RPW Exclusive: Early Accident Leads To Hot Tempers In The Valley Pits Between Andy Bachetti & LJ Lombardo
News Director 
Column By: DYLAN FRIEBEL / RPW – WEST LEBANON, NY – Early in the Modified feature Saturday night at Lebanon Valley was a war of attrition. The beginning laps of the event were marred by the yellow silk. While the 4th of July is only a couple days away, due to one of those yellow flags, there were fireworks in the pits once the race was over between Andy Bachetti and LJ Lombardo.
While the ‘King of The Valley’ took home the feature victory in convincing fashion, lapping up to 11th place, it was an incident on lap 2 that lit up the pits afterwords.
Let’s give you the backstory on the incident. Last week’s feature winner Lombardo entered turns three and four on the low side. However, there was another car lower than him, that was underneath the berm, Andy Bachetti, and he slid up into the #35. The back and forth between the two continued down the frontstretch, but ended in the first turn with severe damage to Lombardo’s car and a severed right front spindle and other broken parts on Bachetti’s #4.
It ended the night for Bachetti, who entered the night as the point leader. Lombardo was able to get back out without losing a lap and salvaged a ninth place finish, gaining as many points as possible.
When asked for his side of the story, Bachetti respectfully declined to comment on what took place. However, Lombardo talked about the situation from his vantage point.
“What happened in (turns) three and four wasn’t racing-related,” Lombardo said. “He went below the berm and you shouldn’t be driving down there. I didn’t want what happened in the first turn to take place, but it did. I’m not here to get run over. I’ll race people the way they race me.”
When the feature was over, things heated up. As Lombardo’s car neared the Bachetti pit area, words were exchanged. Emotions ran high and began to get the best of both drivers and their teams. After some pushing and shoving, cooler heads prevailed. However, you could tell tensions were still elevated.
“I don’t want rivals around here, but it’s never going to happen like that,” Lombardo said. “I will never let anyone walk all over me. We have a bad fast race car and everybody here knows it. It’s frustrating when people make it so we can’t show it. For me, it’s over and done with and we’ll just move on to next week.”
