Mark Fuller to race for the team alongside Chris Williamson. Constant Racing had no problem allowing Warren to race, and released him from his contract to sign one with ST. Warren qualified 15th of the nineteen runners, ahead of teammate Williamson in 16th place. Warren made a reasonable start, but was nudged from behind by Williamson Dynamics driver Adam Smith at Turn 1 and forced onto the grass, but only losing one position, which was to Smith. The ST Racing driver quickly got his revenge, with a cheeky pass around the outside of Smith at the start of sector 2 to move him up to 13th place. Warren settled quickly into his position, and was able to slowly put a gap between himself and teammate Williamson who was running 14th, and under pressure from a recovering William Ponissi. Lap 4, and Warren found himself on the cusp of a points position already after an incident involving Sam Millar and Nick Rowland elevated the ST Racing driver up to 11th place. Meanwhile, Ponissi had made his way past Williamson and was beginning to close in on Warren. Despite moderate pressure from the Constant Racing driver, Warren maintained a one-second gap between himself and Ponissi, and was lapping consistently, and relatively mistake free in a slower car, compared to Ponissi in a faster car, but often making small errors in the twisty sections of the track. Lap 9 though, and the promising beginning to Warren's Superleague début came to an end. After exiting the twisty section of the circuit, Warren got on the power just a little too early, and his car under-steered onto the grass, and speared into the concrete wall on the left just before the final high speed turn, ripping the front wing and nose away from his car. Dejected, Warren got his car repaired in the pits and rejoined in 14th place. Just one lap later though, and a graphics driver issue with Warren's laptop meant he was unable to continue in the race. Despite his incident on Lap 9, a fairly high attrition rate throughout the field meant points were definitely still going to be up for grabs had Warren been able to continue.

Warren remained with ST Racing for the remainder of the season, and was set to stand in at a few more Superleague races for the team. However, laptop performance issues still lingered, and he was sadly unable to compete in any more races that season.

Superleague 2010/11

Warren initially decided to enter the world of team management, and secured a place on the 2011 Superleague grid for his new team Triple-Double Racing. He also hired two experienced drivers in Phil Perkins and Adam Rouse to drive for him, with Warren taking the test/reserve spot. Triple-Double Racing also entered a team into the 2011 Supercup, with Warren himself, and Pavel Loknovski taking the seats there. Just before the start of the season however, Warren parted company with TDR and gave his team manager spot up, deciding it would be in the best interests of both himself, and the team.

Not too long after, the Englishman became the test and reserve driver for another new team, Nijo Racing, managed by Chris Williamson. Warren made his first outing in Nijo colours at the in-season test at Fuji.

Warren's Nijo Racing debut in France ended in retirement.

Warren made his competitive début for Nijo Racing at Round 7 in Magny Cours. Sadly, Warren struggled mightily with wheel problems, as well as just being genuinely off the pace, and qualified 19th of the twenty runners. Due to penalties for other driver's from previous incidents in previous races, Warren actually started the race in 16th on the grid. Despite his problems, Warren made a lightning quick start, and found himself up to 13th place even before turn 1. However, he quickly found himself in a sandwich of cars, with Mark Fuller inside of him. Fuller's car under-steered, pushing both Warren, and Ryan Walker into the Turn 1 gravel trap. Warren recovered, albeit now back down in 18th. Sadly, another incident involving Fuller had occurred at the Adelaide hairpin, and with cars laid out all over the track, Warren had nowhere to go, and lost his front wing hitting Fuller's slowly moving car. After getting repairs, and a brief battle with Christoph Lichtenstein, Warren's wheel problems returned, and he was forced to retire on Lap 2.

He also raced at the next round in Monaco, one of Warren's self confessed favourite tracks, and felt confident before the event of showing much better pace. However, qualifying was once again a disaster, and he qualified 19th of the twenty-two starters. He made a good getaway again at the start though, and was able to dodge numerous incidents in front of him, and remarkably found himself up to 10th place just before the start of Lap 2. However, a small brush with the wall cost him his front wing, but even after repairs, Warren found himself in a promising 13th position, and fending off the much faster Jason Muscat and Joe Consiglio for all his worth. Muscat and Consiglio were both also caught up in early incidents. Very controversially, the race was restarted, and Warren's promising position came to nothing. At the restart, there were no such incidents, and Warren stayed in 19th place. His race once again ended prematurely though, after a big crash on Lap 2, the car was undrivable, making it three DNFs in three Superleague starts for Warren.

