Frome Times Past-Jenson Button – man of speed

A few columns ago, it was suggested that 2009 was a kind of year zero of cool in terms of Frome’s recent history.

Several events which happened that year were put forward as possible reasons as to Frome’s unexpected and subsequent rise in popularity. But perhaps none more so than a certain racing driver’s success on the world stage, which put the town firmly on the map.

It is exactly ten years ago this month (October) Frome-born Jenson Button won the Formula 1 Grand Prix World Championship to assure his place in sporting history. Not bad for a person who failed his driving test on the first attempt by trying to squeeze his car through too narrow a gap!

Jenson Alexander Lyons Button was born in Frome in 1980 and lived the early part of his life at Northcote Crescent, before moving with his father to Vobster.

Education consisted of going to Vallis School and Frome College, but from around the age of seven the youngster’s focus was firmly elsewhere. Starting out in karting, he soon progressed to car racing. First in the British Formula Ford Championship and then later, the British Formula 3 Championship. His first Formula One season was in 2000, when he drove for the Williams team. Stints for Benetton, Renault, BAR and Honda followed. The 2009 Championship, however, saw him driving for Brawn GP in a car complete with what became a controversial diffuser design.

This gave his team an early advantage over the others and allowed Jenson to win a record-tying six out of the first seven races of that season. By the time of the British Grand Prix though, the other teams had fought back with their own reconfigured designs and Jenson’s superiority came to an end. Jenson though had created an unassailable lead going into the sixteenth and penultimate race on 18 October 2009 – the Brazilian Grand Prix and although Jenson could only manage fifth, it was enough to clinch the World Championship.

Runner-up to Ryan Giggs in BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year, Jenson was awarded the MBE.

Frome being the town it is though, the way of honouring its newly world-famous son was a little more idiosyncratic.

This took the form of the Jenson Button Bridge – designed for pedestrians – and Jenson Avenue, located on the outskirts of town, which has a 30mph speed limit.

Nonetheless, it felt like the whole town turned out to welcome Jenson back in 2013 when he returned triumphantly to turn on the Christmas lights.

The Market Place was turned into a temporary racetrack, along which Jenson drove his F1 car as far as Stony Street and then speed back off towards the Cheese & Grain. The noise was deafening, the doughnuts thrilling and his speech from the balcony of the George Hotel inspiring.

Although turning forty next January, Jenson is still capable of competing at the highest level, as his winning of the Japanese Super GT in 2018 shows.

And despite his rich and famous lifestyle, he remains at heart, it seems, the down to earth boy that rode his push bike around the streets of Frome while growing up.

So, to paraphrase the old saying, Jenson Button may have left Frome, but Frome has never left Jenson Button. And perhaps, in the end, that is a good way to honour him.

Mick Davis and David Lassman