By JOHN KEKIS, AP Sports Writer

LAKE PLACID, N.Y. (AP) — Larry Gunselman stared at the timing board in disbelief.

"Dang!" Gunselman said. "He got me by a hundredth. We were up by 15 hundredths for a while. Sandbagger!"

Former Craftsman truck champion Todd Bodine and brakeman Kenneth Stout, of Ogdensburg, N.Y., beat Gunselman and brakeman Matthew Golovach, of Morrisonville, N.Y., by that slim margin — 52.20 seconds to 52.21 — to win qualifying for the fourth annual Geoff Bodine Bobsled Challenge on Saturday.

When Todd Bodine climbed out of his sled, a swath of red tape across the nose of his helmet nearly covered his eyes as darkness fell over the Mount Van Hoevenberg track.

"That's how I rode the whole run," Bodine said with a laugh. "It's fun. To beat Larry by a hundredth, that's what racing's all about. Everybody's here having fun, but we're all competitors. We all want to beat each other. We got it done. Bragging rights for tonight.