Race Report By: Marty Czekala – September 12, 2025 – Photo By: Erika Bye
WOODHULL, N.Y. - The New York 305 Nationals presented by Dandy got off to an exciting start Friday for the opening night of the CRSA Sprints’ richest show yet.
Not just one but two first-time winners took the twin checkers this evening.
Motocross rider turned sprint car driver Spencer Burley held off Zach Sobotka after a late race caution to score his first career CRSA victory.
Scott Landers led from green to checkers to pick up his first win in his fourth season of CRSA competition.
With the wins, Burley and Landers are locked into Saturday night’s $4000 to win feature and are locked into the dash, guaranteeing a top 12 spot.
Feature 1 Recap: With just over a year of sprint car racing under his belt in the Steve Glover-owned No. 121X, Burley scored the most passing points in heat races, starting on pole alongside Dillon Paddock.
Burley led the opening lap while Paddock used his traditional high side lane to lead lap two. Paddock, Burley and Zach Sobotka stayed nose to tail through the opening circuits.
Lap seven, Paddock had a moment in turns three and four up top that opened up the door for Burley downstairs to grab the lead back off turn four.
In heavy lapped traffic, Sobotka tried to use backmarkers as a pick to grab the lead with under 10 to go, but Burley barely pulled away.
Sobotka grabbed a second chance with three to go when Dillon Paddock spun, collecting Mikey Smith in the process.
On the restart, though, Burley used the restart to his advantage thanks to the high side banking at Woodhull. Every lap, Sobotka pulled even in the center of the corners. On the final lap, the No. 38 tried a slidejob into three and four, but didn’t have the space, as “The Motocross Kid” Spencer Burley pulled away for his first career CRSA victory.
“It’s a pretty good feeling,” said Burley post-race. “I knew we were pretty good off the bottom, so just do my thing on the restart and pulled away. Hopefully, we can keep the ball rolling and do pretty good tomorrow.”
On adapting from two wheels to four, the 18-year-old said, "It’s completely different. Motocross: If you try harder, you go faster. With this, you start overdriving the car, you go backward."
Feature 2 Recap: It was Scott Landers and Sugar Grove, Pennsylvania's Nolan Groves, bringing the field to green. Landers led the opening lap while Wayland’s Kyle Drum, making his first CRSA appearance in over a decade, moved up to second.
As the front of the field was single file, the first yellow flew on lap seven for Ron Greek, having an issue in turn three, eliminating Landers' 1.8-second lead.
The No. 33 held restart while Dalton Herrick and Groves battled for third.
At halfway, a yellow flew for John Smith, hopping over the banking in turn three.
Each restart, Drum kept getting closer and closer to getting the lead from Scott Landers. One final restart after a Tyler Graves yellow with three to go wasn’t enough as Landers won by a half second over Drum and Dalton Herrick.
“It feels good,” said Landers. “The outside was hammering. I thought it was going to be bottom fast, but tonight was the outside. [Getting in the dash] is what it was all about. That was what the feature win was for tomorrow night.”
New York State Stock Car Association (NYSSCA) gave out $50 bonuses and hats to the highest finishing NYSSCA members out of each race that being the winners, Burley and Landers.
Heat race winners also received $25 Dandy gift cards tonight.
32 drivers checked in at Woodhull for night one.
Action will go up to another level as drivers will battle for $4000 to win tomorrow night for 30 laps.
Twin 20 1 (20 Laps): 1. 121X-Spencer Burley[1]; 2. 38-Zach Sobotka[3]; 3. 56V-Billy VanInwegen Jr[5]; 4. 3A-Jeff Trombley[4]; 5. 66-Jordan Hutton[10]; 6. 8C-Brian Carber[8]; 7. 4S-Johnny Smith[9]; 8. 4ST-Mikey Smith[6]; 9. 8-Dillon Paddock[2]; 10. D9-Dustin Sehn[7]; 11. 48A-Alysha Bay[11]; 12. 13-Keith Granholm[12]; 13. 410-Jerry Sehn Jr[14]; 14. (DNF) 21B-Blake Warner[13]; 15. (DNF) 30-Kirsten Dombroski[16]; 16. (DNS) 10-Nathan Pierce
Twin 20 2 (20 Laps): 1. 33-Scott Landers[1]; 2. 47-Kyle Drum[3]; 3. 29-Dalton Herrick[4]; 4. 25NG-Nolan Groves[2]; 5. 3-Bailey Boyd[6]; 6. 10X-Vince Chicklets[5]; 7. 18-Timmy Lotz[12]; 8. 121-Steve Glover[9]; 9. 17-Owen Dimm[13]; 10. 23-John Smith[16]; 11. 2-Dave Axton[15]; 12. 48JR-Darryl Ruggles[7]; 13. JD33-Joshua Landers[14]; 14. 25-Cameron Moss[11]; 15. (DNF) 25G-Tyler Graves[10]; 16. (DNF) 28-Ron Greek[8]
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 38-Zach Sobotka[1]; 2. 56V-Billy VanInwegen Jr[2]; 3. 8-Dillon Paddock[6]; 4. 66-Jordan Hutton[4]; 5. 28-Ron Greek[7]; 6. 48A-Alysha Bay[8]; 7. 410-Jerry Sehn Jr[3]; 8. 30-Kirsten Dombroski[5]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 47-Kyle Drum[1]; 2. 10X-Vince Chicklets[2]; 3. 25NG-Nolan Groves[6]; 4. 8C-Brian Carber[5]; 5. 4S-Johnny Smith[7]; 6. 13-Keith Granholm[4]; 7. JD33-Joshua Landers[3]; 8. (DNS) 10-Nathan Pierce
Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 121X-Spencer Burley[4]; 2. 4ST-Mikey Smith[1]; 3. 29-Dalton Herrick[5]; 4. 25G-Tyler Graves[3]; 5. D9-Dustin Sehn[8]; 6. 25-Cameron Moss[7]; 7. 21B-Blake Warner[6]; 8. (DNF) 23-John Smith[2]
Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 3A-Jeff Trombley[1]; 2. 33-Scott Landers[4]; 3. 48JR-Darryl Ruggles[3]; 4. 3-Bailey Boyd[6]; 5. 121-Steve Glover[7]; 6. 18-Timmy Lotz[2]; 7. 17-Owen Dimm[5]; 8. 2-Dave Axton[8]
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.
Please like and follow the CRSA Sprints on Facebook and X @CRSASprints.