“Michelle has been chosen because she is an
accomplished amateur on the female side and she exceeds the minimum
number of wins to be eligible.,” noted Joe Faraldo, president of the North
American Amateur Drivers Association , which as a member of F.E.G.A.T., has the
right to be select competitors in European International Amateur Driving
events. “
Ruvola is a vice president of the Standard Company, a
family-owned national supplier of sanitation and maintenance
supplies and systems, and she has a great love for the Standardbred sport.
“For the past 15 years my life and passion has been
driving and training harness horses,” Ruvola said.“It’s so exciting
driving the equine athletes at speed of 30 miles a hour in close
quarters and in those instances where you are the winner…it’s like an explosion
of happiness.”
An annual competitor in the C .K.G. Billings Amateur Driving
Series Michelle is quick to than her dad for the help of getting her
involved in harness racing.
“I’m very grateful to my dad, George Bonomo, for giving me
the opportunities to be involved in this exciting sport and for
being a ‘friendly’ challenging competitor,” she added referring to
the times that she occasionally drives against her father in
amateur races throughout the country.
A busy business woman, Ruvola tries to make time to race
competitively although thus far this year she’s only managed to drive six
times.
“The last time I drove was on August 13th
in a Billings trot at Zanesville, Ohio and I won the race and beat my dad, “
she laughed. “ He finished second.”
Ruvola has been driving sporadically since 1996 with 21 the
most amount of starts she had in any given year. And for more than half the
time the amount of drives she’s had were numbered in the single digits.
Still she has managed to win 34 times including twice in the Billings Series
finales.
She and her husband Len are the proud parents of
daughter Lauren(20) and son Zack (17).
