Monticello Raceway has announced that Bruce Aldrich Jr. and Dolores Basilone were the track’s top driver and trainer, respectively, during the 2016 season.
Aldrich Jr. continues to solidifying his dynasty as the leading driver at Monticello Raceway as the leading dash winner. He finished the year with 386 wins at Monticello, a lofty UDR of .413, and his mounts earned $1,083,627. Bruce ranked sixth in the United States for most wins (596) in 2016. Jim Taggart Jr. finished the year in second place with 284 wins. The hard-driving Taggart was the most active pilot in the Monticello driver’s colony with 1,458 starts. Larry Stalbaum was third with 204 wins. He was followed by Michael Merton with 188 wins and James Devaux, who rounded out the top five with 181. The 2016 Monticello Raceway Rising Star Award winner Justin Huckabone was a respectable sixth with 119 wins.
On the trainer side of the slate, newcomer Basilone won her first training title at Monticello Raceway. From 562 starters, her stock found the winners circle 150 times, and her stable earned $402,756. Kim Asher, from the powerful Larry Stalbaum stable, was second with 118 wins. Gary Messenger’s 104 wins earned him third place. Former two-time leading Monticello trainer Robert Lounsbury was fourth with 93 wins. Dan Gill rounded out the top five virtue of his 84 wins. Lounsbury had the highest UDR of .435. Both Messenger and Asher ranked in the top 20 in the U.S. for wins. Messenger was 16th in the nation with 156 wins, and Kim Asher was 20th in the U.S. with 154 wins.
(Monticello Raceway)
