LJ Lombardo Claims Strong Lebanon Valley Victory

For 2021, L.J. Lombardo is racing full-time, splitting his time between full-time schedules at both Lebanon Valley and Albany-Saratoga, along with substantial Super DIRTcar Series and Short Track Super Series. The extra time working on his cars came in handy Saturday night.

Olden Dwyer started from the pole after winning his heat and ran well early on. Meanwhile, after an early caution, Mark Flach Jr. was able to move up into second.

The field bunched up on lap 5 after Timothy Davis cut a tire to bring out a yellow. On the restart, Flach was able to get past Dwyer for the lead, bringing J.R. Heffner along for the ride. Flach’s time at the front was very short-lived as Heffner took the lead away on the next lap.

Once out front, Heffner pulled out to a big lead on the field. Meanwhile, Lombardo was on the move as well, snatching second on lap 9. He didn’t seem to have much for Heffner, but engine issues struck the Valatie native on lap 13, ending Heffner’s night.

With Heffner out, Lombardo inherited a substantial lead with Dwyer in second. He was able to pull away from the pack. Marc Johnson entered the picture in the closing laps, but could do nothing to prevent Lombardo from winning.

“I think [J.R.’s car] fired better than mine [off the corner], but we were reeling him back in on long runs,” Lombardo said after the race. “That long, long green flag run when he broke and I led the rest of the race? Had that stayed green with me in second, we would have had a good race for the win. I think we had a good enough car to get to him, but getting to him and getting past are two different things.”

Johnson passed Dwyer with four laps to go for second. Eddie Marshall was fourth, while Andy Bachetti was fifth.

In Small Block Modified competition, Dwyer was on pole here as well. On the opening lap of the race, Ryan Larkin and Adam Gage both spun out in turn 2 to bring out a yellow. Opening night winner Bachetti also got a piece of the incident and was forced to pit for repairs. He would continue at the rear of the field.

On the restart, Jason Herrington was able to get past Dwyer and take the lead. Once out front, Harrington was able to drive away in a hurry. A quick yellow for a Brandon Lane spin bunched everyone back up, but Harrington ran away again to an eight-second lead.

Meanwhile, Bachetti was slowly making his way back up the order after his pit stop. By lap 10, he was seventh. A couple of laps later, he was in the top five.

Herrington was cruising until a collision between Kim LaVoy and Ryan Larkin brought out a yellow with three laps to go. By that point, Bachetti was up to third. On the restart, Bachetti made short work of Joey Coppola for second, but could not prevent Herrington from taking the win. Bachetti was second, then Coppola, Ray Hall Jr. and Brian Sandstedt.

The Pro Stock class saw Nick Hilt start from the pole and lead early. Meanwhile, Tom Dean was holding off Dave Stickles and Shawn Perez for second.

A quick spin for Doug Olds brought out the caution for the first time on lap 5. This brought everyone back together, to the benefit of Chad Jeseo, who had started 10th and was slowly advancing.

On the restart, Stickles and Perez came together exiting turn 2 while fighting for second. Perez ended up hitting the wall hard, ending his night. The scramble resulted in Dean regaining second-place, but with Jeseo on his tail. It did not take long for Jeseo to dispatch Dean for second and set his sights on Hilt.

A chain-reaction incident in turn 3 involving Scott Towslee, Tony Markou and Johnny Rivers Jr. brought out another yellow on lap 11. Once the race restarted, Jeseo immediately started pressuring Hilt.

Much like opening night, Hilt went a little too high in turn 1 on lap 16. That was all Jeseo needed to get the lead. Once there, he held to take his second straight win. Hilt was second, then Dean, Zach Seyerlein and Towslee.

In Pure Stock, Rob Partridge won a make-up feature from May 8. Jeff Meltz Sr., John Devine and Hunter Sanchez each won regular features. Sanchez then went on to win the Boomer’s Performance Purestock Clash. In 4-Cylinders, Brandon Ely won the race overall and the Dual-Cam class. Victor Duncan Jr. won the Single-cam class.

