Bobby Varin Takes 2025 Season-Opening Modified Win At Outlaw Speedway

Story By: KENNY SHUPP / OUTLAW SPEEDWAY – DUNDEE, NY – After two lost events thus far in 2025 due to rain, snow and frigid temperatures, Tyler Siri of the Outlaw Speedway was finally able to put the first show of 2025 into the books and even a late afternoon passing shower could not deter the program from going on.

Most of the hype going into the event surrounded the Knapp and Schlappi Lumber 602 Crate Sportsman with over $2,200 going to the winner of the prestigious 35 lap feature as a stellar field of thirty-two drivers checked in all looking for the huge winner’s check. In addition, lap money was paid out along with a multitude of other contingencies as the late Mike Jackson’s daughter, Hanna and her team worked diligently to make it an event to remember.

In the 35-lap feature a pair of Outlaw Speedway regular competitors in Brent Ayers and Brandon Grover would lead the field to the opening green flag with Ayers getting the jump and leading in the early going. However, all eyes were glued to rows two on back to row six as several heavy weights had to work their way towards the front of the field.

Donnie Lawson without a doubt has as many or more laps around the Outlaw Speedway during his career as any other driver in the field in numerous divisions including Mini Stocks, Sportsman and Modifieds. Over the past decade, Lawson has played it close to the Woodhull Raceway which is just a few miles from his Addison residence, however the Jasper Troupsburgh School Teacher still knows how to get around the Fast 4/10 of a Mile Oval and once he got into his rhythm it was just a matter of time before he would find his way to the front of the field and that he did as just prior to the half way mark Lawson took control and never looked back as he was able to stretch his advantage and hold the top spot through a couple mid to late race yellow flags that bunched the field.

Inside of ten laps remaining, outside row two starter, Jordan Millard was still second and slowly closing in on Lawsons two second advantage, but the laps ran out on Millard as he would have to settle for a well deserved runner-up finish holding off Dave Rogers who began the feature in the twelfth spot. Fourth place went to Brent Ayers with Blake Parsons advancing from tenth to complete the top five.

Bobby Varin makes the four-hour drive from his Johnstown, NY residence each week to pilot one of track owner Tyler Siri’s potent Modified Machines. Each of the past two seasons Varin has claimed feature wins and solid top five season point finishes. In short, he has been nothing but a picture of consistency. In the Friendly Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram Modified 35-lap feature Varin would start inside the second starting row as the veteran Doctor Danny Johnson and last year’s Modified Rookie of the Year, Kreg Crooker would bring the field to green with Johnson immediately showing his muscle in the brand-new Tim Gibson owned machine.

The Doctor of Modified Racing would lead the opening half dozen circuits before Varin would take over the top spot which he would never relinquish.

With only one yellow flag on lap seventeen to slow the pace and bunch the field, Varin had to hold off relentless pressure from his car owner, Tyler Siri who moved quickly into second from his fifth starting position.

The two teammates would begin to stretch the distance between themselves from Johnson who had slid back to third as he was now feeling pressure from Mike Maresca who was barn storming his way into the top five from his ninth starting spot on the opening grid.

With less than ten laps remaining Siri made a power move under Varin between turns one and two and led by a wheel as the pair entered turn three, however Varin was up to the challenge as he was able to retake the lead from Siri as they hit the stripe. From there Varin found another gear after almost giving up the top spot to Siri as he moved out to a comfortable margin and on to his first feature win of the season.

Maresca was without question the fastest car in the closing laps as he was able to dispose of Siri with five laps to go and set sail for the high flying Varin, but time ran out on a brilliant drive by Maresca as he came up a car length shy. Siri would complete the podium finishing third as the third Team Siri machine of Stacy Jackson would make it to fourth after starting seventh on the grid. Jeff Daugherty advanced from tenth to complete the top five finishers.

In CRSA 305 Sprint Car action a very respected field of twenty-seven winged machines made their way to Outlaw Speedway as the Mike Emhoff led group opened their 2025 season which marks the 20th year for the popular CRSA group.

Three qualifying Heat races, a B-main as well as a 4 lap Dash would be required to set the twenty-four car A-Main and at the end of the twenty-five-lap feature veteran pilot, Jeff Trombley proudly stood in Outlaw Speedway’s Victory Lane.

For Trombley it marks a remarkable career after spending many years in a Big Block Modified prior to turning his attention to the open wheel 305 Sprint Touring Series.

His Outlaw Speedway CRSA victory was win number fifteen in his career.

Chasing Trombley across the stripe was 2023 Series Champion Jordan Hutton with Billy VanInwegen completing the podium.

