By Marty Czekala
VERNON, N.Y. – It’s been a season of adaptability for Zach Sobotka.
Entering Friday night’s event at Utica-Rome Speedway, Sobotka had recorded three top 10s in four races, with a best finish of third at Brewerton.
Sobotka redrew the pole and led all 25 laps to take his first career CRSA victory in the I-90 Pit Stop Challenge.
This one took some grit and determination, though.
On lap eight of the feature, the front wing detached from Sobotka’s No. 38, an issue that could affect the aero and downforce of his self-owned 305 Sprint that was recently purchased.
“This thing handled perfectly and then I had to hang on,” said Sobotka. “Made the car a lot tighter. Glad we hung on.”
The pressure affected the handling of his No. 38 but did not deter Sobotka’s momentum in clean air.
“When it flew off, I eased up, not knowing what it was going to do,” Sobotka said. “The harder I drove it though, the better it handled for me. I didn’t know what to expect.”
Sobotka drew the pole for the 25-lap feature with Tyler Graves to his outside. Graves wasted no time clearing, but before the first lap was completed, a red flag came out for Tyler Chartrand flipping into the turn three weeds. Chartrand escaped OK.
This brought up a complete double-file restart, which Sobotka cleared. Driving an owned Blake Warner No. 21D, Dillon Paddock made his way up to second on lap five. That all changed on lap eight when Sobotka lost the front wing and Paddock ran over it, damaging part of his ride.
Sobotka continued to hang on after a pair of cautions for Billy VanInwegen and Dalton Herrick slow, consistently leaving the gap at under a second and not looking back to take the checkers.
This makes Hutton the 83rd different winner in CRSA history. With the win, Sobotka becomes the sixth first-time winner this season, joining Tyler Chartrand, Dan Craun, Adam DePuy, Dillon Paddock and Matt Rotz. That’s more than any prior season in the last decade.
“I got my first win in a big block in four starts, five in this,” said Sobotka. “Definitely a big accomplishment for me and all my guys over there. I can’t be thankful enough for all of them.”
Afterward, Sobotka was light for the 1525 lb minimum weight. Per the rulebook infraction, Sobotka receives last-place money and points.
Tyler Graves recorded his best career CRSA finish in second. Dirty air was his disadvantage tonight, and he hoped that the first lap counted.
“I needed that first start to stick,” said Graves, who has four top fives in his last five races. “It was all about dirty air. I could get up to him and get real tight. I don’t know how he held on with no nose wing.”
The points entering tonight’s CRSA feature were tied between Tomy Moreau and Kyle Pierce. With Pierce’s third to Tomy Moreau’s fifth-place run, the gap between the top two for the overall points championship is four points.
“That was wild from lap one to 25,” Pierce said. “We had a good battle going on with Tomy. Threw some sliders for a couple laps. We did the best we could do going onto tomorrow.”
Jordan Hutton entered tonight’s I-90 Pit Stop Challenge finale with a 10-point lead on Jeff Trombley. His chances were nearly dashed in heat racing when he damaged the right front drag arm, putting him in the rear of the B-Main where he scored the final transfer spot. It was a feature for Hutton where he had to go “balls to the wall,” but a sixth-place finish and finishing ahead of Trombley was enough to clinch the miniseries.
“I was hitting the cushion as hard as I could,” said Hutton. “We kind of missed it a little, but if we started toward the front, we would’ve had a good shot. This is the one we were running with for the points. With a busy schedule, it didn’t work out the way we wanted to.”
The No. 66 gained 16 spots from 22nd tonight to earn the Powdertech Powdercoating Hard Charger of the Race.
Sobotka was awarded the Maguire Family of Dealerships Magnificent Move of the Race for racing without a front wing for most of the feature.
CRSA now gets a good night’s sleep before the championship finale at Land of Legends Raceway tomorrow night and the finale for the DisBatch Brewing Company Challenge. Can’t make it? Watch live for free on Land of Legends TV and simulcasted on DIRTVision.
A Feature 1 (25 Laps): 1. (BF) 38-Zach Sobotka[1]; 2. 25G-Tyler Graves[2]; 3. 9K-Kyle Pierce[3]; 4. 4S-Johnny Smith[8]; 5. 22-Tomy Moreau[6]; 6. 66-Jordan Hutton[22]; 7. 18-Timmy Lotz[5]; 8. 99K-Mike Kiser[13]; 9. 80-Bobby Parrow[20]; 10. 121-Spencer Burley[7]; 11. 21-Dillon Paddock[4]; 12. D9-Dustin Sehn[16]; 13. 28-Ron Greek[21]; 14. J27-John Cunningham[23]; 15. 4-Cliff Pierce[15]; 16. 19EM-Emily VanInwegen[18]; 17. (DNF) 3A-Jeff Trombley[11]; 18. (DNF) 21B-Blake Warner[17]; 19. (DNF) 29-Dalton Herrick[12]; 20. (DNF) 56V-Billy VanInwegen Jr[9]; 21. (DNF) 22M-Aaron Shelton[19]; 22. (DNF) 88C-Chad Miller[14]; 23. (DNF) 12-Tyler Chartrand[10]
B Feature 1 (10 Laps): 1. 22M-Aaron Shelton[1]; 2. 80-Bobby Parrow[2]; 3. 28-Ron Greek[3]; 4. 66-Jordan Hutton[10]; 5. 410-Jerry Sehn Jr[4]; 6. J27-John Cunningham[6]; 7. 3-Bailey Boyd[7]; 8. 13-Keith Granholm[8]; 9. 99-Adam Depuy[5]; 10. 30-Kirsten Dombroski[9]; 11. 55-Michael Hart[11]
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 29-Dalton Herrick[1]; 2. 25G-Tyler Graves[3]; 3. 22-Tomy Moreau[9]; 4. 12-Tyler Chartrand[6]; 5. D9-Dustin Sehn[4]; 6. 88C-Chad Miller[8]; 7. 80-Bobby Parrow[7]; 8. 22M-Aaron Shelton[10]; 9. 30-Kirsten Dombroski[2]; 10. 66-Jordan Hutton[5]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 21-Dillon Paddock[3]; 2. 3A-Jeff Trombley[4]; 3. 9K-Kyle Pierce[6]; 4. 4-Cliff Pierce[1]; 5. 21B-Blake Warner[2]; 6. 18-Timmy Lotz[9]; 7. 410-Jerry Sehn Jr[5]; 8. J27-John Cunningham[7]; 9. 55-Michael Hart[10]; 10. 13-Keith Granholm[8]
Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 121-Spencer Burley[2]; 2. 56V-Billy VanInwegen Jr[3]; 3. 4S-Johnny Smith[5]; 4. 99K-Mike Kiser[4]; 5. 19EM-Emily VanInwegen[1]; 6. 38-Zach Sobotka[9]; 7. 28-Ron Greek[7]; 8. 99-Adam Depuy[8]; 9. 3-Bailey Boyd[6]
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