Evie Vance
Evie Vance | |
Age | 33 |
Nationality | American |
STARS Lowe's Premier Series | |
---|---|
Car # | 91 |
Years Competed | 2017-2024, 2026-2027, 2029- |
Debut Season | 2017 |
Current Team | Vance Autosports |
Former Team(s) | McBrien Racing, ATK Motorsports |
Championships | 1 (2019) |
Pole Positions | 18 |
Wins | 20 |
Top 5 Finishes | 85 |
Top 10 Finishes | 129 |
First Start | 2017 Empire State 450 (New York) |
First Win | 2017 DP Enterprises 200 (Texas World) |
Last Win | 2027 Rotom Bikes 200 (Talladega) |
Last Start | 2030 OnCue 175 (Oklahoma) |
STARS Lowe's Truck Series | |
Car # | 2 |
Years Competed | 2015-2016, 2023 |
Debut Season | 2016 |
Current Team | ATK Motorsports |
Former Team(s) | N/A |
Championships | 1 |
Pole Positions | 3 |
Wins | 7 |
Top 5 Finishes | 12 |
Top 10 Finishes | 15 |
First Start | 2015 K-Love 100 (Nazareth) |
First Win | 2016 New York 225 (New York) |
Last Win | 2023 Roselia "FIRE BIRD" 100k (Old Spice) |
Last Start | 2023 Roselia "FIRE BIRD" 100k (Old Spice) |
Miscellaneous | |
@EvieVance | |
Created By | Ben |
STARS Driver |
Evelyn Harriet Branch, better known as Evie Vance (born 31st July 1997) is an American STARS Lowe's International Series driver from Anaheim, California. She is best known for winning the 2016 STARS Kobalt Tools Truck Series championship, the 2017 Lowe's All-Star Series championship and the 2019 Lowe's International Series championship.
Early Career
Vance began her career in dirt racing, driving in 250cc Outlaw Karts at the age of 10. Vance was instantly a hit in this discipline of racing, and won the championship at Walt James Stadium in her rookie season. Age restrictions limited her from moving up a series, and Vance ended up repeating her success the year after. At the age of 12, Vance moved up to the Open Intermediate division, where she won the championship at the age of 14 in her second attempt at the series. Again, she ended up repeating her success, and won the title two years in a row. At the age of 16, in 2013, Vance made the jump to wingless Sprint Cars, and raced around her home state of California. Vance's first win came at American Valley Speedway, where she made a last lap pass on former STARS driver Alex Bennson to win the race. Vance ended up taking four wins that season, which was enough to get the attention of American Dirt Oval Championship team owner Spencer Harrow.
Harrow offered Vance a ride in the ADOC Wingless Sprint Car division, which she accepted. In her rookie season, Vance won three races, but due to her aggressive nature, finished only 9th in points as a result of multiple accidents. Vance began the 2015 season well, with 2 wins in the first 2 races. However, after an intentional accident with another driver, Vance was suspended from the series, which resulted in Harrow firing her from the team. Vance, with her sister's beauty company, Nocturne Beauty Products, was offered a lifeline as she was offered a late model drive at Pikes Peak International Raceway in a support race for the STARS Lowe's International Series. Despite it being her first asphalt race, Vance was quick off the bat, and was noted for her exceptional driving despite the car appearing to be incredibly loose. Vance caught the eye of Ben Atkins, who after seeing her race several more times in late models, offered her a limited schedule in the Kobalt Tools Truck Series to end the 2015 season.
2015-2016: KTTS Career
Vance made her debut for ATK Racing in the 2015 K-Love 100 at Nazareth Speedway, where she qualified 13th and finished 15th. Vance's first top 10 came in the dirt race at Knoxville Speedway, where she finished in 6th place, barely missing out on a top 5 after being passed with three laps to go. Vance did not have to wait long for her first top 5 finish, however, as she recorded a 2nd place finish in the season finale at Las Vegas. Her performances were enough to have ATK Racing retain her for 2016.
Vance started out 2016 with a win in the season opener in the prestigious New York 225, where she led the final eight laps to win the event. Vance would continue her fantastic season with a string of top 10 finishes, as she built up a comfortable points lead. With wins at Charlotte Motor Speedway and Cayuga Speedway also in the mix, Vance was looking like the early title favourite. However, she was set back at Daytona, after a large accident saw her truck roll over multiple times before coming to rest on the passenger side of the vehicle. Vance was uninjured in the incident, and also undeterred in her title hunt, as the next week, she ended up lapping the field at Knoxville Speedway. Vance took one final win at Talladega Superspeedway as she built an insurmountable points lead and took home the championship in her rookie season.
ATK Racing owner Ben Atkins was eager to keep Vance around the team for 2017, but elected to give Casey Lester a LIS seat rather than Vance. Despite her insisting that she was ready to move into the premier series of STARS racing, Atkins could only offer her a part-time schedule and another full-time trucks series attempt, and Vance explored other options, before getting an offer from ATK's rivals, McBrien Racing. Vance accepted the offer from Frank McBrien's team and moved up for the 2017 season.
