Bruce Aldrich, Jr. is enjoying the finest season of his
driving career. With the five winners he reined at Monticello Raceway yesterday
(Nov. 25) he now has 563 wins and has moved into third place in front of Tim
Tetrick’s 559 in races won in North America this year. It was the third
five-bagger that Aldrich has had in the past two weeks.
After 15 years of operating a public stable Aldrich decided
this season to go another route and give up training and concentrate on
driving.
“I was thinking seriously about giving up my stable for a
few years now but I could foresee problems if it didn’t work out.” Aldrich
said. “I made a move to Saratoga a couple of years ago and did pretty well
racing there but this year when Monticello opened I decided to at least spend
the winter here before Saratoga began racing in the spring.
“But as it worked out I began winning a lot of races at
Monticello in January and February so when Saratoga did finally open I thought
this was the year to try just driving and to do my best to race at both tracks.
“Let me tell you it hasn’t been easy, it’s a two and a half
hour drive (140 miles) from one track to the other and I spend a lot of time in
the car. But luckily their race dates don’t conflict on a regular basis.”
A week or so ago Ronnie Wrenn, Jr. was to come and drive in
a specialty race at Monticello but it didn’t work out as planned. Still Wrenn,
Jr. whose 631 victories lead all other drivers in North America in races won
may be back here after all.
Via phone conversation, Wrenn was asked if he’d participate
in a drive-off with Bruce Aldrich, Jr. where they would have a mount in
every race on the card.
“I’m certainly interested and would love to do it but I’d
like to know how the drives are selected,’ Wrenn asked.
He was told that details will have to be worked out but the
drive-off (driving competition) is in the works and tentatively scheduled for a
Wednesday in December.
“I believe it would be a very interesting competition and it
would give our loyal fans a glimpse of the talents of Ronnie Wrenn, Jr. who has
been racing mostly in the mid-west. There are a few things we have to take care
of before it’s a go but I don’t think there will be any roadblocks,” noted Eric
Warner, the . Mighty M’s director of racing.”