There you will find a lap-by-lap description of the night of action provided by Series Public Relations specialist, Marty Czekala.

Glenn Whritenour may have taken a sabbatical from full time action at the Outlaw Speedway over the past few years, however the Jasper, NY native and mega time Outlaw Track Champion has not lost his touch on the Fast 4/10 of a Mile Clay Oval as he would begin the twenty-five lap feature inside row three and in true Whritenour form work his way through a loaded field of Swarthout Recycling Street Stocks to assume the lead and hold on for the “W”.

However, for GW it would not be a cake walk by any means as he had to contend with a pair of heavy weights in Jimmy Grant and CJ Guererri throughout the entire event.

Grant and Willy Easling would bring the fifteen-car field to green and in a feature event that took ten minutes to run off Whritenour was able to hold off Grant and Guerri as the trio flashed under the double checkered flags in a blanket finish with only a half second separating the top three.

2024 Swarthout Recycling Street Stock Track Champion, Gene Sharpsteen began the event in position eight and move forward to nail fourth at the finish with last seasons Mini Stock Track Champ, Willy Easling completing the top five after acknowledging that he will focus most of his attention in 2025 to a more aggressive effort in the Street Stock Class after competing in no less that three divisions last season.

Jason Smart may have tied with Willy Easling at the top of the 2024 Mini Stock point battle only to lose the championship by a feature wins tie breaker, but that did not deter the former Track Champ from storming back to claim his first win of 2025 in the Winner’s Circle Deli 4 Cylinder Mini Stock twenty-lap feature.

Smart of Branchport, NY would begin the feature buried mid-pack but quickly moved into contention and after assuming control would go on to a two second victory of Mumford native, Don Whiteside who lined up fourth on the original starting grid.

Former Mini Stock Champ and Campbell speedster, Mike Stone would finish right where he started in completing the top three podium spots.
Ray Hessler and Ryan Stone completed the top five, both finishing on the lead lap.

Congratulations to all our competitors!

Up next at Outlaw Speedway it will be Open Practice for all drivers on Friday, April 25 as the track will prepare for the 68th Season Point Opener on Friday, May 2, 2025.

The night of action is sponsored by Buckley Tire and Brake of Elmira.

OUTLAW SPEEDWAY SIDE BITES.

Tyer Siri and his track preparation crew once again did a masterful job providing a perfectly smooth and tacky racing surface allowing competitors in all five classes plenty of racing room and the large opening night crowd witnessed lots of three and four wide racing.
Early on in Modified heat race action, then race leader, Danny Johnson found himself in the turn four concrete and on his side after encountering a lapped machine. The end results was Johnson driving away from the scene to the pit area for quick repairs, however several other competitors were also involved including the Dundee, NY Rookie Contender, Jesse Cameron Jr. whose machine had to be cradled from the carnage as his night would come to a premature end.

The CRSA Sprints were impressive in their opening night visit to the Yates County Speed Plant providing plenty of passing including a Hard Charger to second gen driver, Alysha Bay had to make the show through the B-Main and advanced from twenty-second to finish ninth at the double checkered flags.

2023 Outlaw Street Stock Track Champion, Shane Wolf looked poised to be a favorite in the Swarthout Recycling twenty-five lap feature, however engine woes at the completion of his qualifying heat forced the Susquehanna, Pa. speedster into a position of taking the green and only running a few laps, however for Wolf and car owner, George Miller they plan on making Outlaw Speedway their regular Friday night place in 2025.

For opening night it appears that all of Outlaw Speedway’s regular weekly classes of competition look very loaded from front to back as healthy car counts will be the norm each and every race night throughout the season and if opening night was any indication with the quality of cars in each class that no one driver will appear to dominate the action in their respective divisions.

Modifieds

A Feature 1 (35 Laps): 1. 18V-Bobby Varin[3]; 2. 7MM-Mike Maresca[9]; 3. 5*-Tyler Siri[5]; 4. X-Stacy Jackson[7]; 5. 22JZ-Jeff Daugherty[10]; 6. 72-Ajay Potrzebowski Jr[12]; 7. 47-Kreg Crooker[2]; 8. 713-Tommy Collins[13]; 9. 58L-Jim LaRock[18]; 10. 21P-Derrick Podsiadlo[6]; 11. 1-Billy Paine[14]; 12. 44-Shannon Whaley[20]; 13. 70-Brady Fultz[15]; 14. 27J-Danny Johnson[1]; 15. 84JR-Adam Coots[4]; 16. 2B-Ron Cartwright Jr[8]; 17. 33-Tyler Yeagle[19]; 18. 7X-Tommy Paine[23]; 19. 47X-Brent Cross[11]; 20. 82S-Will Shields[17]; 21. 4R-Steve Paine[22]; 22. (DNS) 6NN-Nick Nye; 23. (DNS) 45-Jesse Cameron Jr

