Story By: MARTY CZEKALA / CRSA – BREWERTON, NY – Jeff Trombley worked hard for over two years to join an elite group in CRSA.
This season, he has had many opportunities to taste victory, but engine issues soured him at Afton and Fonda, and he fell short of a win.
Not tonight, though.
The driver of the No. 3A survived a myriad late-race restarts at Brewerton Speedway and led from flag to flag to score his 14th career win, tying him with Danny Varin, Scott Goodrich, and Josh Pieniazek for first on the all-time win list.
“Anytime you win, it’s a good feeling,” said Trombley in victory lane. “It’s been a frustrating year. The guys have been giving me a great car all year. We’ve been running good, just got to finish.”
Trombley started outside pole next to Timmy Lotz for Brewerton’s inaugural CRSA 25-lap feature. The former would run away with the early lead while Lotz, Tomy Moreau and Billy VanInwegen would battle for second.
“Billy V” moved up to second on lap 14, decreasing Trombley’s lead from 2.4s to 1.8s before the race’s first yellow a lap later for iFreeze B-Main winner Tyler Emmons off the pace.
In the three-lap average before the yellow flew, VanInwegen’s No. 56V averaged 15.282s to 15.795s from Trombley.
On the next two restarts in the 10-lap dash, Trombley held serve with VanInwegen on his tail. Whenever the No. 3A took the white flag or even the checkered flag, a problem behind him would happen, whether it was Lance Dusett’s flip on the back straight or Dalton Herrick’s spin in turn two.
Ultimately, Trombley ran away with the better car in the short run to score his first win of 2024 and the illustrious 14th career win he’d been waiting for.
“I knew the car was good on the short run, I was really confident,” said Trombley. “I knew Billy was behind me, so I knew where he would try to keep getting me.”
Billy VanInwegen records his third runner-up finish of the season after a pair of seconds at Thunder Mountain. If the race went caution-free, could the story be “Billy V” in victory lane?
“I had the lead in my sights,” said VanInwegen. “The last thing I wanted to see was that yellow. I think we were two car lengths back. In clean air, we had nothing for him. I tried a couple different things [in the final laps], just couldn’t find anything to make the magic happen.”
While that was the top two, the battle for third heated up at the end. While Tyler Graves and Tomy Moreau were racing hard, they were stunned by Zach Sobotka, who made his third career CRSA start in the No. 10VC typically driven by Vince Chicklets. Sobotka ripped the top side of his Friday night home in Sportsman to steal the bottom step of the podium.
“I was rolling in the bottom in the beginning,” said Sobotka, the 2021 Super DIRT Week champion in Sportsman. “Everyone was bottled up on the bottom, so I went to the top and could hold it wide-open. I knew it was fast as I was passing cars. It’s hard to get used to not knowing how a sprint car is supposed to drive, but must’ve been fast.”
Sobotka was awarded the Maguire Family of Dealerships Magnificent Move of the Race with his move.
With his fifth-place finish, Tomy Moreau increases his trend of top fives to five straight and extends his points lead to 30 on Kyle Pierce. Dalton Herrick remains third but falls 44 points behind the No. 22.
Dillon Paddock received the Powdertech Powdercoating Hard Charger of the Race, gaining 14 spots to finish 10th after starting 24th.
34 drivers checked in tonight for the inaugural race. Thanks to iFreeze Storage and Distribution Center and Westward Painting Company, drivers who didn’t make it to the feature received more money than usual.
“The Future Stars of Sprint Cars” take Labor Day Weekend off and return Sept. 7 at Weedsport Speedway as part of Cavalcade Weekend in round three of the I-90 Pit Stop Challenge.
A Feature 1 (25 Laps): 1. 3A-Jeff Trombley[2]; 2. 56V-Billy VanInwegen Jr[7]; 3. 10VC-Zach Sobotka[11]; 4. 25G-Tyler Graves[6]; 5. 22-Tomy Moreau[5]; 6. 28-Ron Greek[3]; 7. 121-Spencer Burley[19]; 8. 18-Timmy Lotz[1]; 9. 9K-Kyle Pierce[4]; 10. 8-Dillon Paddock[24]; 11. 99-Adam Depuy[20]; 12. 48JR-Darryl Ruggles[14]; 13. 19EM-Emily VanInwegen[18]; 14. 29-Dalton Herrick[12]; 15. 21B-Blake Warner[15]; 16. 4-Cliff Pierce[13]; 17. 33-Scott Landers[8]; 18. 12-Tyler Chartrand[17]; 19. 10-Nathan Pierce[22]; 20. 48A-Alysha Bay[23]; 21. D9-Dustin Sehn[25]; 22. (DNF) 14X-Lance Dusett[9]; 23. (DNF) J27-John Cunningham[16]; 24. (DNF) 66-Jordan Hutton[10]; 25. (DNF) 66T-Tyler Emmons[21]
iFreeze B Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 66T-Tyler Emmons[2]; 2. 10-Nathan Pierce[3]; 3. 48A-Alysha Bay[5]; 4. 8-Dillon Paddock[6]; 5. 30K-Ken Klinkowsky[4]; 6. 18C-Dan Craun[10]; 7. 30-Kirsten Dombroski[12]; 8. 19C-Mark Connoly[1]; 9. 410-Jerry Sehn Jr[8]; 10. (DNF) D9-Dustin Sehn[9]; 11. (DNF) Z28-Tucker Donath[7]; 12. (DNF) 42-Jeremy Hamilton[13]; 13. (DNF) 20K-Ed Kelly[11]; 14. (DNS) 25-George Sanford
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 66-Jordan Hutton[3]; 2. 14X-Lance Dusett[1]; 3. 29-Dalton Herrick[4]; 4. 10VC-Zach Sobotka[7]; 5. 121-Spencer Burley[5]; 6. 66T-Tyler Emmons[6]; 7. 30K-Ken Klinkowsky[8]; 8. 42-Jeremy Hamilton[9]; 9. 30-Kirsten Dombroski[2]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 56V-Billy VanInwegen Jr[1]; 2. 9K-Kyle Pierce[2]; 3. 22-Tomy Moreau[7]; 4. 4-Cliff Pierce[6]; 5. 99-Adam Depuy[5]; 6. 19C-Mark Connoly[9]; 7. 410-Jerry Sehn Jr[4]; 8. D9-Dustin Sehn[3]; 9. (DNF) 25-George Sanford[8]
Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 18-Timmy Lotz[3]; 2. 25G-Tyler Graves[7]; 3. J27-John Cunningham[1]; 4. 21B-Blake Warner[5]; 5. 19EM-Emily VanInwegen[6]; 6. 8-Dillon Paddock[4]; 7. 48A-Alysha Bay[8]; 8. 18C-Dan Craun[2]
Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 33-Scott Landers[2]; 2. 28-Ron Greek[3]; 3. 3A-Jeff Trombley[7]; 4. 12-Tyler Chartrand[4]; 5. 48JR-Darryl Ruggles[8]; 6. 10-Nathan Pierce[6]; 7. Z28-Tucker Donath[5]; 8. 20K-Ed Kelly[1]