to Read the Article

JOHN LOMBARDO JR.
COMING FULL CIRCLE…
…by Following A Straight Line
story
Susan Wade
photos
R
John DiBartolomeo
obert Hight was closing in on his first NHRA Funny
Car championship as he celebrated last September
27 at the Texas Motorplex, near Dallas. Standing beside him, fittingly, on the victors’ stage, posing for pictures
with his own Wally trophy—his first—was Top Alcohol Funny
Car winner, John Lombardo Jr.
Their bright, vivid hopes swirled around them like pieces
of colorful winners’ circle confetti. They always had. Thirty
years before that day in Texas, as grade-schoolers far away
in tiny Alturas, California, Lombardo had ignited Hight’s passion to drive a Funny Car.
Hight described Alturas as “so far in the middle of no24
DRAG RACING ACTION
where…there’s absolutely no racing.” But that’s where both
dreamed Texas-sized notions about following their hearts,
about drag racing and winning.
The difference was that Hight grew up in Alturas and could
only imagine the life that Lombardo got to revel in each
summer, tagging along with his dad, renowned Funny Car
driver Lil’ John Lombardo. John Lombardo Jr. and brother
Jason lived in Northern California with their mother during
the school year. But they spent vacations in the heart of the
Southern California car culture with their dad, who made his
mark as a successful privateer but won the 1985 U.S. Nationals in Raymond Beadle’s Blue Max Mustang.
Young John Lombardo had soaked in the sights and sounds of the
heady world of big-time drag racing, and Hight was fascinated. Billy Meyer
and Chris Karamesines stayed at the Lombardo house when they visited
the West Coast. And before his dad
moved the shop from their Sherman John Lombardo Jr. traded in his Ford openwheel road-racing car for the equally chalOaks home to North Hollywood,
lenging Top Alcohol Funny Car. With associate
Lombardo Jr. said that “on any
sponsorship from NAPA Legend and Optima
given night, there could be some
Batteries, Gates/NAPA Belts and Hoses, Lupretty killer names in the garage.”
cas Oil, NGK Spark Plugs, and Goodyear
Oh, and Hight would fantasize, Tires, Lombardo is fusing his closed-circuit
thinking that Lombardo was one experience and business acumen into a
successful drag-racing career.
lucky dog.
DRAG RACING ACTION
25
A young John Lombardo
“I went to races for the better part of
soaked in the sights and
a year,” he said. “I got to work on two or
sounds of the heady world
three different cars. I really researched
of big-time drag racing
and love the class—I’m a Funny Car guy.” when he was young. His
father was a successLombardo, who by then had consolidated his four auto parts stores near Brea, ful privateer but won the
California, into the largest-inventory NAPA 1985 U.S. Nationals in
Raymond Beadle’s Blue
outlet in the state and set up his two adMax Mustang. Before his
jacent parts warehouses, approached the
dad moved the shop from
enterprise with a dizzying but determined
their Sherman Oaks home
to North Hollywood, Lomuse of his analytical skills.
bardo Jr. said, “On any
“My going out to the races and learngiven night, there could be
ing about the class went in stages,” he
some pretty killer names
said. “Do I want to pursue something like
in the garage.”
this? Then when I knew that I did: How
do you want to do it and who would you want to go do it with?
What would be your goals and how would you achieve them?
“I would need to go spend some time and watch how guys
worked on their cars and see how many people and resources
it took. Does it take one spare motor or three? Does it take five
people or two of the right ones? Should it be a pick-up truck
and a tag trailer or does it require an 18-wheeler? Everybody
does it different; there’s no right or wrong way. It’s just which
way is going to fit. What will the one-, three-, and ten-year
goals be? I just wanted get a feel for all the different venues.”
Last September’s NHRA race at Dallas—just his third national event—provided some
Texas-sized headaches for Lombardo and crew with a nasty main bearing, but it also
produced his first victory.
In the junior Lombardo’s case, it can’t hurt that he was born with the right
genes for drag racing. His father is the renowned “Lil’ John Lombardo” (left)
an independent and triumphant nitro Funny Car star from the 1970s and ’80s
who still doesn’t mind jumping in and getting his hands dirty.
26
DRAG RACING ACTION
“I used to watch drag racing when I was a kid and really got to
following it after I met him,” Hight said, remembering the “Lil’ John
Lombardo” T-shirts his older friend brought back. “And I thought that
was the coolest thing in the world. I was in sixth or seventh grade.
He’d always tell me stories about getting to go to the races and helping out, and I was so envious.” They lost touch after the Lombardo boys moved back to Southern
California to start high school. Motorsports reunited them. However,
it wasn’t a given that they’d meet again as drag racers, for Lombardo
literally went in circles before he “straightened out.” Fresh out of school, Lombardo took the opportunity to attend
Frank Hawley’s Drag Racing School (in the same class as young Illinois hopeful Tim Wilkerson).
“I came home after that ready to do something,” Lombardo said.
“Then I realized my budget was going to allow competing in one of
the bracket classes. I was pretty young, and right or wrong that was
kind of hard for me, because I had grown up around one of the top
classes of the sport. I had a hard time starting there.”
