James Bedard is a Kart Racer from Chilliwack British Columbia, Canada. His karting campaign began quite innocently at the age of 8, spring 2021, when his mom and dad bought him an old underpowered kart thinking it would be fun to let him learn to drive and make some great family memories at the local Greg Moore Raceway.
​
In those first days driving alone, on weekdays after school, he immediately brought his kart to within a few seconds of its limit. Within a week James had his first opportunity to run laps with another driver 3 years older than him in a newer much faster kart. James passed him and then let him go only to pass him again, and again, and again.
The boys father was so impressed with James he offered to let James drive their top end racing Kart. In one session James drove this kart faster than the other lad had gone in 3 years of driving. As a result of this demonstration James father decided to buy James a top of the line karts and engine.
Within these first three months James drove every single day and followed and surpassed the fastest drivers in BC. James would eventually meet his match, Timothy Clarke the two time Canadian Final Champion, a driver with 5 years of racing experience. The Clarke’s saw James talent, allowing James to follow and learn from the best young Cadet driver in Canada. Their practice sessions brought James to within tenths of the best times of any cadet driver in our home tracks history.
Three months from the day of James first driving experience James qualified in his first club race P2 out of 13 experienced drivers, right behind Timothy. James instructions for his first year was to follow and learn from Timothy. James finished 2nd behind Timothy in every race (total 5 in 2021). James capped his first year by going the Vancouver Island Karting associations final race where he achieved his first race win with a margin of 22 seconds.
In 2022 James achieved 16 podiums including 12x 1st places, 3x 2nd place, 1x 3rd place. He won the BC Tag Cadet Championship, he won the Micro Canadian Final making him the #1 ranked driver in his class in Canada qualifying him to compete in the Rotax Grande Final in Portugal where he competed with the best 40 micro drivers in the world. James drove carefully being in his first major race and managed to finish in the middle of the field in 20th place which was what we expected. This year James has won every race he’s entered in and continues to be a positive roll model for his fellow drivers.
