News Director 
Story By: MIKEY ALBREADA / RPW – TORRINGTON, CT – For anyone who attended Lebanon Valley Speedway in 2004, you knew the Albreada Waste bright lime green #4 car was the car to beat. Now, in 2017, 13 years later, the Garrity Asphalt and Reclaiming bright green #4 car is still one of the best.
I grew up around racing. Whether it was my dad’s company or now my uncle’s company on the side of Andy Bachetti’s car, every Saturday night you could find my dad, Robert, my older brother, Robbie and I at the track. It was just something we all did together.
Fast forward 13 years, things are a little different but our Saturday nights still are at Lebanon Valley Speedway. I’ve been dating LJ Lombardo, the driver of #35 big block at Lebanon Valley, for about a year now and it wasn’t 5 months into our relationship that Robbie, my older brother, wanted to be apart of it too. LJ, being only 21 and having just a few years of big block experience under his belt, was so happy when Robbie wanted to come help.
Robbie, having 10+ years of working with Andy and experience working on these cars full time, was going to be a huge asset to the 35 team after he took a year off to start his full time job. LJ had a 10th place finish at Eastern States with Robbie leading the team.
From there he knew their duo was going to work well at the track and outside of the track, too.
All off season, our families spent a lot of time together. LJ and the race team became the new talk at our family dinners and gatherings. LJ’s dad, Lew, started to get closer with my dad as well. Our family night outs quickly became, “Did you ask LJ and Lew to come, too?” Or at LJ’s house, “Call up Robert to see what he’s doing.” Our families molded together nicely and it’s fun to have the bond we have at the track but also at home, too.
With the help of Robbie and my dad, LJ decided to pack things up from Orange County Fair Speedway and head to Lebanon Valley for the first time as his home track. LJ said, “Having the Albreada family on board has helped us tremendously. Robbie as crew chief, Mikey doing all my marketing and merchandise, Robert being a huge help with making sure we’re on the right track, and even AJ being so eager to learn and help gave me a package deal.”
Robert said, “He has already opened up some eyes from the grandstands and other drivers which is hard to do as the new kid.” LJ’s goal for this year is to come out of there with a win and hopefully pick up a sponsor for his empty quarter panel along the way. LJ also said, “Hopefully with the help of Robbie and all his knowledge about this track along with our new additions to the crew, we can continue to open up some eyes at The Valley and new opportunities.”