2017- : LIS Career
Evie Vance started out her career in the Lowe's International Series by finishing 6th in her duel race for the Empire State 450. Eventually, Vance ended up losing her engine, and was relegated to a 25th place finish in her first attempt at the major race. Vance struggled to begin the season, failing to finish inside the top 15 in the first six races of the season, but this streak was broken with a 2nd place finish at Sonoma Raceway. Vance led 28 laps at Auto Club Speedway before an engine expired on her, but the next week at Texas World Speedway, Vance made a last lap move on Ben Atkins and Nico Yazawa to earn her first career win from the pole (also her first career pole) in just her ninth start. This started a hot streak for Vance, as she finished 2nd at Saitama Ken Race Track and 3rd at Calder Park Thunderdome before a flag-to-flag victory at Oulton Park. Vance continued to prove her worth as she narrowly beat Elliott Jenkins to win at Daytona International Speedway in the closest finish in STARS history. Vance qualified for the chase in her first attempt, but this was ill-fated, as she was given a penalty for improper conduct and professionalism at Atlanta Motor Speedway after pre-race antics with Ben Atkins during their driver introductions. Despite the penalty being overturned, Vance was eliminated from the chase in the first round. To end the season, Vance took consecutive wins at Talladega Superspeedway and Iowa Speedway before finishing 13th in points.
Despite five wins in her rookie year, Vance's inconsistency did not bode well with Frank McBrien, and he elected to let Vance go at the end of the season. With her sponsors choosing to stay with McBrien, Vance's chances of returning to the LIS paddock were looking bleak, before former employers ATK Racing elected to take a chance on her for the 2018 season without any sponsors. Eventually, sponsors did sign onto the team, and Vance was fully funded for another season. Vance started off the season in incredible qualifying form, earning 4 poles in the first 6 races. During the races, however, this only turned into a result at Pikes Peak International Raceway, where she earned a 4th place finish. Her first win of the season came at the Oklahoma City Motorsports Complex Road Course, where she came from 17th on the grid to win. Vance did not score another victory until the chase, where a dominant showing at Atlanta Motor Speedway saw her advance out of the first round. Despite her being the best performing driver during the first round, a poor second round saw her eliminated from championship contention. A good set of final races saw her finish best of the rest, as she got a well-earned 5th place points finish.
Entering 2019, Vance changed crew chiefs as Joe Branch joined the #1 team after winning the championship the year before with Ben Atkins. The pairing immediately made an impact, as they won both the All-Star and their Duel Race for the Empire State 225. Vance's race setup for the main event was off, however, and she could only manage a 7th place finish. Throughout the year, Vance was very consistent, and despite not winning in the regular season, she scored regular top 5 and 10's, and she was the top driver to qualify on the merit of points. Despite a scare in the first round with various mechanical issues at both New Jersey Motor Speedway and Grand Detour Raceway, a second place finish at Atlanta was enough to carry Vance through to the second round of the chase. Vance was involved in a pit fight with Neveah Laughlin at Indianapolis Motor Speedway after Vance was set to win the event before Laughlin blocked her on the final lap and demoted her to a 9th place finish. Despite the incident, Vance was not penalised, and despite that 9th being her best finish in the round, it was enough to see her through to the third round for the first time in her career.
Vance scored a third place finish at Talladega Superspeedway, and with the struggles of her competitors at both Rockingham Speedway and Talladega, Vance was locked into the final four on points entering Iowa Speedway. Despite this, Vance showed some muscle before the championship race, and won the event, leading the final 32 laps. Despite her speed and consistency throughout the year, bookmakers placed Vance as the least likely driver to win the championship at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, putting her behind favourite Maki Nishikino, Grant Macintosh and even rookie Dia McBrien. Despite this, Vance ended up dominating at Las Vegas, leading 90 of the 134 laps to win her second race in a row, and more importantly, her first STARS Lowe's International Series championship.
Personal Life
Evie Vance is married to Joe Branch, who currently serves as her crew chief in the STARS Lowe's International Series. She is also sisters with former driver Riko Vance, who is married to her team owner and best friend Ben Atkins.
Vance used to partake in dirt races on a regular occasion, before being involved in a major accident with Riley McKee during a charity race which led McKee to be seriously injured, and left Vance with a broken hand. Vance's father was also a dirt track racer, but he unfortunately lost his life in a Sprint Car accident at Stockton Dirt Track in 2005. Vance cited watching her father race as being one of the biggest reasons she started her racing career.
Vance has a very short temper, and is known to lose her cool regularly. Despite this, Vance also is known for having a great sense of humour. Also on the contrary from her short temper, Vance is known for, and has admitted that she has a huge soft spot for babies and young children.
Vance is one of, if not the shortest driver in the STARS paddock as she measuring in at only 5'1".
Trivia
- Evie Vance was originally written in as a character for an unnamed novel that Ben wrote around 2016. The characters are largely the same in the novel and the STARS Canon, with exception to the one in the novel is British.