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 47-Kreg Crooker[4]; 2. 22JZ-Jeff Daugherty[2]; 3. 7MM-Mike Maresca[3]; 4. 18V-Bobby Varin[7]; 5. 713-Tommy Collins[1]; 6. 6NN-Nick Nye[5]; 7. 4R-Steve Paine[8]; 8. 44-Shannon Whaley[6]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 21P-Derrick Podsiadlo[1]; 2. 84JR-Adam Coots[6]; 3. 27J-Danny Johnson[2]; 4. 47X-Brent Cross[8]; 5. 1-Billy Paine[7]; 6. 82S-Will Shields[5]; 7. 7X-Tommy Paine[3]; 8. 45-Jesse Cameron Jr[4]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 2B-Ron Cartwright Jr[2]; 2. 5*-Tyler Siri[4]; 3. 72-Ajay Potrzebowski Jr[1]; 4. X-Stacy Jackson[3]; 5. 70-Brady Fultz[5]; 6. 58L-Jim LaRock[7]; 7. 33-Tyler Yeagle[6]

Sportsman

35 lap Mike Jackson Memorial. DONNIE LAWSON, Jordan Millard, Dave Rogers, Brent Ayers, Blake Parsons, Kenny Peoples Jr., George Schweigart, Dale Welty, Josh Nobriga, Cody McPherson, Chris Fisher, Adam Taft, Karl Comfort, Frank Guererri Jr., Bryan Rhodes, Connor Brown, Quinton Buchanon, Scot Torbitt, Collin Brown, Timmy Borden Jr., Tim Guild, Justice Mayo, Brandon Grover, Cayden Lawson.

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 10-Karl Comfort[1]; 2. 7M-Cody McPherson[5]; 3. 36-Brandon Grover[2]; 4. 11-Cayden Lawson[7]; 5. 113-Frank Guererri[8]; 6. 181-Justice Mayo[6]; 7. 4R-Bryan Rhoads[3]; 8. 48L-Luke Powell[4]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 27B-Quintin Buchanan[1]; 2. 123-Dale Welty[4]; 3. 55-Blake Parsons[6]; 4. 23B-Timmy Borden Jr[7]; 5. 88T-Scot Torbitt[8]; 6. 87-Collin Brown[2]; 7. 13K-Daryl Krebs[5]; 8. 23-Collin Wyant[3]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 06-Tim Guild[1]; 2. 44-Dave Rogers[2]; 3. 99-Jordan Millard[4]; 4. 12-George Schweigart[5]; 5. 77-Connor Brown[3]; 6. 41-Josh Nobriga[8]; 7. 20-Andrew Clark[7]; 8. 64-Tyler Corcoran[6]

Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 118-Donnie Lawson[1]; 2. 5K-Kenny Peoples Jr[4]; 3. 5-Brent Ayers[6]; 4. 37-Chris Fisher[2]; 5. 3-Adam Taft[3]; 6. 7S-Torrey Stoughtenger[7]; 7. 21K-Damon Decker[5]; 8. 17-Mikenna Buchanan[8]

Street Stocks

A Feature 1 (25 Laps): 1. 15-Glenn Whritenour[7]; 2. 36-Jimmy Grant[1]; 3. CJ1-CJ Guererri[3]; 4. 7-Gene Sharpsteen[8]; 5. 28-Willy Easling[2]; 6. 0-John Zimmerman[9]; 7. 19-Dave Yehl[11]; 8. 28C-Trent Chamberlain[10]; 9. 15B-Brian Butler[15]; 10. 93-Jared Hill[12]; 11. 25J-Joe Giardina[4]; 12. 74D-Dennis Cummings[6]; 13. 60-Butch Zimmerman[14]; 14. 57J-Tony Harris[13]; 15. 77-Shane Wolf Jr[5]

4 Cylinder

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 8-Jayson Smart[7]; 2. 8W-Don Whiteside[4]; 3. 28-Mike Stone[3]; 4. 27-Kenneth Evans[8]; 5. 81-Ryan Hessler[5]; 6. 39-Ryan Stone[10]; 7. 18G-Antonio Gregg[14]; 8. 21X-Mike Ayers[11]; 9. 98C-Jermey Trank[6]; 10. 1-Jessie Smith[15]; 11. 18-Connor Erick[9]; 12. 13-Jason Porter[2]; 13. X-Greg Moldt[12]; 14. 7R-Ralph Teeter[13]; 15. (DNS) 97-Chris Woodard; 16. (DNS) 63-Gavin Hall