Warren returned to his reserve role for the next few races, until Round 11 at Imola, where he replaced regular Nijo driver Abdel Damghi who was on holiday. Much more on the pace and feeling much more prepared than usual, Warren qualified 19th of the 23 starters, but much closer to the front running pace than usual, and out-qualified team mate Chris Williamson who was 21st. He made a good start, and avoided a few incidents, and found himself in 15th by the end of Lap 1. A couple of small offs on cold tyres and brakes dropped Warren down to 18th though a few laps later, and a small brush with the wall was enough to see the Englishman again lose a front wing. Warren spent much of the race on his own, but running at a solid, and consistent pace, slowly but surely closing down on his rivals. After leapfrogging Mark Fuller in the pits, Warren found himself in 14th place, and closing in on team mate Williamson near the end of the race. After a brief team discussion, Williamson himself decided to let the faster Warren through into 13th place on the last lap. Unintentionally though Warren out-braked himself at Piratella, allowing Williamson back through! Despite the mistake, the Nijo cars both crossed the line in formation, finishing 13th (Williamson) and 14th (Warren). With the disqualification of Williamson Dynamics driver Ojay Clark from the race, Warren was elevated to 13th place. Although neither driver scored points this round, it was still good for the team to get both cars to the finish, and for Warren in particular to get his first finish under his belt. Although the result didn't necessarily show it, Warren's race pace was fairly solid, and it was clear the Englishman upped his game slightly for this race.

Warren fends off Mark Wicks and Bart De Vos at the Turkish Grand Prix 2011 for Superleague.

Warren once again took to the track for Nijo Racing at Round 12 in Turkey, another track he enjoys. Qualifying went as well as it could, and he started the race 18th of the 21 runners, ahead of both ST Racing cars, and teammate Williamson. Warren made another customary good start, and was up to 15th by the end of Lap 1. This time though, Warren kept it on the track in the opening laps, and was able to keep in touch with the cars ahead of him. Due to some incidents and penalties given to drivers in front of him, Warren found himself slowly moving up the order throughout the race, and as his fuel level dropped, his laptimes consistently improved. Again, with consistent pace, and drivers making scheduled, and unscheduled stops in front of him, Warren found himself up into a great 9th place, holding off the Woods Racing cars of Mark Wicks and Kieran Ryan, as well as other cars too. 2 laps before his first planned pitstop though, heartbreak struck for Warren, suffering from a game crash, forcing him into instant retirement. Easily Warren's best showing in the Superleague so far, he was understandably very disappointed to be forced into retirement due to simple game crash.

Moving to the next round at the difficult Mexico circuit, Warren's pace during practice looked promising, and hoped to qualify deep in the midfield. However, lag issues prevented Warren from completing any clear laps during qualifying, and he had to start the race 24th and last. With both Joe Consiglio and Christoph Lichtenstein joining him at the back of the grid due to penalties, Warren was ready to try and make his way through the field. However, a slow start from Ric Scott meant Consiglio had to brake heavily to avoid him, and came almost to a complete stop in front of Warren. With nowhere to go, the Nijo car bumped into the Nordsjoen, sending him sideways into the path of Lichtenstein, costing the young German his front wing. Warren was surprisingly able to continue without damage, and actually gained a few positions, with teammate Williamson going off sideways. Warren was experiencing lag problems with his laptop throughout the time he was in the race, but ran relatively close behind Ric Scott's Triple Double-Racing car. Unfortunately for Warren, the lag increased further, and a couple of half spins cost Warren a few positions, and eventually his rear wing after a high speed crash, very similar to how he retired from the Mexico GP last season. What initially looked to be a promising event for Warren, started, and ended in disaster.

Warren and David Jundt side by side at the Italian Grand Prix 2011 for Superleague.

Warren returned to the cockpit for Nijo at the Italian Grand Prix, but had problems in qualifying, limiting him to just 2 runs, leaving him last on the grid. Warren made another customary good start, and after various incidents on Lap 1, incredibly found himself go from 21st on the grid, up to 11th by the end of Lap 1. However, a freak rear tyre puncture caused by a loose front wing from an earlier incident dropped Warren down to 17th. He was then involved in a good scrap between Bart De Vos and David Jundt, who were both caught up in earlier incidents, and were carrying some unrepairable damage. Sadly, Warren's race came to a premature end once again, after spinning into the barrier at the second Lesmo, his car died on Lap 7.

