LEBANON, OH. – The roster for the 3rd annual $25,000 North America Drivers Championship at Miami Valley Raceway in early January is now set. The thirty outstanding harness racing drivers who will descend on the southwest Ohio oval January 6-8 to compete for the title have an astounding 120,385 collective victories.
Aaron Merriman, the reigning national dash champion and recently named USHWA 2018 Driver of the Year, heads the winners list with 10,922 career wins through the Dec. 22 contest entry deadline. Eight of the drivers have surpassed the 5,000 wins plateau, five more have over 4,000 triumphs.
A dozen drivers have win totals between 2,000 and 4,000 while the remaining five reinsmen all exceed 1,000 wins.
Defending champion Trace Tetrick, the winningest driver in Hoosier Park history, will return to seek back-to-back trophies.
Here's the alphabetical list of contestants with their win totals in parenthesis:
Simon Allard (3531)
Pat Berry (3797)
Joe Bonjiorno (1526)
Billy Davis Jr. (2495)
Kyle DiBenedetto (6383)
Dexter Dunn (2311)
Shawn Gray (4096)
J. Bradley Harris (1443)
Travis Henry (1044)
Casey Leonard (2579)
Aaron Merriman (10,922)
Bob McClure (2251)
Frank Milby (2678)
Brett Miller (7919)
Drew Monti (1244)
Anthony Napolitano (2729)
Jeff Nisonger (3204)
Dan Noble (5457)
Mike Oosting (6517)
Chris Page (4561)
Roger Plante Jr. (2489)
Bruce Ranger (8959)
Jeremy Smith (2142)
Tyler Smith (2754)
Josh Sutton (4515)
Trace Tetrick (4834)
Randy Tharps (5300)
Todd Warren (4842)
Jimmy Whittemore (1639)
Sam Widger (6224)
If any driver on this list has had an emergency which will prevent them from participating, there is a short list of alternates so please contact the Race Secretary (greggkeidel@yahoo.com or 651-260-8250) prior to the draw on January 1st for the first two days of the tournament.
Gregg keidel