Lebanon, OH — Thirty drivers with more than 115,000 combined wins will descend on Miami Valley Raceway from Jan. 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 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 UDR, is next in line with 8,959 victories. Brett Miller, who is returning to his Ohio roots for the 2019 campaign, boasts a resume which includes 7,919 wins. Another trio of the contestants sport more than 6,000 career wins — Mike Oosting with 6,517, Kyle DiBenedetto with 6,383 and Sam Widger with 6,224.

A pair of accomplished local reinsmen have eclipsed the 5,000 wins plateau: Dan Noble with 5,457 and Randy Tharps with 5,300. Another handful of drivers have visited more than 4,000 winner’s circles: Todd Warren with 4,842, defending champion Trace Tetrick with 4,834, Chris Page (4,561), Josh Sutton (4,515) and Shawn Gray (4,096). Pat Berry (3,797) and Simon Allard (3,531) are next in line.

Another eight hopefuls have surpassed 2,000 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 more than 1,000 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 (Dec. 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 (Jan. 4) and continue on a Friday through Tuesday, five-days-a-week schedule through May 6.