Supercup 2009/10

Warren was set to compete for Constant Racing in the Supercup championship, but was unable to take part in any of the races.

Supercup 2010/11

Along with Pavel Loknovski, Warren was set to compete for Triple-Double Racing in the Supercup championship, but decided against racing for the time being. However, the English driver finally made his Supercup debut at Round 12, the Turkish Grand Prix. Warren took the second available seat for the famous Nordsjoen Racing outfit, teaming up with Ryan Walker.

Warren sandwiched between Kenney Lybeer and Phil Perkins in a battle for 6th at the Turkish Grand Prix 2011 in Supercup.

Warren was instantly showing good pace in the Supercup car and at Istanbul, and qualified 8th of the 24 drivers. He made a decent start at the beginning of the race, and remained in 8th place at the end of lap 1, in hot pursuit of Mineral GP stand in driver Kenney Lybeer for 7th place, and already pulling out a comfortable gap over Ric Scott. Warren remained relatively close behind Lybeer for most of the first stint, but now had Draig Racing driver Phil Perkins slowly but surely catching both of them up. 8th became 7th for Warren after Ihab Abbas got it all wrong at Turn 13 and had to pit early for repairs. Once Perkins closed up on Warren, a fantastic battle ensued, with Perkins taking the Nordsjoen driver with a daring move on the outside of Turn 4, only for Warren to fight back with a pass at the heavy braking Turn 12. The two squabbled for a few more laps, trading positions a couple more times before Perkins pitted on Lap 16. Warren decided to stay out one extra lap to try and leapfrog both Perkins and Lybeer, both of whom had now already pitted.

However, Warren's stop was a fairly slow one, after slightly overshooting his pit box, and also losing a few seconds with some small repairs to the car after light contact with Gregg Lawson on the opening lap. This meant Warren rejoined in 8th place, about 10 seconds behind 7th placed Perkins, but still with a comfortable 20 second gap ahead of the now 9th placed Tom Parker. The rest of the race Warren spent on his own, lapping consistently, but making little inroads on the battle ahead of him, but still maintaining the 20 gap to Parker. 8th place once again became 7th though, this time with the very unfortunate disconnection of race leader Bart De Vos. Warren remained in 7th place to the chequered flag, and was absolutely delighted to score points on his Supercup debut, showing genuine competitive pace, being involved in some hard, but clean battles, making few mistakes, and showing to the GPVWC paddock that he's beginning to make a big step in the right direction.

Warren follows teammate Ryan Walker at the Mexican Grand Prix 2011 in Supercup.

Warren qualified 9th of the 21 runners at the Mexican Grand Prix. He made a solid start, not losing any positions, but not gaining any. He spent much of the first lap side by side with Nijo driver David Jundt before settling back into position. A spin from Gregg Lawson moved Warren up to 8th, before dropping back down to 9th after a nice move from Ric Scott on the outside at the start of sector 2. After that, Warren settled into 9th place, keeping close behind Scott, but comfortably pulling out a gap between himself and the cars behind. A few laps later, Scott had a spin entering the twisty section of the track, moving Warren back up to 8th, and began to slowly close the gap between himself and the battle for 5th place between Parker, Lybeer and Jundt. Warren's progress was slightly hampered by a couple of half spins, but generally didn't lose too much time with his errors. Up front, retirements from Phil Perkins, Pavel Loknovski and Kenney Lybeer before Warren's pitstop elevated him to 6th place. After making his first and only pitstop on Lap 18, Warren lost just one place, and quickly regained 6th once everyone else had completed their pitstops. Warren now found himself about 10 seconds behind 5th placed Lawson, and 5 seconds ahead of 7th placed Ric Scott. While Warren was unable to make any inroads on the battle ahead of him, he was able to pull away from Scott by a few tenths a lap. With the retirement of leader Lewis Redshaw, Warren moved up to 5th place, and remained there for the rest of the race, although he nearly stole away 4th from Tom Parker on the last lap, who had lost his front wing. The Kernow Sport driver was able to keep his car on track, and take 4th place, just a second ahead of Warren. Warren's teammate Ryan Walker had won the race, meaning Nordsjoen had moved closer to both Malta Force GP and Nijo Racing in the constructors championship. 7th and 5th in his first two races, the Englishman was understandably pleased.

