RPW Column: LJ Lombardo & Andy Bachetti Split Double Features At Lebanon Valley Saturday
Column By: BOBBY CHALMERS / RPW – WEST LEBANON, NY – It was double the Modified pleasure Saturday night at the Lebanon Valley Speedway with two features in the Modified division.
However, it was only double the fun for two drivers as LJ Lombardo and Andy Bachetti came away victorious.
In the held-over feature, Lombardo was able to grab the lead away from Kyle Armstrong near the midway point of the 30-lap main and went on to take his second victory of the 2021 season.
However, the move almost was
“Honestly, the move was a last-second decision,” Lombardo said. “Kyle shoved the nose on the restart which gave me the advantage. The rule is that he had to cross the line first so I got off the gas for a split second. That let him get by me. However, once we got to the flagstand, he seemed to lift off the gas early.”
Could Lombardo have waited a little bit longer to make his move?
“I feel like I could have,” he said. “I could have waited for my tires to really come in, and I could have just driven around him. However, I saw my opportunity and I took it.”
From that point on, Lombardo was able to keep the top spot, but had both Kyle Sheldon and eventually Brett Haas lurking on his heels, especially as they all entered into lap traffic. Lap cars are usually the great equalizer. Did this play into Lombardo’s hands?
“I actually wanted to catch lap traffic,” he said. “Most racers won’t say that but I wanted to get a few cars between us. Unfortunately, we didn’t get there until the last few laps. I just wanted to keep my car straight and save my stuff as much as possible.”
Lombardo held off all challengers to capture the win. Sheldon was able to cross over a Haas slide job on the final corner to come home in the second spot with Haas in third. Kenny Tremont and Marc Johnson completed the top five.
Point leader Andy Bachetti had an oil line that blew apart on his #4 machine and ignited a small fire. Bachetti was able okay and the fire was extinguished, but he came home with a 19th place finish.
Immediately, the team unloaded their backup car, and that piece seemed to work well in the second feature as the “Wild Child” used a power move around the outside of leader Rob Pitcher with just a handful of laps remaining and went on to capture his third victory of the season. He now sits one shy of #200 in his entire career.”
“Rob and JR (Heffner, who was second) both had pretty good race cars tonight,” Bachetti said. “I would have made the move earlier if I had a wing on this thing but this was just a good car tonight and the breaks fell our way.”
Bachetti was quick to give all the credit for the win to his crew after their first feature troubles.
“My entire team dug their guts out tonight to grab a backup car and drive to the front like this,” he said. “Tonight showed just how much teamwork we have. Everyone just digs so hard for me and I can’t say enough about that. We’ve got a lot of work to do when we get back to the shop and I hope this perks everybody up.”
Pitcher brought his new Bicknell home with a second place effort and Heffner completed the podium. Kolby Schroder was fourth with asphalt ace Chase Dowling grabbing his best career finish to date, as he brought his #9 home in the fifth spot.
It was also double the fun in the Sportsman division as both Rob Maxon and Chris Lynch were able to taste the sweet joy of victory on the evening.
Maxon was able to get to the lead early from his 11th starting spot and then had to hold off a determined John Virgilio for the victory, especially on a restart with just a few laps remaining.
“My right rear tire was going away on me,” Maxon said. “I knew he was there when I saw him pull up next to me for the restart. I knew if I wanted to beat him I had to hit my marks and run my line and we were able to get the job done.”
Maxon has been experimenting with the coil rear suspension this year, but went back to something he knew to turn his luck around this season and it paid off.
“I really have to thank my crew,” he said. “We’ve been struggling this year and working hard to try and get the coil deal to work. We finally decided to put something together that went back to basics with this setup and it seemed to work tonight.”
Virgilio came home in second with Michael Sabia, Joey Coppola and Peter Carlotto rounding out the top five.
After a disappointing 21st place run in the first feature, Chris Lynch was able to put it all together after a hard-fought battle with Walter Hammond for the top spot to nail down his second win of the 2021 season.
Once he got to the lead, there was no looking back for the Connecticut racer.
