2002 Updates
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January
Racing Plans as of 1/24/02
Ed's autograph session at Cleveland on Saturday and Sunday went well and he met
many new fans and many of the familiar Buckeye fans. The new autograph cards
look great!
In response to the many inquiries about whether the team will compete in the
Florida races, at the present time, Ed is not planning to race in Florida and
will be gearing for the track openers in the North.
Ed Signs Autographs in Cleveland on 1/19/02-1/20/02
Ed will make a special appearance and sign autographs at the Cleveland
Convention Center's 36th Annual Auto-Rama this Saturday and Sunday from
2:00-4:00PM each day. Look for him in the Quaker Steak & Lube Booth #619. Stop
by and get a free autograph card.
The All Star Circuit of Champions produce many exciting sprint races each summer
in the state of Ohio and their sharp-looking show car will be in the booth,
also.
The show is at 500 Lakeside Avenue - East 6th Street - Downtown and opens both
days at 11:00AM.
Two of Ed's cars are on display at Best Wings USA - Quaker Steak & Lube
Restaurants. The one closest to the show is at 5935 Canal Road, Valley View OH,
approximately 25 minutes from downtown Cleveland.
Eldora Banquet & Tri City Banquet on 1/5/02
Two of the three tracks where Ed finished in the top ten have their banquets
this Saturday night. Ed, Jr. and Heather will make the trip west to celebrate
with Earl and Bernice Baltes at the Eldora Ballroom. Ed, Sr. and Jean will drive
north to Oil City where Mike and Margaret Graham and Roger and Susie Crick are
hosting the Tri City Banquet at the Arlington Hotel.
March
2002 Autograph Cards Available 3/28/02
Ed's new autograph cards are now available. He says he will be signing them at
the race tracks, but for fans that will not see him in person...he will mail one
to you if you send your request and name and address on the "Comments" page. Let
him know if you want it autographed!
Lernerville Opener Postponed Until 4/5/02
Lynch Racing was disappointed to learn that Lernerville had to postpone its
opener because of wet grounds. Looks like this weekend will be spent in the
garage mounting tires and checking set-ups. Not as much fun as racing.
Ready for Lernerville 2002 Opener on 3/29/02
The activity level picked up in the Lynch Racing garage during the last couple
of weeks and the number #2L was started for the first time this past weekend.
The truck and trailer were hooked up and are ready to go. Ed's first race of the
season will be Friday at Lernerville, weather permitting.
Lernerville Banquet on 3/2/02
Ed will be attending the 34th Annual Lernerville Speedway banquet this Saturday
night. In the 2001 season, he tied for second in the all-time feature win column
and will receive a trophy for ranking in the top ten final point standings.
April
Tri City Speedway - 4/28/02
Ed and the crew were ready to push the car into the trailer to head for Tri City
when the phone call came around 2:00PM telling them about the cancellation of
the races for Sunday night because of tornado warnings.
New Sharon Speedway - 4/27/02
There were 18 sprints signed in for their first try at the new 3/8 mile oval at
Hartford OH, now known as the New Sharon Speedway.
At least everyone in the four divisions got to take fast laps and experience the
new down-sized configuration of the track. Then the rain came and washed out the
entire program.
Lernerville Speedway 4/26/02
Chalk up number 51 in the all-time feature win column for Ed at Lernerville
Speedway.
With 30 sprints on hand, Ed was slated to start 7th in the 2nd heat, but there
was a scratch and he started 6th. Outside pole sitter, Troy Preston led all 8
laps, but the margin was about 6 inches at the finish.
The 20-lap feature redraw started Ed in 9th in the 24 car field. Running the
inside groove, he quickly got up to 4th when the first of four yellow flags
slowed the action for a spin by Ralph Spitahler.
Ed had passed the 3rd place car of Kenny Hardy who lost the handle one-half lap
later and brought out another yellow on lap four.
As the drivers struggled to maintain grip on the slick racetrack surface, second
place runner, Gary Kriess dinged the front stretch wall. before he could get
squared away, Ed moved by for 2nd. Another yellow on lap 8 had Ed running second
to Brent Matus.
On the back stretch, after completing 12 laps, Ed moved to the outside of Matus
and went into the lead on lap 13. One more yellow slowed the pace, but once
there was open track in front, Ed put the distance and the lapped cars between
himself and the rest of the field.
Racing Plans for Weekend - 4/26, 4/27 and 4/28
Ed will be at Lernerville on Friday night. Ed III wants his Dad to try for a win
at the 3/8 mile "New Sharon Speedway" opener on Saturday. Tri City's opener on
Sunday is on the Lynch Racing schedule. Hope this is a weekend with no rain!
