by John Manzi, for the Delvin Miller Harness Drivers Association

Monticello, NY — It went right down to the wire before Jamie Marra won the points championship in the Eastern Region of the Billings Series. His 2:01.3 victory with Civil Cause at Yonkers Raceway on Monday (Nov. 15) earned him enough points to defeat Simeon “Hot Rod” Hunsdon in the battle they had been engaged in for top honors for the past several weeks.

Also that evening two other divisions went to post with Dave Ehrenberg II and Michelle “The Belle” Ruvola each victorious in their respective splits.

But the night belonged to Marra. Driving in his first season of C.K.G. Billings Harness Driving Championship Series competition, Marra, a Florida resident, had only planned to drive in a few Billings events but as his point totals began to rise he continued to compete despite that fact that he lived in the Sunshine State and all but one of the Billings Eastern Region events were an airplane trip from his home base.

Marra, who is in law enforcement and runs the Florida Amateur Drivers Club, explains it this way.

“I joined the Billings this year mainly because I wanted to drive at the Meadowlands but when I began to do some good I decided to continue even though I had to travel a lot. I had made some good friends and I enjoyed the competitions and I got to drive at the Meadowlands, Mohawk, Delaware, Ohio and at Historic Track — places I had only really read about. And now winning the points championship makes it all worthwhile. But let me tell you even if I didn’t win the title it still would have been worthwhile.”

According to Marra he didn’t get the drive behind Civil Cause until five minutes before the draw and when he secured the mount he certainly did it justice.

After starting from the five hole he gunned his trotter to the lead and made every pole a winning one en route to a four length triumph over Orphan Victor and Tony “The Capo” Verruso. Third place went to PA Plates and driver Dave “Steady As” Yarock.

Dave Ehrenberg won the first of the three Billings splits that evening when he reined Cherry Tree Luke to a wire-to-wire, 2:00.2 victory over Winterleebrook, driven by 17-year-old Joey “the Teen” Bongiorno. Gerry “the Catskill Cat” Fielding took home the show dough with Thirty Trips in that contest.

Though she was the only lady participating in the three events at Yonkers, Michelle “the Belle” Ruvola showed the boys in her division just how it is done when she stalked Simeon Hunsdon and Rel Postage Due to the top of the lane and then urged her trotter, Sorce Of Victory, and they overtook Hunsdon’s mount in the deep stretch to go on and score a 2:01.1 triumph.

This coming weekend the Billings Series Regional Finals will be raced. The Eastern Region members will convene at Harrah’s Chester on Sunday, Nov. 21, while the Midwest Region drivers will do battle at Northfield Park on Saturday night, Nov. 20.