“This car is just very, very good,” Lynch said. “I mean, it’s a ten-year-old car with a four-year-old motor. This thing just runs so well for us and I couldn’t be any happier.”
For the second time in his career, Lynch now has a season where he’s won multiple times, and that is spurring on what could be a career year by season’s end.”
“I never thought this would happen again,” he said. “We did this in 2016 and with the luck we’ve had, sometimes, I’ve wanted to go buy a boat instead. Now, this is like a dream and I can’t thank my team and all of our fans for the support. This is very humbling.”
Hammond came home with a second place showing with Kevin Ward finishing third. Sabia and Coppola were fourth and fifth, respectively.
For the fourth time in her career and first in nearly five years, Kim LaVoy was able to park her 358-Modified in victory lane on Saturday night, and it was a victory she needed very much.
“It feels like forever since we’ve been in victory lane,” LaVoy said. “I’m very excited to be back here and it’s all because of the best crew and family and best backing I could ask for. No mater how bad things are, they never stop trying and no matter how much I complain, they give me a good car and here’s proof tonight.”
It’s that support that LaVoy knows is the reason she was able to reach victory lane on Saturday night. However, she ran a flawless race too behind the wheel.
“I have to thank my parents, my family and my crew for everything they do,” she said. “I have to thank all my sponsors and my boyfriend for never giving me crap for being here. We’ve got a lot of good people behind us this year and I’m very grateful for all of their support.”
Frank Harper brought his #25 home in the second spot with Olden Dwyer driving to a third-place finish. Brandon Lane and Joey Coppola finished out the top five runners.
FINALLY! Finally, Johnny Rivers can say he’s a winner in the Pro Stock division at Lebanon Valley Speedway and man, victory tastes so sweet.
After problems caused damage in the Pro Stock Dash for Cash earlier in the evening, Rivers sent his crew back to the shop to get their backup car. He didn’t expect to make the feature but his team dug deep and ended up patching the primary car back together.
That was a good move as he was able to hold off all challengers to score his first career victory.
“It’s been many years,” Rivers said. “This car is just amazing. We cobbed it back together after the dash issue and were able to come back out here to win.”
After calling the Valley like a second home, this win was a huge weight off of Johnny’s shoulders.
“I’ve been here since like birth,” he said. “This is our life. We’ve put a lot of good stuff together here this year and the good luck is finally starting to pay off.”
In the final laps, Rivers had to fend off a strong challenge from Jason Meltz. However, he was able to hold the 51 at bay to capture the checkered flag.
“The right rear tire started to go away with about five to go,” he said. “It wasn’t easy holding off Jason for the last two laps but we got it done and this feels amazing.”
Meltz did bring his car home in second with Chad Jeseo finishing third. Zach Seyerlein and Rivers’ teammate, Shawn Perez, completed the top five.
Rob Partridge, Brian Walsh and Jeff Meltz Sr. took home the three Pure Stock victories on the night.
