There might be just one thing tougher than winning the season championship in the bomber division at Evergreen Speedway.
Winning the title two years in a row.
“There are 20 drivers that can win in the division,” 2007 bomber champion Lane Sundholm said recently. “I didn’t do anything special to win (the title); they just screwed up more than me.”
Hoping for a reversal of fortune this season in the second tier of the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series will be seasoned drivers including last year’s runner-up Darrel Lutovsky, and Jim Foti and Jill Lang, who finished fourth and fifth overall, respectively.
Last year the race for the bomber title went down to the final event. Sundholm entered the night leading the division by one point over Travis Blackwood and he was three points ahead of Lutovsky.
After the four bomber heat races were completed, Sundholm’s lead was just two points over both Blackwood and Lutovsky, who were knotted in second after Lutovsky won his heat, setting up a winner-take-all A main.
A second-place finish in the main, just ahead of Lutovsky, gave Sundholm the title with a three-point edge in the standings.
Sundholm, who said “my big competitor is usually me,” admitted repeating as champion will be a tough proposition.
“There wasn’t one driver that won most of the races last year,” Sundholm said. “Start in the front, start in the back; it’s so competitive you just have to make the run. … Run hard and keep your fenders clean.”
Sundholm started last season with a series of mishaps and mechanical problems that a less-focused driver might have had trouble overcoming. He rallied to the top with a one-race-at-a-time attitude.
Racing smart wasn’t always Sundholm’s strategy. The 20-year Evergreen racer admitted to letting his emotions guide his actions, saying “I used to fight and argue and race the wrong way.”
Sundholm began racing when he was 5 years old, running karts, motorcycles and eventually moving up to the mini-stock and super stock divisions at Evergreen.
But he crashed the super stock car and, lacking funds to keep going, took a break from racing and started helping Naima Lang.
Over the five years they’ve worked together, Lang — who owned the car Sundholm won the title in last year — helped Sundholm to settle down.
“Just because of the way he is …, it isn’t anything he taught me about driving,” Sundholm said of Lang. “He taught me to say out of fights and not to go crazy, to focus on the racing.
“He doesn’t get upset over anything.”
Sundholm bought the car during the offseason, but will remain a member of Lang’s team, operating out of Lang’s shop.
Providing additional support for his title defense will be Sundholm’s family: wife Jill and daughters Jennifer, 12, and Cassidy, 6.
Even with the backing of his family and Lang, the majority of work — on and off the track — will fall on Sundholm’s shoulders.
Maintenance and repair work during the season consume a lot of time and money, making Sundholm unsure of his future plans.
“I might quit after this year. Times are tough, we’re not making a whole lot of money,” Sundholm said. “If something comes along, I might transfer into something else … go into supers, otherwise, I’ll be done.”
If he doesn’t run another season after this year, Sundholm will have the satisfaction of having won a title in a very competitive division of racing.
“It was huge, a huge deal,” Sundholm said of winning the title. “It was a fight and we fought for it. It was tight racing and it was fun.”
The bomber division opens its season on April 12 at Evergreen, along with the top-tier super stocks, mini-stocks and figure eight divisions.
The mid-season championship for the bombers will be held on June 28 and the season finale will be on Sept. 27.
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