By Marty Czekala
CENTER LISLE, N.Y. – Johnny Smith has tried nearly a decade to pick up an A-Verdi Storage Containers CRSA Sprints feature victory.
Over a year ago at Thunder Mountain, “The Firecracker Kid” ran inside the podium before a mag broke, ending his night.
He didn’t need to worry about it this time as he went from fifth to first to win his first career CRSA feature and become the 84th different winner in CRSA Sprints history.
“It feels real good,” said Smith in victory lane. “We had so many good chances and it was getting harder and harder to pick one of these off. I’m glad we were able to get one.”
The Joe’s Garage Southern Tier Series event started with Scott Landers and Johnny’s father Sheldon Smith on the front.
About a half lap after the green waved for the 25-lap feature a three car accident broke out in turn three for Kirsten Dombroski, Ed Kelley and Darryl Ruggles who took the brunt of the accident flipping. All drivers were OK.
On the restart, Landers held serve as action was heating up all-around the Center Lisle oval. Sheldon Smith stayed right on the tail tank of Landers’ No. 33 before Sheldon went around the outside to take the point on lap eighter.
Zach Sobotka also made the high side work, passing Landers for second two laps later. He would challenge multiple laps before the lead until a yellow with 10 to go for Alysha Bay spinning off turn two.
On the double file restart, Sheldon selected the bottom, but Zach Sobotka had a great drive off turn two to take the lead with 10 to go.
Johnny Smith started to close in as he’d move up the leaderboard throughout the race. Johnny took away the runner-up spot from his dad with nine to go. Five laps remaining, Johnny cut Sobotka’s lead to a quarter of a second. The next lap, Johnny cut down to the inside of Sobotka to the lead and pull away in lapped traffic to win by 2.4 seconds.
“My dad [Sheldon] was leading and I knew that 38 was going to go to the outside and I was going to able to follow him and that’s what I did,” said Smith setting up the race winning move. “Then toward the end, the top was going away. I tried something, which I never do. I never run the bottom. And I ran the bottom and won the race.”
From running away with the win in his heat and feature, Smith considered this the best car he’s ever driven.
“Every time we get in it, we were either in contention for the lead or leading and had a part failure. It really deserves to be here all the time. I used every part of the racetrack tonight, the bottom, the middle, all the way around the outside. Hats off to the track for a phenomenal surface.”
Coming so close to scoring his first career victory, Sobotka scored his best CRSA finish in second. It’s the No. 38’s second podium in his career and stays as the only driver to finish in top fives.
“I needed to get to the bottom quicker than I did,” Sobotka said. “I took the lead on top and felt really good up there. I felt the car just getting freer and freer on top and kept half the back out of it, little bit under, a little less hard every lap and he just beat me to the bottom.”
For Dillon Paddock, a third place finish, coming from ninth in the final restart with around 10 to go. With his run, “The Show Stopper” has three straight podiums from a win at Woodhull to a second in Weedsport.
“We’ve been struggling a little bit in the beginning of these feature, but seem to find a little bit more as the race goes on,” said Paddock after his final restart.” Everyone missed the bottom going into one and we were able to stick it and go by everyone. Happy to get back up to third and keep clicking off these podiums.”
Jordan Hutton won his second Elab Smokers Boutique Scramble Dash on the season, picking up an extra $100.
The Ruggles World of Autobody Hard Luck award went to Darryl Ruggles following his flip on lap one.
Bailey Boyd gained 11 spots and won the Powdertech Powdercoating Hard Charger award, starting 23rd and finishing 12th.
A new track record 31 drivers checked in tonight.
CRSA hosts round two of the I-90 Pit Stop Challenge Friday night at Utica-Rome Speedway. Action can be seen live on FloRacing for those who can’t make it.
A Feature 1 (25 Laps): 1. 4S-Johnny Smith[5]; 2. 38-Zach Sobotka[4]; 3. 8-Dillon Paddock[6]; 4. 56V-Billy VanInwegen Jr[10]; 5. 66-Jordan Hutton[9]; 6. 19EM-Emily VanInwegen[12]; 7. 4ST-Sheldon Smith[2]; 8. 18-Timmy Lotz[8]; 9. 33-Scott Landers[1]; 10. 29-Dalton Herrick[17]; 11. 121-Steve Glover[3]; 12. 3-Bailey Boyd[23]; 13. 22-Tomy Moreau[16]; 14. 15B-Spencer Burley[18]; 15. 21B-Blake Warner[22]; 16. 99-Adam Depuy[11]; 17. D9-Dustin Sehn[13]; 18. 10-Nathan Pierce[15]; 19. 10X-Shayne Spoonhower[19]; 20. 10VC-Vince Chicklets[25]; 21. 20K-Ed Kelley[24]; 22. 77H-Bob Hamm[14]; 23. (DNF) 48A-Alysha Bay[7]; 24. (DNF) 30-Kirsten Dombroski[20]; 25. (DNF) 48JR-Darryl Ruggles[21]
B Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 21B-Blake Warner[3]; 2. 3-Bailey Boyd[7]; 3. 30-Kirsten Dombroski[1]; 4. 20K-Ed Kelley[2]; 5. 33C-Cody Higbie[11]; 6. 410-Jerry Sehn Jr[4]; 7. 10VC-Vince Chicklets[9]; 8. 4-Cliff Pierce[8]; 9. 22M-Aaron Shelton[5]; 10. 77-Matt Rotz[6]; 11. 55-Michael Hart[10]
Dash 1 (4 Laps): 1. 66-Jordan Hutton[1]; 2. 56V-Billy VanInwegen Jr[4]; 3. 99-Adam Depuy[2]; 4. 19EM-Emily VanInwegen[5]; 5. D9-Dustin Sehn[6]; 6. 77H-Bob Hamm[3]
Heat 1: 1. 4S-Johnny Smith[2]; 2. 38-Zach Sobotka[3]; 3. D9-Dustin Sehn[1]; 4. 29-Dalton Herrick[4]; 5. 10X-Shayne Spoonhower[6]; 6. 4-Cliff Pierce[8]; 7. 410-Jerry Sehn Jr[7]; 8. 20K-Ed Kelley[5]
Heat 2: 1. 121-Steve Glover[2]; 2. 48A-Alysha Bay[1]; 3. 19EM-Emily VanInwegen[3]; 4. 77H-Bob Hamm[6]; 5. 10-Nathan Pierce[7]; 6. 30-Kirsten Dombroski[8]; 7. 77-Matt Rotz[4]; 8. 10VC-Vince Chicklets[5]
Heat 3: 1. 4ST-Sheldon Smith[2]; 2. 33-Scott Landers[3]; 3. 18-Timmy Lotz[6]; 4. 15B-Spencer Burley[4]; 5. 48JR-Darryl Ruggles[5]; 6. 22M-Aaron Shelton[1]; 7. (DNF) 55-Michael Hart[8]; 8. (DQ) 33C-Cody Higbie[7]
Heat 4: 1. 8-Dillon Paddock[2]; 2. 66-Jordan Hutton[1]; 3. 99-Adam Depuy[4]; 4. 56V-Billy VanInwegen Jr[6]; 5. 22-Tomy Moreau[7]; 6. 21B-Blake Warner[5]; 7. (DNF) 3-Bailey Boyd[3]