Last summer, Aaron Byron was challenging Jim Marohn Jr. for leading driver honours at Tioga Downs. With some 100 fewer starts, Byron finished second to Marohn in driving victories, 76-55.
And now that Byron has moved to the Monticello Raceway, he once again will compete against young Jimmy. But he certainly doesn’t expect to put up the same numbers against Marohn as he did at Tioga Downs. Marohn has been driving at the ‘Mighty M’ since the beginning of the season and his 254 driving victories ranks him second in races won to Bruce Aldrich Jr.’s 322.
However, since coming to Monticello, Byron has shown a great driving ability and in just a few weeks he’s won multiple races on various cards. On Monday at Monticello, Byron reached the winner’s circle after three of the five races he drove in. Each one of the horses he won with returned double-digit Win prices ($34.60, $22.20, $17.60).
Byron, from Cambridge Ont., comes from a family of horsemen. His dad, Steve Byron, has won over 3,250 races and captured some driving titles at some Canadian racetracks.
“Most of my family are horsemen and I grew up in the industry,” Aaron said. “I’ve raced at many tracks in Canada and over the past few seasons in U.S. and I’ve done pretty well wherever I raced.”
The 28-year-old reinsman has been driving for just eight seasons and has already recorded 1,138 driving wins. Thus far this year he has had 148 winners.
When asked what’s on the horizon for him, Byron stated, “I moved my base of operations to the states and plan on spending the winter here.”
(With files from Monticello)