By Marty Czekala
DUNDEE, N.Y. — With $4000 on the line to close out the 20th season for the CRSA Sprints, the final showdown at Outlaw Speedway came down to the two best 305 drivers in New York — Dillon Paddock and Zach Sobotka.
Paddock had the longest final 10 laps of his season to defend and hold off Sobotka, along with a 360 regular in Davie Franek.
It paid off with the biggest payday of Paddock’s career with a win at Outlaw Speedway.
In victory lane, double fist bumps on top of the wing, hugs around from his crew and a handshake from his closest competitor all season.
“That was tough,” said Paddock. “Being out front, you don’t really know where to go, but I was gonna do whatever it took to win that race. I felt like I played pretty defensively. What a way to end the season. This is cool.”
Mikey Smith and Jordan Thomas started on the front row for the 30-lap feature. At the drop of the green flag, Paddock immediately moved up to second. By lap five, Paddock made a pass on the outside of Smith to score the lead. Smith tried to fight back with a slidejob in turn one, but it wouldn’t work as the first yellow flew for Floyd Billington spinning in turn four.
On the restart, Paddock held serve, while Thomas was back on the charge. By lap 10, Thomas moved up to second and challenged Paddock for the lead, looking for grooves to scoot past, but Paddock held him off through the way. At the halfway point, Billing brought out the second yellow.
The best chance for Thomas came just after the restart, throwing a slidejob for the lead in turns one and two with Paddock countering. Starting to run away, the race changed for Thomas as he had nowhere to go in an accident involving Paul Colagiovanni. For that, Thomas was awarded the Ruggles World of Autobody & Graphics Hard Luck award.
This brought Davie Franek, looking for an extra $5000 bonus for winning the Empire Super Sprints race the night before, Billy VanInwegen and 18th-starting Zach Sobotka into the equation. On the race’s final restart, Sobotka took a trick out of Paddock’s playbook and went from sixth to second. Immediately, the CRSA Sprints set his sights on Paddock and nearly took the lead, until with two to go, getting too high in one and two, setting Paddock free and leaving Dundee with a $4000 payday.
“I think maybe he had a car to beat,” said Paddock. “Those guys had their chances at us, but like I said I just protected there. It worked out in the end.”
In addition to dedicating this one to his crew, Paddock also dedicated it to his dad, Frank, as a birthday celebration.
“Hopefully it’s a good birthday present for him,” said Paddock. “Just happy to have all my family and friends here to do this and all our great supporters.”
Despite the second, Sobotka won the CRSA Sprints championship, becoming the first rookie since 2011 to win the title (follow-up story coming soon). In the race, he received the Powdertech Powdercoating Hard Charger award, starting 18th and finishing second, gaining 16 positions.
“I found the top before pretty much everybody else,” said Sobotka. “Then I dove to the bottom and passed like four cars and it felt good. I wish I could have just started up there a little bit further. I really wish I could have had that corner back.”
Rounding out the podium was Davie Franek, looking for a bonus to sweep the weekend that would have given him $13000 altogether. Franek believed he had a car meant for long runs to beat the field.
“I felt like our car was a lot better on green flag runs,” said Franek. “These 305s are a little bit different. It’s a lot more momentum. It was a great show. Had a lot of fun doing it.”
Mikey Smith won the Elab Smokers Boutique Scramble Dash and started on pole tonight.
42 cars checked into Outlaw Saturday night, a track record for the series.
CRSA celebrates the 2025 season Dec. 6 at its awards banquet at Vernon Downs Casino Hotel.