Contractor Sales/Boomer’s Performance Modified Feature Results (30 laps): 1) L.J. Lombardo, 2) Marc Johnson, 3) Olden Dwyer, 4) Eddie Marshall, 5) Andy Bachetti, 6) Mark Flach Jr., 7) Kyle Sheldon, 8) Matt Williamson, 9) Rob Pitcher, 10) Brett Haas, 11) Ricky Davis, 12) Kolby Schroder, 13) Bobby Hackel, IV, 14) Wayne Jelley, 15) Kenny Tremont Jr., 16) Mike King, 17) Jackie Brown Jr., 18) Kyle Armstrong, 19) Timothy Davis, 20) Dan Humes, 21) Josh Marcus, 22) J.R. Heffner, 23) Denny Soltis, 24) Chase Dowling, 25) John Ruchel, 26) Paul Gilardi, 27) Brian Berger, 28) Dave McFeeters, 29) Ryan Darcy

Small Block Modified Feature Results (24 laps): 1) Jason Herrington, 2) Andy Bachetti, 3) Joey Coppola, 4) Ray Hall Jr., 5) Brian Sandstedt, 6) Ryan Charland, 7) Alan Houghtaling, 8) Adam Gage, 9) Brandon Lane, 10) Bryan McGuire, 11) Kim LaVoy, 12) Ryan Larkin, 13) Brian Peterson, 14) Frank Harper, 16) Montgomery Tremont, 16) Mike Sabia, 17) Olden Dwyer, 18) John Lutes Jr., 19) Bob Hackel, III

Pro Stock Feature Results (20 laps): 1) Chad Jeseo, 2) Nick Hilt, 3) Tom Dean, 4) Zach Seyerlein, 5) Scott Towslee, 6) Jason Meltz, 7) Tony Markou, 8) Dave Stickles, 9) Doug Olds, 10) Steven LaRochelle, 11) Tom O’Connor, 12) Johnny Rivers, 13) Shawn Perez, 14) Brian Keough, 15) Jay Fitzgerald

Pure Stock Feature No. 1 (from May 8, 8 laps): 1) Chris Stalker, 2) Clifford Booth, 3) John Devine, 4) Don Kennedy, 5) Franklin Smith, 6) Jethro Rossman, 7) Craig Coons, 8) Keri VanDenburg, 9) Christopher Brown, 10) Dave Streibel Jr., 11) Scott Kilmer

Pure Stock Feature No. 2 (from May 8, 8 laps): 1) Rob Partridge, 2) Jeff Meltz Sr., 3) Hunter Sanchez, 4) Ryan Brown, 5) Jim Dellea, 6) Brian Walsh, 7) Shawn Perez, 8) Colby Kokosa, 9) Janai St. Pierre, 10) Scott Morris, 11) Rocco Procopio

Pure Stock Feature No. 1 (May 15, 8 laps): 1) Jeff Meltz Sr., 2) Scott Morris, 3) Brian Walsh, 4) Zach Sorrentino, 5) Ryan Brown, 6) Mike Dianda, 7) Dave Streibel Jr., 8) Craig Coons, 9) Colby Kokosa

Pure Stock Feature No. 2 (May 15, 8 laps): 1) John Devine, 2) Clifford Booth, 3) Chris Stalker, 4) Janai St. Pierre, 5) Keri VanDenburg, 6) Franklin Smith, 7) Wayne Mahar, 8) Rocco Procopio, 9) Shawn Perez

Pure Stock Feature No. 3 (May 15, 8 laps): 1) Hunter Sanchez, 2) Jim Dellea, 3) Jethro Rossman, 4) Katarina Foster, 5) Christopher Brown, 6) Rob Partridge, 7) Scott Kilmer, 8) Don Kennedy

Boomer’s Performance Purestock Clash (20 laps): 1) Hunter Sanchez, 2) Jeff Meltz Sr., 3) John Devine, 4) Chris Stalker, 5) Janai St. Pierre, 6) Clifford Booth, 7) Brian Walsh, 8) Jethro Rossman, 9) Ryan Brown, 10) Christopher Brown, 11) Franklin Smith, 12) Katarina Foster, 13) Rob Partridge, 14) Zach Sorrentino, 15) Keri VanDenburg, 16) Scott Morris, 17) Jim Dellea, 18) Mike Dianda, 19) Dave Streibel Jr., 20) Wayne Mahar, 21) Scott Kilmer

4-Cylinder Single-Cam Feature Results (15 laps): 1) Victor Duncan Jr., 2) Joe Wolfe, 3) Bradley Batho, 4) Althea Roy, 5) Chris Bierce, 6) Matt Narzynski, 7) Jacob McDonald, 8) Joey Batho, 9) Tim Meltz, 10) Luke Williams, 11) Gary Malloy Sr.

4-Cylinder Dual-Cam Feature Results (15 laps): 1) Brandon Ely, 2) Doug Howe, 3) Jim Williams, 4) Mike Duncan, 5) Lucas Ballard, 6) Steve Burbank, 7) John Wright, 8) Shawn Briggs, 9) Jim Guertin