ESS: Dan Kaszubinski news 2003-05-08

Dan Kaszubinski gunning for the Empire Super Sprints Title in 2003.

SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Empire Super Sprints (ESS) star driver Dan Kaszubinski is creating major headlines and heading for his goal of the ESS title for the 2003 season. The 29 year old Syracuse, N.Y. native is coming off a very exciting victory at the ESS/United Racing Club (URC) Challenge Series event on Sunday, May 4th at the Grandview Speedway which saw him receive over $3,000 for the win. As the ESS season will kick into full gear on Memorial Day weekend, the black #20 Maxim built sprinter will be in the pits looking for more A-Main checkered flags.

After entering the sprint car wars with ESS full-time during the 1996 season, Kaszubinski has collected a total of 19 feature event wins which ties him for eighth on the all-time win list with the 20 year old organization. After making it a part-time effort in 2002 to marry his long-time girlfriend and also building a house, the 2003 goal has been simply made--the ESS championship.

Since he started running the winged sprint cars, two 1986 Bobby Allen built frames were the cars of choice. The two "aged" sprinters carried Kaszubinski to 18 of the 19 victories. The win on the fourth of May came in a car owned by Elmer and Rose Stoltzfus, car owners for many years with URC. New for this year is a 2001 modeled Maxim which has been extremely fast out of the box carrying him to a fourth place finish in the ESS opener at the Black Rock Speedway in April.

The Stoltzfus ride came about when their long time driver Gary Gollub was seriously injured during a sprint event at the Williams Grove Speedway. Through many contacts, Kaszubinski was phoned by the Stoltzfus' to take over the ride and run on the URC circuit. After a long couple of nights of debating, Kaszubinski has decided to concentrate on the original goal of trying for the ESS title.

"I was running so many thoughts through my mind after Grandview." said Kaszubinski shortly after his thrilling victory at Grandview. "I really have two goals in my career, of course I want to win the ESS title and the second is that I would like to run one year with URC and maybe be the first driver in history to win championships with both clubs."

"I was amazed that I got the call from Elmer to run his car, it was an incredible feeling. He took a big chance on me as he really didn't know who I was." noted the shocked driver. "We didn't run to good in the first race at Orange County but everything really came together at Grandview and we got the win. Elmer has a great car and motor combination which made my decision so tough. But, we got the new car and with help from many friends and our few sponsors we wanted to try for the ESS title. We are off to good start and that's what I wanted to do since last season. I like to run with URC as well and hopefully I can get another chance to get something together down the road."

Kaszubinski continues, "I know Elmer wanted to keep going but we did miss the first two point shows with URC and that would make it so hard to even get a top ten finish in points. Since ESS is off until May 24th we might run New Egypt and Selinsgrove with Elmer, it's up to him. But, I would jump at the chance to run a few more races."

While there is two more off weekends on the 20th anniversary tour for ESS, Dan Kaszubinski will have his familiar #20 ready for the battle ahead. Sponsorship comes from Autotech of Syracuse and VRP Shocks. When the winged sprinters head to Stateline and Utica-Rome Speedways to celebrate Memorial Day Weekend, keep an eye the sprint car driver from Syracuse--he will be fun to watch and moving to the front.

-dr-