In his debut in the Pirelli World Challenge Series, Canadian James Vance earned the VP Hard Charger Award by driving his no 45 Racers Edge Motorsports SIN R1 GT4 car from his qualifying position of P13 to a P6 finish at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park.

The Toronto resident qualified the SIN R1 GT4 car in P13 Friday afternoon, May 20, in a tight GTS class, with the P2-P15 cars in the field finishing within a 0.7 second window. Vance earned his qualifying position with a best lap of 1:24.562 on the 10 turn, 2.459 mile race track.

Canadian Tire Motorsports Park is Vance’s home track, so he was familiar with the course itself, and with tools needed to be successful in the race.

“The field was so close, so competitive, I knew I’d need to be patient. We had the car to be able to get to the front of the field, but I had to really focus,” said Vance.

At the rolling start of race 1, Vance was slightly behind where he wanted to be. “The start was a little disappointing, I lost a couple of positions there.”

“I had to settle into a rhythm, because it was my first sprint race in quite awhile. It’s a completely different concept; your focus has to be so much greater and so much more intense than endurance racing at different times in the race. Once I finally settled into a rhythm and really got into my groove, it was incredible.”

Throughout the 50 minute sprint race, devoid of any yellow flag caution periods, Vance carved his SIN R1 GT4 up through the field. “I wasn’t letting anyone get in my way; I was just focusing on catching someone and passing them, and then focusing on the next car in front of me.”

Vance’s last pass was a brilliant show of racing between him and Jack Roush, Jr, in a battle for P6. “The Mustangs were really tough; I didn’t have the speed to get them in the places I could get the other cars, and there aren’t many passing zones here. In some ways, I really wish we had a longer race, because I was just in a zone.”

“The car was incredible, just incredible. I can’t thank the Racers Edge team enough for preparing the SIN R1 GT4 car so well for this race. The crew worked so hard to made adjustments and the car just drove so well. I had a great team supporting me and that I could trust to get done what we needed to for this race.”

Vance and his co-driver, Chris Beaufait, also stood on the inaugural podium for the Sprint X series in the GTS class later that afternoon. Beaufait started race 1 of the Sprint X series, handing off the Racers Edge SIN R1 GT4 to Vance during the 25-35 minute pit window. The team finished P3 in the 60 minute race.

“Its really great to be a part of this first race for the Sprint X series as well. It’s a different setup, a different type of series, and although we didn’t have a huge field for this weekend, I think it has a good potential to grow.”

Vance just enjoyed another chance to drive the SIN R1 GT4. “I’ll take any chance I have to get behind the wheel of this car. Its just so much fun to drive, especially as dialed in as the crew had it this weekend.”

Race 2 of the Sprint X series on Saturday morning didn’t see such good results, as Vance had a right rear flat tire during his stint, and Beaufait encountered shifting issues, which caused the team to retire the car to prevent further damage prior to the World Challenge GTS race less than two hours later.

After the standing start of the 2nd GTS class race, an incident put Vance and the SIN R1 GT4 car into the tire wall on lap two. Able to get out of the car under his own power, Vance was evaluated at a local hospital and released later that day.

“I can’t thank the safety crew and the staff at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park and Pirelli World Challenge enough for their quick response, care and concern after that incident.”

Children’s Tumor Foundation held a prominent place on the SIN R1 GT4 for the weekend. “I’m so honored to represent the heroes fighting NF, and to have some of the families visit the team garage this weekend.”

“Also, big thanks to Expo Systems for all of their support, and for my friends and family at the race this weekend. It feels great to have such a great race at my home track.”