MODIFIED FEATURE RESULTS ( 30 LAPS) 1) L.J Lombardo** 2) Kyle Sheldon, 3) Brett Haas, 4) Kenny Tremont Jr, 5) Marc Johnson* 6) Kyle Armstrong, 7) Ricky Davis 8) Kolby Schroder, 9) Eddie Marshall, 10) Brian Berger, 11) Bobby Hackel IV 12) Chase Dowling 13) Wayne Jelley, 14) Mike King, 15) Ryan Darcy* 16) Jackie Brown JR. 17) Dan Humes 18) John Ruchel 19) Andy Bachetti** 20) J.R. Heffner, 21) Olden Dwyer, 22) Rob Pitcher, 23) Kenny Aanonsen Jr 24) Timothy Davis
MODIFIED #2 FEATURE RESULTS ( 30 LAPS) 1) Andy Bachetti*** 2) Rob Pitcher, 3) J.R. Heffner, 4) Kolby Schroder, 5) Chase Dowling 6) L.J Lombardo** 7) Marc Johnson* 8) Brett Haas, 9) Olden Dwyer, 10) Kenny Tremont Jr, 11) Eddie Marshall, 11) Ricky Davis 12) Bobby Hackel IV 13) Wayne Jelley, 14) Kyle Armstrong, 15) John Ruchel 16) Mike King, 17) Ryan Darcy* 18) Brian Berger, 19) Kyle Sheldon, 20) Dan Humes 21) Kenny Aanonsen Jr 22) Jackie Brown JR. 23) Timothy Davis
358-MODIFIED FEATURE RESULTS (24 LAPS) 1) Kim Lavoy* 2) Frank Harper, 3) Olden Dwyer* 4) Brandon Lane, 5) Joey Coppola 6) Brian Petrerson 7) Ryan Charland, 8) Andy Bachetti** 9) Ryan Larkin 10) Jason Herrington, 11) Alan Houghtaling, 12) Brian Sandstedt, 13) Chris Curtis 14) John Lutes JR. 15) Montgomery Tremont 16) Mike Sabia 17) Kevin Petrucci 18) Ray Hall Jr, 19) Sean Mandel
SPORTSMAN #1 FEATURE RESULTS (20 LAPS) 1) Rob Maxon* 2) John Virgilio** 3) Micheal Sabia 4) Joseph Coppola, 5) Pete Carlotto, 6) John Stowell, 7) Kevin Ward, 8) Robbie Colburn, 9) Matt Burke, 10) Jeff Reis 11) Robbie Knipe, 11) Greg Decamp 12) Kevin Ames 13) Dave Fachini 14) Dylan Grogan 15) Walter J. Hammond 16) Jeff Watson, 17) Walter Hammond JR., 18) Nikki Ouellette, 19) Whitey Slavin, 20) Colin Clow 21) Chris Lynch* 22) Karl Barnes, 23) John Santolin 24) Alan Houghtaling 25) Harold Robitaille 26) Del Ligouri 27) Dylan Gibson
SPORTSMAN #2 FEATURE RESULTS (20 LAPS) 1) Chris Lynch** 2) Walter J. Hammond 3) Kevin Ward, 4) Micheal Sabia 5) Joseph Coppola, 6) John Virgilio** 7) Robbie Colburn, 8) Rob Maxon* 9) Pete Carlotto, 10) Jeff Watson, 11) Walter Hammond JR., 11) Robbie Knipe, 12) Whitey Slavin, 13) John Stowell, 14) Kevin Ames 15) Jeff Reis 16) John Santolin 17) Dave Fachini 18) Nikki Ouellette, 19) Harold Robitaille 20) Karl Barnes, 21) Dylan Grogan 22) Matt Burke, 23) Greg Decamp 24) Alan Houghtaling 25) Dylan Gibbson 26) Colin Clow 27) Del Ligouri
PRO STOCK FEATURE RESULTS (20 LAPS) 1) Johnny Rivers* 2) Jason Meltz* 3) Chad Jeseo,** 4) Zach Seyerlein, 5) Shawn Perez, 6) Tom O’Connor 7) Brian Carter 8) Dave Stickles, 9) Tim Bailey 10) Brian Keough 11) Nick Hilt** 12) Tom Dean, 13) Jay Fitgerald* 14) Steven LaRochelle,
PURE STOCK #1 FEATURE RESULTS (8 LAPS) 1) Rob Partridge*** 2) Scott Morris, 3) Clifford Booth, 4) Dave Striebel 5) Zach Sorrentino, 6) Shawn Perez, 7) Chris Brown, 8) Ryan Brown*
PURE STOCK #2 FEATURE RESULTS (8 LAPS) 1) Brian Walsh*** 2) Janai St. Pierre* 3) Colby Kokosa 4) Craig Coons, 5) Matt Wheeler 6) Katarina Foster 7) Dave Striebel JR. 8) Peter Huntoon, 9) Chris Stalker**** 10) Jeremy Dodge
PURE STOCK #3 FEATURE RESULTS (8 LAPS) 1) Jeff Meltz SR.**** 2) Dylan Fachini 3) John Devine** 4) Don Kennedy,* 5) Franklin Smith, 6) Keri Vandenburg, 7) Mike Dianda 8) Rocco Procopio** 9) Jethro Rossman,
