🇨🇦 James Vance

James Vance is an entry-level professional racing in American multiclass endurance and single-seater championships. FIA Silver graded, he competes primarily in IMSA Pilot Challenge for Baker Racing, where he shares a GT4-based GS-class car and production-car ST entries with teammates across a field mixing amateurs with graded professionals. He has also raced IMSA WeatherTech prototypes, a NASCAR Canada oval, and is currently competing in the Whelen Mazda MX-5 Cup in solo machinery.[1]

Vance has raced for twelve seasons from 2015 onward, accumulating 59 starts in Pilot Challenge with 2 wins and 6 podiums. He took a pair of starts in WeatherTech, where he finished on the podium once, and has competed sparingly in single-driver racing; his current Mazda campaign has yielded 2 rounds with a standing of 19th in the championship so far. His most productive years came in shared-car endurance racing, where the consistency of his Pilot Challenge record allowed him to finish ahead of established professionals including Max Angelelli and George Kurtz, a multi-series champion, on individual occasions.[2]

He typically races behind his most regular opponents. Mark Wilkins, an entry-level professional and 2019 Pilot Challenge TCR champion, and Mason Filippi, a Silver-graded peer with more than 100 starts across IMSA series, usually finish ahead of him when they compete in the same events. Baker Racing, his primary team across 17 of his starts, has not recorded a win in the index and fields drivers of moderate experience, with Jan Heylen as its strongest entry.