He investigated road racing. He had some experience with gokarts, racing such notables as current NASCAR Sprint Cup regular
Casey Mears and cousin Clint Mears, the off-road racer and son of
open-wheel great Rick Mears.
Lombardo spent “the better part of 14-15 years” in the Sports
2000 and Formula 2000 series. “Toward the end of my stint in road
racing,” he said, “I owned several cars and a team with the guys at
P1 Racing. We really got to a pretty neat level with the formula cars,
with national event wins in multiple series.”
When his class lost its status as a
At last year’s Dallas race, when Champ Car and ALMS support series in
Robert Hight was closing in on 2007, Lombardo said he figured it was “an
his first Funny Car champion- opportunity for me to regroup.” He sold
ship with a win there, John
his equipment and rekindled his interest
Lombardo Jr. also won his first
Wally. Fittingly, the two grade- in drag racing, the Top Alcohol Funny Car
school friends reveled in each category in particular. But as logical as it
other’s triumphs.
was for him, the decision wasn’t automatic.
RON LEWIS
JOHN LOMBARDO JR.
Such a daunting set of decisions might scare some, but Hight
said he wasn’t surprised by Lombardo’s intensity: “I could see it
back in sixth, seventh grade. He was a real serious guy. I’m sure
that’s what he was thinking about when he was in school, when
he was going to be with his dad and get to go to the races.”
Lombardo said, “This is a big commitment for me and it involves
a lot of work on the crew’s part, and sacrifice for my family and my
business. So I wanted to know as much as I could going in,” Lombardo said, considering wife Michele and their children, son Ryan,
now 14, and daughter Jordan, 12.
DeVOUR IS DA’ MAN
G
ary Scelzi hauled his Top
Alcohol Funny Car to Indianapolis years ago, and as he
pulled into the hotel parking lot, the
security guard quizzed him: “Hey! Is
Bob DeVour in that truck?!”
Replied Scelzi, “How do you
know about Bob DeVour?” The
guard said, “Well, he drives a truck
just like that.” The guard was correct. DeVour was tuning his car.
Amazed, Scelzi learned just
how respected his crew chief was.
“It didn’t say ‘Bob DeVour’ on the
trailer. This guy just associated a
crew cab with a Chaparral trailer
with Bob DeVour. Bob is a legend.
People love him,” Scelzi said.
What’s so loveable about the
64-year-old who started his career
in the motorsports industry squiring Linda Vaughn around in the
Hurst Oldsmobile, who hawked
clutch components and an array
of auto parts, who’s elbow-deep
in an engine on a Tuesday night
when Chuck Worsham’s bowling
buddies wander through the shop
in Orange, California, who carries
a briefcase with plenty of notepads
and pens for scribbling instructions
to himself?
For starters, DeVour is far more
than a former chauffeur. He helped
George Hurst develop the Jaws of
Life hydraulic rescue tool. In serv-
ing as product rep for Mr. Gasket,
Hays, and Center Line Wheels for
decades, he learned how a race
car behaves. In the shop where
Chuck and Del Worsham prepped
their top-contending Funny Cars,
DeVour manages not one but two—
unrelated—Top Alcohol Funny Car
programs. So those notebooks and
pens get valuable use.
He jots technical notes to himself, sometimes waking up in the
middle of the night to do so. John
Lombardo Jr.’s NAPA Auto Parts
Chevy Monte Carlo keeps his mind
humming, and so does, on a more
limited basis, Keeter Ray’s entry.
“How to make this car run a little
quicker—that’s all I think about,”
DeVour said.
DeVour infuses a driver with
confidence.
Scelzi said, “The biggest thing
that I remember and that I love
about Bob is that he makes his
driver think he can whip Mike Tyson.
When we pulled into the gates, they
knew we were there to race. I don’t
know if they were so much afraid of
Gary Scelzi, but they knew what Bob
DeVour could do. Gary Scelzi went
there to whip their asses because
Bob DeVour said he could!”
The four-time pro champion
said, “Bob taught me how to race.
He was a big part of me making
it to Top Fuel because of the work
ethic that he taught me, the way to
think about a race car, how to be
able to wade through the bull with
the people around a race car. Just
being around him with your ears
open, you got an education.”
Who has he helped? Who hasn’t
he helped? “Anybody who’s anybody ever in this sport,” Scelzi said.
Right now it’s Lombardo and Ray.
“I oversee both cars and the crews,”
DeVour said, adding that Ray “wants
to do a limited schedule.”
DeVour, who also was the IHRA
Director of Competition under Billy
Meyer’s rule, has seen the sport
evolve.
“What has made drag racing
so different is (1) definitely the
computer, (2) the car preparation,
and (3) electronics,” he said. “I’m
almost a dinosaur in this industry.
I still do quite a bit of it by instinct,
(but) the computer has helped me
immensely—and then it has challenged me to think differently.
“I don’t know where we’re going
to be five years from now,” DeVour
said, “but I know how far we’ve
come in the last five years.”
