~ By Tom Boggie

Usually, when you go “All in” during a game of Texas Hold ‘Em, it only takes the turn of a couple of cards to know if you hit the jackpot or not.

That wasn’t the case for LJ Lombardo. It took him over a year before his decision to go “All in” really paid off.

The Danbury, Conn., driver scored the first Super DIRTcar Series win of his career Monday night, taking advantage of some bad racing luck by Andy Bachetti to win the King of the Spring 100 at Lebanon Valley Speedway and take home the top prize of $13,500. It should also be noted that Lombardo became the first driver to put a Pete Chuckta-built PMC chassis into victory lane at a Super DIRTcar Series race.

To the 26-year-old Lombardo, the victory was a dream come true. As a kid, he sat in the stands at Orange County Speedway in Middletown and dreamed of being the next Brett Hearn.

Since climbing into an open wheel car, he’s had a decent career, recording 20 wins along the way, first at Orange County and then at the Valley. But he always wanted to do more, so during the offseason in 2021, he made a huge career decision. With the support of sponsor Paul Wernau of Snap On Tools, he walked away from his job as a heavy truck mechanic to become a fulltime racer.

He competed at both Lebanon Valley and Albany-Saratoga in 2021, but he found more success on the high banks at the Valley. He struggled at Albany-Saratoga, finishing in the top five just once all year (a second to Jeremy Pitts on April 23) and ended the year 29th in points.

The 2022 campaign started off slowly. Like so many other Northeastern drivers, he made the trek to Florida in February, but the trip wasn’t really a confidence-builder. He finished 21st, 18th and 17th in three starts at All Tech and had two DNQs and finishes of 15th, 21st and 13th at Volusia County.

But since getting back to the high banks, where he’s most comfortable, Lombardo has been doing double-duty, racing in both the big block and small block divisions this season, and has been on a roll. He’s finished in the top eight in five of his six big blocks starts, and has a win, a fourth and a second in three small block races.

Lombardo was the 2014 sportsman champion at Orange County when he was driving for Bill Pascual before moving up to modifieds at Orange County in 2015.

He started racing at Albany-Saratoga in 2016, and finished eighth in points that season, with 10 top-10 finishes, and the next season, he became a Saturday night regular at Lebanon Valley.

Since 2017, he’s chalked up 11 wins at the Valley, nine in a big block and two in a small block, but nothing compares to his win on Monday night.

Lombardo drew the outside pole and took the lead away from Peter Britten on lap 18, but once Bachetti got rolling, he got around Lombardo and seemed to be cruising to a win in the 100-lapper. But his transmission gave out when the field was under caution with 30 to go, putting Lombardo back out on the point, and that’s where he stayed.

There have also been some speed bumps in Lombardo’s career, including a 2015 back injury that haunted him. He first had surgery on his back after that 2015 accident, and three years later, he thought he might have broken his back again when he was involved in a bad crash with CG Morey during the big block B-main during Eastern States Weekend at Orange County. As it turned out, he broke two ribs in that wreck.

But the pain from those two incidents never went away, and during the COVID 19-shortened season in 2020, Lombardo missed a lot of time after having another back surgery.

He was also on the wrong end of a disqualification last year during Eastern States Weekend. He won the 50-lap sportsman feature, which paid $5,000 to win, but was later disqualified for having illegal valve springs in the motor. Ironically, he had borrowed the motor just for that race, and didn’t know the valve springs were illegal. “I’ll take my beating as a man and regroup from here,” Lombardo posted on his Facebook page at the time.

As any gambler knows, you can’t win them all. But it sure feels good when you go “All in” and walk out with the big pot.

AROUND THE TRACKS

Talk about careers on the upswing. Are you paying attention to what Tim Laduc has been doing at Devil’s Bowl?

After winning the season-opener, which paid $3,000 to win, Laduc was right back in victory lane on Sunday after winning the 100-lap Northeast Crate Nationals, this time picking up a check for $5,000. Elmo Reckner finished second in owner Larry Gallipo’s car, while Troy Audet was third.

Laduc won the modified point championship at the Bowl in 2000, his rookie season in a modified, and walked off with his second title last year.

Reckner, who is still recovering from a bad concussion he suffered last year in a wreck at Utica-Rome, wasn’t even sure he’d be racing this season, but the effects of the concussion can’t be too severe if he can run a 100-lapper at the Bowl. And keep an eye on Audet, who has made a quick progression through mini-sprints to limited sportsman (he was the track champion at the Bowl in that class last year) to sportsman/modifieds. He’s got some good genes, as his uncle is former track champion Todd Stone.

Stewart Friesen won Sunday night’s Heroes Remembered 100-lap Super DIRTcar Series race at Weedsport, after starting fifth in the field. Mike Mahaney, who started 11th, got up for second in his George Huttig-owned modified. “It was too little, too late,” said Mahaney, who then skipped Monday night’s show at the Valley.

Alan Johnson picked up a win last Saturday at Land of Legends Raceway, extending a pretty amazing streak. He’s now won a modified feature in 48 consecutive seasons.

Friday night’s card at Albany-Saratoga Speedway will include the Empire Super Sprints. Danny Varin saw his three-race win streak snapped last Saturday at Fulton when Paulie Colagiovanni outran him to the checkered flag. Varin finished third. Colagiovanni sat in victory lane after the ESS show at Malta last year.

On Saturday, the highlight of Lebanon Valley’s card will be the 10th annual JC Flach Memorial, with the big block modified drivers competing for the top prize of $5,000.