Brian Sears has driven in 2,167 races and the horses he’d driven have earned more than $14.6 million.

These stats are based on numbers crunched a few days ago, so Brian Sears will have added a few more bucks to his total by now. By contrast, D.R. Ackerman is back in sunny southern California and likely won’t see any sulky action until sometime in 2006.

I’ve limited the list to drivers with 100 or more starts in 2005.

Sears, of course, has set an earnings record for a harness driver this year and his total earnings are far greater than Ackerman’s, but in this listing give less active drivers a chance to shine.

In looking at the list below, you’ll notice that Trond Smedshammer and Dan Daley both drove fewer than 200 times this year and came away with a very healthy dollar amount in earnings-per-start.

Smedshammer’s horses have earned $5,107 per start this year, good enough to put him in fourth place in North America. That total makes Smedshammer’s 2005 season look disastrous, however, when you compare it to his average earnings per start in 2004 when he drove Triple Crown winner Windsong’s Legacy. Last year Smedshammer’s mounts average more than $19,000 per start.

It helps to have a great horse if you don’t drive that often. This year Ackerman steered the Breeders Crown winner Chocolatier. Dan Daley also had a superb 2-year-old trotter in RC Royalty.

Speaking of good trotters, the driver ranking sixth on the list is Roger Hammer who also just happens to have a good trotter this year in Vivid Photo, winner of the Hambletonian and World Trotting Derby. Vivid Photo is the richest trotter of 2005 and his success has given Hammer an average earnings of more than $4,774.

Looking further down the list, you can see that Mike Lachance and John Campbell don’t drive quite as much as they once did, but they still manage to pick up a healthy chunk of change each time they drive.

Listed below are the top drivers based on average earnings per start (100 or more drives):