Stock Car Racing: Bombrado makes his mark on the track

BARROWS — His nickname is "Mr Excitement," a name given to him by the North Central Speedway PA announcer Chris Kolstad and he drives the 51B Hobby Stock car. His name is Brandon Bombardo.

"Chris started this," Bombardo said. "It came about because we went through a little spell when I first started racing Hobby Stocks where we would drive it to the front and put on a good show or wreck really bad. I rolled it over pretty bad when I first started and after that the name stuck."

YouTube watchers have also gotten to know him better from the video from Princeton Motor Speedway two weeks ago. Bombardo went flying off the track on the backstretch with his car ending up sideways on the fence.

"I was on Delta flight 51B courtesy of Princeton. The takeoff was cool but I didn't stick the landing," Bombardo said. As soon as the car took off I remember closing my eyes and saying ‘oh (expletive).’ We came to a rest and were hanging from the fence. I finally know what it feels like to be a pair of socks hanging on a clothesline. I opened up my eyes and saw a hazy sky and I was really concerned as to where I was as I didn't see the ground. My buddy Tim (Siercks) was underneath me and I couldn't see him so I thought maybe it was God talking to me."

Bombardo's love of the sport came from watching NASCAR races on television with his grandfather who was a huge fan of Dale Earnhardt and also being at the track with his dad.

"I have been around racing my entire life,” he said. “My grandfather Tom really got me into it since I was really young. I was watching racing with him on television as he was a huge Dale Earnhardt fan and anything to do with him. My dad used to race an IMCA A-Mod when I was really young and I remember being at the track with him."

However, his father was against Bombardo getting into a ride and told his son that it was too addicting. Brandon was told that as long as he was under his father's roof there would not be a race car there. When Bombardo bought his first car his father stuck to what he had told Brandon and did not let him keep the car. It resided at the house of one of his friend's mothers who let him use the garage for it.

He is the current leader in the points race for the Hobby Stock class with two wins and seven top five wins in seven feature races. He credits the Siercks family for getting him his start in the sport, and he has learned a big lesson from David Siercks, a veteran of the class and from his father Bill, who recently passed away. The second annual Bill Siercks Memorial will be run next Saturday, June 25. He also counts David's son Tim as his best friend and he joined family and friends at the winners stand June 18 when Tim won the feature race for the Northern Sportmod class.

"Everyone who knows me knows I am high strung and I used to be a bull in a china shop," Bombardo said. "I see an opening and I just want to go there. But Dave and his father Bill were the ones who told me that you have to slow down in order to go faster and you will preserve your car if you practice that. I wish a lot more drivers here would practice that as there is a lot of stuff that gets torn up from lap one winners. The flagman always says no one is winning this race on lap one."

After his wreck in Princeton, Bombardo's car was not suitable to race the next day at Brainerd and that is when he learned about the true character of the racing community.

"Racing is the most humbling sport that exists but it is also full of some of the kindest people you will ever meet," he said. "I don't even know that I was done crashing and I had people offering to help me. It was absolutely humbling how many people came to my pit and helped me tear apart my car and the number of calls I received asking me if I had something to drive the next night."

Kelcey Siercks had a Hobby Stock car that she will be debuting later in the season and she told Bombardo he was welcome to use it under one condition, there couldn't be a scratch on it, a promise he followed through on the next night with a successful heat race and a second place finish

Highlights from Saturday, June 18, — Dylan Nelson raced to his third straight win in the Super Stock feature race and Jenna Hagemann, Tim Johnson and Aaron Johnson each won for the second straight week for the Sport Compact, Super Stock and Modified class. Tim Siercks, Tim Otterness and Dustin Holtiquist also scored feature wins.