Better ask right away, since Angelo Lombardo’s iconic beard is the first thing you notice and the answer is no, he will not cut his beard after winning the World Championship. Quite simply because, superstition or not, there was no bet at stake. "The year I bet my beard, which I’ve always had, I didn’t win and the beard stayed where it was", he confirms jokingly. Angelo has a twin brother, not identical despite their similar looks, also a driver, but in hill climbs, and it is together with that inseparable brother that in the early ’90s his motorsport story begins:

"Dad used to take us to the huge square of Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto, the market square, and let us drive a very special kart — it wasn’t a mini kart, it was a sort of kart cross, four welded tubes, a seat in the middle and off-road tires – Angelo recalls excitedly – he just told us: if you press this pedal you go fast, if you press that other one you stop. Needless to say, we weren’t interested in the left pedal at all: we had fun going under parked trailers, just imagine how small we were!"

 

Sicily, it should be stressed, is a motorsport land on its own. Although the "important" karting is known worldwide for the international circuits mainly in Northern Italy and scattered here and there between Central and Southern Italy, the largest island in the Mediterranean deserves special mention when talking about motorsport. Sicily has a history of every kind of race, from the glorious Targa Florio to hill climbs, gymkhanas, slaloms, and many small circuits scattered here and there where many talents of our karting have been developed, like Gabriele Minì for example, or even city circuits where kart races are held every year, a phenomenon practically vanished elsewhere in Italy and the world (with few exceptions). A "miniature England" of motorsport, where talents grow driving tiny, rough circuits and, basically, if Sicilians can compete with the English in karting, it’s "something special."

 

"In Sicily, we have very short tracks: just a few hundred meters. It was on one of these that I ran my first race, at 5 years old, practically exempt from any regulation (but let’s keep that secret, he laughs). I won ahead of my brother – says the new World Champion – the one I first challenged and imagine, a few years later, at the Italian Championship in the 60 Minikart with the first WTP engines, in Val Vibrata, we took each other out: incredible."

Angelo followed a classic karting path for a 1989-born driver: after Mini came the 100 Junior Piston Port, then the so-called ICA, with the first water-cooled engines of the early 2000s – the equivalent of today's OK category, in which he recalls with regret losing an Italian Championship because he was found underweight after the race, which was won by Buemi, who later drove for Toro Rosso in F1. In 2007 he moved to KZ and like many drivers, it was love at first sight: "In KZ I immediately felt at home. I did the Italian Championship in 2008, back then called Open, and I split my races between city races in Sicily, and the Italian and European circuits, it was a super year: I remember two fantastic results at Angerville and Mariembourg, where I was third. Although I must say that my most vivid memory of those years are the two days of testing I had the privilege to share on track with Michael Schumacher, who was 39 at the time. An amazing athlete, I was struck by his extraordinary hand strength, he could have driven anything. Seeing a 7-time F1 World Champion eating a cold plate of pasta with us on plastic plates between sessions and talking about karting like any Sunday driver emotionally impressed me, it was a source of inspiration for all that came after and it still is."

 

In 2009 Lombardo competed at the European KZ2 Championship, held over two rounds, winning here and there, including several heats in the same European Championship where he raced against drivers like De Conto. He raced in KZ until 2011 when a serious road accident on his motorcycle forced him to stop for a long recovery period. He returned to the track in 2014 just to see if he still remembered how to drive, and thanks to the encouragement of some old friends, he challenged himself again close to 30 years old, racing again in the Italian Cup first and then pushing higher until 2021 when he returned to international racing, participating in the World Championship in Kristianstad: "In my journey, I never had anyone’s support except my mom, now that dad is no longer here, we’ve always done everything on our own. No coach, no sponsors. Everything I learned, for better or worse, I learned by myself, honestly I can tell you no one ever taught me how to race: I raced and learned along the way, especially from my mistakes."

The rest is quite recent history: in ’22 and ’23 he raced in KZ2 but without notable results until in ’24 he decided to start his own team, Team Lombardo, which began following, in collaboration with Maranello, some young drivers in Sicily. It’s 2025 now, an incredible year in which he triumphed at the Italian Championship and in the memorable finale at Franciacorta where he managed to hold off for the entire race a multiple World Champion named Davide Forè, in a category born as "semi-amateur" but which, according to former champions like Manetti and Gandolfi, has now reached technical levels, at least among the fastest drivers, worthy of the top class: "I’ll just say one thing: at Franciacorta we were lapping a ‘theoretical’ 45.6” with Lecont tires, in the Italian Championship we lapped 47” with Vega tires. Consider that we in Master carry 10Kg more than KZ1 which can cost what? 5-6 tenths? Well, I saw the lap times of the top KZ guys and damn, we were there. On a rubbered track, for gentlemen as we’re called, I think it’s pretty good. Consider that like many other drivers in this category, if not all, on Monday morning I go to work, I race just for fun."

Now Angelo is already busy between his main job in the small family business and his weekend role as mechanic and team manager of his team: "Despite the great passion in this region, we have few national-level tracks. Consider that to get to Triscina we travel 300 kilometers. Without the great passion that drives us, it would be tough. For me, the final race of the season could be the Ayrton Senna Trophy in Sarno before the end of the year, then we’ll see about 2026, preparing the ‘triplete’ narrowly missed this year of Italian, European, and World titles." We can only wish Angelo, who has no intention of stopping, to continue dreaming and giving his best on track.