October 3, 1997

DAN KASZUBINSKI, RICK WILK AND FRANK DOLL COLLECT FULTON'S FRIDAY NIGHT CHECKERS
BY KEVIN RICE, reprinted with permission from Gater Racing News

FULTON, NY...The youthful Dan Kaszubinski, of Lakeland, NY outraced the veteran Craig "Cricket" Keel for a 25 lap $ 1,500 sprint car victory last Friday night to begin the Fulton Speedway Budweiser Victoria 200 weekend presented by Nice-N-Easy Grocery Shoppes. Other winners included Rick Wilk in the four cylinder main, and Frank Doll, Jr. in the dwarf car race.

Kaszubinski started on the pole, but Mike Lauterborn took the initial lead. The tail section came loose on the Lauterborn 41, andhe pitted for repairs on lap four. Kaszubinski assumed command as Mike Stelter, Doug Emery and Keel waged a battle for second spot.

There were three cautions before lap five was completed, one when Eric Robinson lost a right rear wheel and rolled a few times on the frontchute. He emerged unhurt, but the Doug Emery backup car was heavily damaged.

When racing resumed, Kaszubinski opened a lead. ESS Champion Mike Woodring started thirteenth, but was up to seventh on lap eight. The battle for second continued until Keel got by Stelter for second. Stelter began to slow a bit with a broken shock moments later. Kaszubinski had a big lead erased when a couple of cars in the back tangled with 14 laps complete.

Kaszubinski stated of Keel, "He pulled up alongside me to show he was there to try and psyche me out a little bit. I think I just pumped it up another level just for that."

When the race restarted Keel challenged for the lead, but after a few laps Kaszubinski pulled away for an impressive victory. George Suprick went from fifth to third on that lap 14 restart, and then he barely held off Woodring to claim third at the checkers, with Emery rounding out the top five.

In the 20 lap four-cylinder event, Bob Hawes held off the challenges of Rick Wilk for the first eleven laps before losing a right front wheel in turn four. Wilk raced off unchallenged for the final nine laps to get the win. Rick Rought held off Lloyd Hinton for a runnerup finish in a race with only a couple of cautions.

The dwarf car 20 lap main was run under difficult circumstances after a warmup crash that claimed the life of Doug Cooper when his car went straight into the fourth turn wall. Frank Doll, Jr. took the lead on lap two and kept a comfortable margin from all challengers as he raced to victory in a near incident-free race. Jim Gray and Ed Bell took the second and third spots respectively