A Main (30 Laps): 1. 8-Dillon Paddock[4]; 2. 38-Zach Sobotka[18]; 3. 28F-Davie Franek[3]; 4. 56V-Billy VanInwegen Jr[5]; 5. 66-Jordan Hutton[15]; 6. 99-Adam Depuy[6]; 7. 1R-Christian Rumsey[8]; 8. 4S-Johnny Smith[12]; 9. 4ST-Mikey Smith[1]; 10. 48JR-Darryl Ruggles[14]; 11. 2-Dave Axton[10]; 12. 3A-Jeff Trombley[7]; 13. D9-Dustin Sehn[23]; 14. 29-Dalton Herrick[21]; 15. 13-Keith Granholm[19]; 16. 81K-Dalton Martin[9]; 17. 25NG-Nolan Groves[24]; 18. 3-Bailey Boyd[16]; 19. 18-Timmy Lotz[11]; 20. 79-Jordan Thomas[2]; 21. 33-Scott Landers[13]; 22. 10V-Paul Colagiovanni Sr[22]; 23. 19-Floyd Billington[17]; 24. 30-Kirsten Dombroski[20]
B Main 1 (10 Laps): 1. 29-Dalton Herrick[1]; 2. D9-Dustin Sehn[2]; 3. 8P-Jonathan Preston[6]; 4. 67-Ken Duke Jr[3]; 5. 48A-Alysha Bay[4]; 6. 98-Chad Phillips[5]; 7. 77-Matt Rotz[9]; 8. 410-Jerry Sehn Jr[7]; 9. 66X-Scott Nash[10]; 10. 85C-Cam MacKinnon[8]; 11. (DNS) 21B-Blake Warner
B Main 2 (10 Laps): 1. 10V-Paul Colagiovanni Sr[1]; 2. 25NG-Nolan Groves[2]; 3. 27W-Nick Webb[4]; 4. 17E-Ethan Gray[5]; 5. 90-Kruz Kepner[3]; 6. 121-Steve Glover[8]; 7. 25-Cameron Moss[7]; 8. 18C-Dan Craun[6]; 9. Z28-Tucker Donath[10]; 10. (DNS) 10P-Nathan Pierce; 11. (DNS) 121X-Spencer Burley
Dash (8 Laps): 1. 4ST-Mikey Smith[1]; 2. 79-Jordan Thomas[4]; 3. 28F-Davie Franek[5]; 4. 8-Dillon Paddock[6]; 5. 56V-Billy VanInwegen Jr[2]; 6. 99-Adam Depuy[7]; 7. 3A-Jeff Trombley[8]; 8. 1R-Christian Rumsey[9]; 9. 81K-Dalton Martin[3]
Heat 1 (10 Laps): 1. 79-Jordan Thomas[4]; 2. 2-Dave Axton[1]; 3. 48JR-Darryl Ruggles[2]; 4. 3-Bailey Boyd[3]; 5. 10V-Paul Colagiovanni Sr[5]; 6. 90-Kruz Kepner[8]; 7. 8P-Jonathan Preston[6]; 8. 121-Steve Glover[9]; 9. 66X-Scott Nash[7]
Heat 2 (10 Laps): 1. 81K-Dalton Martin[2]; 2. 18-Timmy Lotz[3]; 3. 56V-Billy VanInwegen Jr[4]; 4. 19-Floyd Billington[1]; 5. D9-Dustin Sehn[5]; 6. 48A-Alysha Bay[6]; 7. 18C-Dan Craun[7]; 8. 77-Matt Rotz[8]; 9. Z28-Tucker Donath[9]
Heat 3 (10 Laps): 1. 28F-Davie Franek[2]; 2. 4S-Johnny Smith[1]; 3. 3A-Jeff Trombley[3]; 4. 38-Zach Sobotka[5]; 5. 29-Dalton Herrick[4]; 6. 27W-Nick Webb[7]; 7. 410-Jerry Sehn Jr[8]; 8. 10P-Nathan Pierce[6]
Heat 4 (10 Laps): 1. 8-Dillon Paddock[3]; 2. 33-Scott Landers[1]; 3. 1R-Christian Rumsey[4]; 4. 13-Keith Granholm[2]; 5. 25NG-Nolan Groves[6]; 6. 98-Chad Phillips[7]; 7. 25-Cameron Moss[5]; 8. (DNS) 21B-Blake Warner