Sharon Speedway - 4/23/02
The New Sharon Speedway hosted a Media and VIP day Tuesday, April 23 starting at
5:00PM. Everything was picture perfect and race-ready, from the VIP tower to the
grandstands on both front and back straightaways, the newly remodeled kitchen,
to the spacious pits, new lighting and the new 3/8 mile track with banking
starting at 3 degrees to 6 in the middle and 8 degrees at the top of the track.
The infield was seeded and will have grass in two weeks.
After food and refreshments, the new owner, Dave Blaney welcomed everyone and
answered questions. One sprint car and two modifieds took a couple of trial laps
on the surface and around 7:00PM, the Press was invited to have a ride in the
2-seater.
Ed's Mom, Jean was late to arrive outside #2 turn (the entrance and exit for the
track) and everyone was in uniform lined up ready to take their ride in the
2-seater. When she walked up, she was encouraged to go for a ride with Dave
driving.
She suited up, buckled in and David headed up the ramp and on to the track and
was on the throttle immediately. Prior to the push off, she was asked how fast
she wanted to go and she said, "Fast enough to win the race!" The laps were
thrilling and she thought it was the greatest experience.
After the ride she asked David if he took it easy on her and he said, "Heck no."
She said it felt like he never lifted and he said, "You're right." The media
interviewed her and claimed that she had set a new track record on The New
Sharon Speedway.
Unfortunately, a hole in the oil pan prevented any more rides for the Press.
They were disappointed, but good sports and Jean did her best to describe the
feeling of going 220mph in a sprint car (or maybe it was only 120).
Tri City Speedway - 4/21/02
Shortly after lunch, Lynch Racing learned that Tri City Speedway would have to
cancel Sunday's opener because of cold, wet weather.
Mercer Raceway Park - 4/20/02
To spin and win in any form of racing is rare. Ed pulled it off in the 20 lap
feature in front of a large opening night crowd Saturday night at Mercer Raceway
Park.
There were 24 cars on hand and Ed was set to start 7th in the 2nd of 3 heats.
There was a caution on lap 2 and Ed was up to 4th. At the checkered on lap 8, he
finished 3rd behind Scott Bonnell and Tommy Quarterson. Moving the program along
quickly, the Sprint feature pushed off at 8:35PM with Andy Priest on the pole
and Ed in 4th (his best starting spot of the season so far). There were at least
six yellow flags and a red flag during the course of the race as many drivers
had trouble mastering the 1/3 mile surface.
On the second caution, Ed was up to 2nd and working on the leader Priest. Just
as it seemed that Ed would get beside Priest to set up for a pass, the caution
would take that opportunity away on lap 3 again and lap 5. The spin occurred on
lap nine while running the inside. The #2L did a 360 "donut", but Ed got it
pointed in the direction of the flagstand and kept going. By the time he
recovered, he was 4th again.
One lap later, the caution came out with him in 4th, but he set up a great move
in turn two on lap 12, passing two cars going down the back stretch to capture
2nd spot once again.
The winning move came on lap 16 down the back stretch and into turn three. Ed
started to put some distance on Priest, but Gary Edwards came on strong at the
end to finish 2nd.
Lernerville Speedway 4/19/02
A yellow flag on lap 13 of the 25 lap feature may have cost Ed the win he was
looking for at Lernerville Speedway, Friday night.
There were 24 cars signed in and Ed was scheduled for a 6th place start in the
2nd heat, but his row moved ahead before the green flag came out, starting him
4th. He took the lead on lap 4 and went on to win by a wide margin.
The redraw for the 20-lap feature had Rod George starting on pole and Ed slated
for 10th. On the first lap, Ed passed five cars and was up to 3rd when the first
yellow came out on lap 3. George led the field on the restart, followed by Brent
Matus and Ed. On a lap 9 restart, George continued to lead, then two lapped car
came next, then Ed.
With an open track, George pulled away, but Ed ran him down and caught him as
they entered lapped traffic three laps later. On lap 13, going down the back
stretch and into turn 3, Ed was a bumper ahead of George on the outside.
However, Charlie Holben, lost the handle in between turn 3 and 4 and got
sideways right in front of Ed. Ed hit Holben and straightened him out but
bending the front bumper on the #2L. The momentum was gone and another yellow
flag on lap 18, gave George a clear track for the win and Ed came across second.
Racing Plans for 4/19-4/20-4/21/02
Ed plans to be at Lernerville on Friday night, then be at Mercer's opener on
Saturday and Tri City's opener on Sunday. The forecast is calling for rain all
three days, so that means a lot of calls to the race tracks before heading up
the road.
Ed's interview on Wednesday night on the radio show "Rappin On Racin" ran about
13 minutes. Host, Don Gamble asked Ed to tell the audience about his goal for
this year at Lernerville, to become the leading all-time sprint car driver.