After a 3 week break, the Supercup teams and drivers arrived at Montreal, and Warren instantly showed some great pace, and finished the official practice session fastest of all the drivers. However, qualifying wasn't so smooth for the young Englishman, with his best qualifying time almost a second off his best practice time, and had to settle for 6th position on the grid. He didn't make the best of starts at the beginning of the race, with both Tom Parker and Sam Millar making their way past, but he was back up to 5th position after the retirements of Redshaw, Lawson and teammate Walker. After a brief battle with Gavin Thomas, Warren had a fairly lonely race the rest of the way, trying to close the gap between himself and Parker, but both driver's were having to save their brakes, so neither driver could really take the initiative in the battle. Meanwhile, 6th placed Ric Scott was closing in on the struggling Warren, and got the gap between them down to just 0.7 seconds before the Draig Racing driver had a spin, giving Warren plenty of breathing space again. Warren held on for another solid 5th placed finish, but after showing even more improvement, you could forgive him for being a bit disappointed that he was unable to challenge for a podium position.

The Supercup field travelled to the famous Interlagos circuit in Brazil for the next round, a track Warren admitted has never been a favourite of his. Warren wasn't quite as competitive as normal in the pre-race sessions, and had to settle for 10th place in qualifying. Warren made a decent start, but instantly had to take evasive manoeuvres to avoid a slow starting Ric Scott. This cost him a few positions at the start, but he settled in behind PB Racing driver William Tringas. Warren being the slightly faster car, tried a few occasions to try and pass the earlier braking Tringas, but to no avail. After outbraking himself, Warren dropped down to 12th, behind Chris Williamson. The two English drivers again battled hard, again Warren appeared to be the faster of the two, and again his rival braking earlier than himself. After getting into Williamson's slipstream on the start/finish straight on Lap 10, Warren was caught out by Williamson braking early for Turn 1. Warren was able to react quickly to not run into the back of the Nijo Racing car, but unfortunately lost his front wing as he speared into the wall. After the pitstop repairs, Warren was down to 16th. Warren decided to make no more pit stops after that, and carried a heavy car round to the finish of the race, settling for 12th position. Without the incident, Warren had the race pace to challenge for another points finish, but in the end recorded his first non-points finish of the season.

Warren unable to avoid Lewis Redshaw at the Italian Grand Prix 2011 in Supercup.

Monza was the next destination, and Warren appeared to be back on the pace, taking an impressive 5th position on the grid, in a large field of 26 cars. He made a solid start, and nearly passed Ojay Clark for 4th at Turn 1, but comfortably held onto 5th. However, a promising position was to be taken away quickly at the Variante Della Roggia, after a mistake from Lewis Redshaw who was in 2nd, and after Redshaw tried to recover, it left Warren with nowhere to go, and the two collided, robbing Warren of his front wing, and a chance of an excellent finish. Despite recovering to the pits and having his front wing replaced, his car had sustained some unrepairable damage, and he was unable to show the same pace he'd shown in practice, qualifying and warmup. Warren was able to recover up to 7th place before his pitstop, but made a catastrophic error exiting his pitbox, getting too much wheelspin and spinning his car, losing valuable time, and a good chance of recovering some points. Warren limped home to another 12th place, disappointed about the 1st lap incident, and his mistake in the pits, but happy in the fact he was able to show competitive pace again.

With Warren hoping to bounce back at the next race at Barcelona, he qualified 7th of the 21 car field. A slightly strange start light sequence caught out a few drivers on the grid, namely 6th placed Tom Parker. Warren however, made a decent start, and avoided the carnage behind him. With the opening lap in the book, Warren found himself in 6th, involved in a 4 car battle with teammate Ryan Walker, Pavel Loknovski and David Jundt. 6th became 5th after a clash between Walker and Jundt meant the latter was forced into retirement on Lap 8. Warren slightly lost touch with teammate Walker just before his pitstop, but was shaping up for a great battle with Parker who was in 6th, before the Kernow Sport driver was awarded a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pitlane. The rest of the race was fairly lonely for Warren, who cruised home to what became 4th place, after Loknovski retired from 2nd position, helping Warren secure his best finish in a GPVWC race to date.