James was born in Corvallis in 1972 and grew up in Dundee. While growing up in the Newberg area he raced slot cars and remote control cars in weekly series. After graduating from Newberg high school in 1990 he joined the Navy. In 1991 while stationed in Chicago he started racing in a roving bomber series and finished the season 35th out of 58 entries at the end of the season. James was then stationed in San Diego, CA where he raced in a weekly go-kart series for 2 seasons finishing 9th and 7th in points out of 24 competitors. He then moved up to a Mini- Sprint that he raced in Carlsbad CA. James got out of the Navy in 1995 and started volunteering on race teams working on everything from bombers to some of the fastest Dirt late models in the state. In 1998 he started racing again on a limited scale (about 4 or 5 races a year). In 2000 he started P.O.S. Racing. James raced several races in 2001 and never finished out of the top ten. In 2002 James Finished 3rd in the Bud I-5 Series and 33 in points at Willamette Speedway. James currently works as a Limited Energy Electrician Access Control Lead tech for Selectron in Tigard.