LEBANON, OH. – Thirty harness racing drivers with over 115,000 combined wins will descend on Miami Valley Raceway from January 6-8 to seek the title in the third annual $25,000 North America Drivers Championship. Doug McNair of Ontario won the inaugural contest at the southwest Ohio oval in January of 2017; while Trace Tetrick of Indiana is the defending champion following his 2018 victory.
Aaron Merriman, the reigning North American dash champion, tops the list of winningest drivers in the contest with 10,922 career triumphs. Bruce Ranger, who returned to the sulky in 2018 after a two year absence and is currently sporting a .403 UDRS score, is next in line with 8959 victories. Brett Miller, who is returning to his Ohio roots for the 2019 campaign, boasts a resume which includes 7919 wins. Another trio of the contestants sport over 6000 career wins-Mike Oosting with 6517, Kyle DiBenedetto 6383 and Sam Widger 6224.
A pair of accomplished local reinsmen have eclipsed the 5000 wins plateau: Dan Noble with 5457 and Randy Tharps with 5300. Another handful of drivers have visited over 4000 winners circles: Todd Warren with 4842, defending champion Trace Tetrick 4834, Chris Page 4561, Josh Sutton 4515 and Shawn Gray 4096. Pat Berry 3797 and Simon Allard 3531 are next in line. Another eight hopefuls have surpassed 2000 lifetime wins: Billy Davis Jr., Dexter Dunn, Casey Leonard, Bob McClure, Anthony Napolitano, Roger Plante Jr., Hollywood Dayton dash champ Jeremy Smith and Tyler Smith. Younger accomplished drivers with over 1000 wins and much recent success are J Bradley Harris, Travis Henry, Drew Monti and Jimmy Whittemore. The final three spots in the championship will be announced on Thursday, December 27.
Each driver gets four randomly drawn drives on the Sunday, Jan. 6 and Monday, Jan. 7 matinees. The field will be reduced to the ten top point leaders for an eight-race head-to-head competition to determine the winner on Tuesday afternoon, Jan. 8. In addition to the prestigious North America Drivers Championship trophy, the winner will receive $10,000 with the balance of the prize pool distributed to second through ninth place finishers.
Miami Valley will open its 2019 season on Friday night, January 4, and continue on a Friday through Tuesday five-days-a-week schedule through May 6.
Gregg Keidel