Heat 5 (10 Laps): 1. 99-Adam Depuy[1]; 2. 4ST-Mikey Smith[4]; 3. 66-Jordan Hutton[3]; 4. 30-Kirsten Dombroski[2]; 5. 67-Ken Duke Jr[6]; 6. 17E-Ethan Gray[5]; 7. 85C-Cam MacKinnon[7]; 8. (DNS) 121X-Spencer Burley
Group 1 (3 Laps): 1. 79-Jordan Thomas, 00:15.261[6]; 2. 3-Bailey Boyd, 00:15.339[3]; 3. 48JR-Darryl Ruggles, 00:15.412[7]; 4. 2-Dave Axton, 00:15.442[5]; 5. 10V-Paul Colagiovanni Sr, 00:15.573[8]; 6. 8P-Jonathan Preston, 00:15.694[2]; 7. 66X-Scott Nash, 00:15.922[4]; 8. 90-Kruz Kepner, 00:15.947[9]; 9. 121-Steve Glover, 00:15.990[1]
Group 2 (3 Laps): 1. 56V-Billy VanInwegen Jr, 00:15.304[4]; 2. 18-Timmy Lotz, 00:15.329[8]; 3. 81K-Dalton Martin, 00:15.556[7]; 4. 19-Floyd Billington, 00:15.579[3]; 5. D9-Dustin Sehn, 00:15.610[5]; 6. 48A-Alysha Bay, 00:15.702[2]; 7. 18C-Dan Craun, 00:15.938[1]; 8. 77-Matt Rotz, 00:16.015[9]; 9. Z28-Tucker Donath, 00:16.301[6]
Group 3 (3 Laps): 1. 29-Dalton Herrick, 00:15.236[4]; 2. 3A-Jeff Trombley, 00:15.512[2]; 3. 28F-Davie Franek, 00:15.609[3]; 4. 4S-Johnny Smith, 00:15.813[1]; 5. 38-Zach Sobotka, 00:15.937[8]; 6. 10P-Nathan Pierce, 00:16.086[5]; 7. 27W-Nick Webb, 00:16.382[7]; 8. 410-Jerry Sehn Jr, 00:16.382[6]
Group 4 (3 Laps): 1. 1R-Christian Rumsey, 00:15.427[4]; 2. 8-Dillon Paddock, 00:15.486[5]; 3. 13-Keith Granholm, 00:15.642[1]; 4. 33-Scott Landers, 00:16.220[7]; 5. 25-Cameron Moss, 00:16.245[2]; 6. 25NG-Nolan Groves, 00:16.363[6]; 7. 98-Chad Phillips, 00:16.723[3]; 8. 21B-Blake Warner, 00:16.723[8]
Group 5 (3 Laps): 1. 4ST-Mikey Smith, 00:15.561[8]; 2. 66-Jordan Hutton, 00:15.648[1]; 3. 30-Kirsten Dombroski, 00:16.016[7]; 4. 99-Adam Depuy, 00:16.200[4]; 5. 17E-Ethan Gray, 00:16.317[5]; 6. 67-Ken Duke Jr, 00:16.359[2]; 7. 85C-Cam MacKinnon, 00:17.155[6]; 8. 121X-Spencer Burley, 00:17.155[3]
The CRSA Sprints are celebrating their 20th anniversary in 2025 and are brought to you by A-Verdi Storage Containers. Associate sponsors include Pit Stop Convenience Stores, DisBatch Brewing Company, Dandy, Joe’s Garage, Westward Painting Company, Elab Smokers Boutique, iFreeze Storage & Distribution Center, Maguire Automotive Group, Powdertech Powdercoating, Ruggles World of Auto Body, PJC Business Ventures, Profab Enterprises, Magsarus Ignitions, Highside Racewear, Hoosier Racing Tire, Insinger Performance with their Stinger Race Fuel, My Race Pass and is owned and operated by Mike Emhof Motorsports.
For more information on the series, results and points, please visit our website, www.crsa.myracepass.com.
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