Drag racing veteran Jim Adolph
said DeVour “builds the cars, tunes
them, and makes them go fast.
He’s keen on driver safety, and
NHRA relies on his input. Also, he
recently bought the L&T Racing
clutch company and intends on
continuing to service the dragracing customer base.”
DRAG RACING ACTION
27
JOHN LOMBARDO JR.
When John Lombardo Jr. bought his Top Alcohol Funny Car team from Ron Meer in December 2008, crew
chief Bob DeVour already had an arrangement to run competitor Keeter Ray’s car. “Keeter, Bob and I sat
down and agreed on a schedule for the second half of the year to go and run both cars together, hoping to
gain some of the knowledge that you can with learning things twice as quickly.” Their crews worked splendidly together, and Lombardo said, “It seemed to bring us more to a team level.”
One of Lombardo’s right-hand men is veteran Jim
Adolph, who raced nitro Funny Cars with Lombardo
Sr. in the 1970s and ’80s and reinvented himself as
publisher of Car Craft and other magazines.
needed to hear, for his goodhearted
in addition to DeVour, he’s a vital part of
spirit is as vast as his knowledge.
Lombardo Jr.’s crew.
So, although he knew it would mean
Adolph still pulls double-duty, workjuggling Lombardo’s budding career
ing on the clutch and transmission at the
with that of aspiring Newport Beach,
races and handling team publicity. He
California, shoe Keeter Ray, DeVour
said he, too, is impressed with Lombardo
said yes. And he added Lombardo
Jr.’s instincts.
Jr.’s name to the long list that includes
“He’s very smooth, composed, and
Gary Scelzi, Alexis DeJoria, Frank
most times unflappable,” Adolph said.
Manzo, and Brad Anderson.
“He has faced most of the points leaders
After a second stint at Frank Hawout west, all of whom have been in the
ley’s school and earning his license in
class for at least 10 years or more, and
“I have my sights set on being really, really competitive 100-degree heat at Las Vegas in May
has fared pretty well, (with) a fifth place in
in this class,” John Lombardo Jr. said of the Top Alcohol 2008 in Randy Goodwin’s car, LombarDivision 7 the first year on tour. He plans
Funny Car category. But he said for now he wants to
do
was
on
the
straight
and
narrow
path.
to run Indy this year. Junior will improve
earn the respect of his peers. Besides, he understands
And DeVour quickly became a bewith more runs—(he has) less than 75 at
what a huge time and financial commitment this is, as
this point—as he becomes more comforthe juggles his NAPA Auto Parts business and family life liever. “There’s a lot of people who try
with wife Michele, son Ryan, and daughter Jordan.
to do this and only so many people are
able with his new surroundings.”
really good at it. John’s done very well,”
Adolph said, “DeVour is the key to the
Besides, he said, “A lot of people in
he said. “It’s a pretty consistent car. He
success of this operation,” but added, “Bob
drag racing know my dad. I wanted to
shifts it, he leaves right, he does a lot of
and I coach him from different perspectives:
make sure that if I did something in drag
things very good with it. He’s very hard on
Bob’s about what the car should do and
racing that I’d try to do it right.”
himself. It takes time to come together.”
mine is what to expect inside the car.”
His dad let him pace himself. “There’s
He gives kudos to drag-racing veterans
What people have come to expect from
definitely no ‘Little League father’ presand crew members Dustin Yoho, Scott DeJohn Lombardo Jr. is an unquestioned
sure,” Lombardo Jr. said. “That doesn’t
Francisco, Ken Smith, Mike Rios, and Alan
resolve to get back in the winners circle—
fit my father’s personality, nor has he ever
Gillis, who work with him in the shop they
perhaps again with his once-starry-eyed
DRA
pushed me at all to become involved in
rent from Chuck and Del Worsham. “I’ve
childhood buddy Robert Hight.
racing. It’s something I found that I have a
got one of the best
love for. I put more pressure on myself, for crews in the busisure, than there probably is from anybody
ness. They’ve been
having real high expectations.”
with me forever,”
However, the NAPA Pro Series Starters
DeVour said. “They’re
& Alternators Monte Carlo driver said,
conscientious.
“We’ve done so much in our first year that They’re concerned
it probably exceeds most all reasonable
about John’s safety.”
expectations.”
When Jim Adolph
Key to that has been clutch and tuning
wasn’t racing the Rat
wizard Bob DeVour. Like some hidden
Trap, Sundance, L.A.
treasure, DeVour came with the Top AlcoHooker or the Shady
hol Funny Car package when Lombardo
Glenn in earlier days,
bought Ron Meer’s operation. Sean
he was working on
Bellemeur had been the driver and the
Lombardo Sr.’s crew,
By the first of May this season, John Lombardo Jr. was in sixth place in the nalegendary DeVour the crew chief.
helping him rack up
tional Top Alcohol Funny Car standings. He said he stays motivated at the race“He asked if I would help him go
track records while
track and at his super-size NAPA Auto Parts store at Brea, California, with the
racing,” DeVour said. That’s all DeVour
match racing. Today
motto: “Winners look in, and losers look out.”
28
DRAG RACING ACTION