Ed explained, "Drivers like Lou Blaney and Johnny Beaber set the marks pretty
high. I know Lou's record of 49 wins had been there for a long time and Johnny's
record of 55 has been on top for years. I admire both those drivers for their
accomplishments."
"My racing career has always been with my family very much involved and when we
talked about having this as a goal, my boys, Ed III and Sye wanted me to try for
it, so I'm doing it for them."
Radio Show on 4/17/02
Ed will be a guest on the popular "Rappin On Racin" show Wednesday night, April
17. The program is carried in the Pittsburgh area on WEDO (810 on the AM dial)
and runs from 6:00 to 8:00PM and is hosted by Don Gamble. Ed's interview is set
to start at 6:20PM.
Rain on 4/13 and 4/14/02
On Saturday morning, all the outside work was completed as far as washing the
car, wing, wheels and tires and the car was pushed into the garage to get ready
for the trip to Mercer. Shortly after lunch, heavy rain hit our area and then
Mercer got their storm and had to cancel.
Sunday, Ed was getting ready to go to Tri City, but before lunch it rained there
and shortly after that, it rained at the garage.
Both tracks are about a 2 hour tow one way, so the crew spent that time working
in the garage.
Lernerville - 4/12/02
Ed picked up his 50th career sprint car win Friday night at Lernerville
Speedway's opener.
After two weeks of weather problems, the opener had full fields in all four
classes making three heats, a B-Main and 20 lap A-Mains in all Divisions. There
were 29 Sprints signed in and Ed started 7th in the 3rd heat and won it.
The re-draw for the top 12 spots had Ed's #2L starting 11th in the 24-car field.
With Ralph Spithaler and Kevin Schaeffer starting on the front row, the field
took with green with Schaeffer jumping into the lead immediately. Ed didn't seem
to gain much ground early and had passed maybe three cars by lap five.
On lap six, he passed another car and was up to 7th and starting to get his
rhythm. When the one and only yellow flag came on lap 12 for a car off the track
between turn 1 and 2, Ed was up to 4th behind Schaeffer, Spithaler and Scott
Priester. On the restart and for several laps, Ed worked hard to take 3rd spot
away from Priester, finally getting by on lap 16. Ed said regarding the
situation after the restart, "The top of the track was the preferred line and
the top 3 cars were up there, so I tried the bottom. Once I got by Scott for
3rd, I switched back to the top, to run down Ralph and Kevin."
Coming out of turn 2, he switched again from the top to the bottom and took the
lead going under Schaeffer in the middle of the back stretch as flagman, Kent
Michael, showed the field two laps to go. He was reminded in victory lane by
on-track announcer Don Gamble, that his goal is now 5 victories to tie and 6 to
become Lernerville's highest all-time sprint winner.
Weekend Plans for April 12-13-14, 2002
Thursday night, Ed put the repaired shock back on the left front and checked
everything else twice, in preparation for Lernerville's opener Friday night. He
plans to be at Mercer's opener Saturday night and then make Tri City's opener
Sunday night. With rain in the forcast for every day, let's hope all three
tracks get their shows completed.
Sunday, April 7, 2002
The Sports section of the Sunday Pittsburgh Post Gazette paper features a nice
picture of Ed's #2L sprint car and details on his goal for the season. To become
Lernerville's all-time sprint feature winner. The web site is
www.POST-GAZETTE.COM/SPORTS.
Eldora Raceway - 4/6/02
Ed and the crew made the long tow to Eldora on Saturday for the All Star show
and their first race of the 2002 season. Despite the fact that it was only 40
degrees with a predicted low of 26, a strong field of 39 sprints was on hand.
The day before, Ed went for a rare visit to the doctor who diagnosed him with a
sinus infection and prescribed two antibiotics and a nasal inhaler to clear up
the condition. He was not at 100%, but wanted to get his racing season started,
so he rested in the motorhome in between racing action. Ed was in the first set
of warm-ups and didn't make many changes before qualifying 15th overall. He was
set to start 3rd in the 3rd heat and finished 4th behind Paul McMahan, Phil
Gressman and Chad Kemenah. Thus, sending him to the A-Main.
He started 13th in the 30-lapper and had passed two cars and was up to 10th when
the two front runners, Kemenah and Jim Nier flipped on lap 6, eliminating both
cars. When the race resumed, Ed continued to go forward and was up to 5th after
another five laps. However, while challenging Danny Smith going into turn #1,
the left front shock broke loose at the bottom and the car immediately "wheelied"
and headed toward the outside wall. Ed gathered it back in and managed to hold
on for a 10th place finish at the end.
Lernerville Speedway - 4/5/02
Cold weather forced Lernerville to postpone its season opener once again.
Hopefully, next Friday night the weather will cooperate.
Weekend Racing Plans - 4/1/02
Ed's plans include racing at Lernerville's season opener on Friday night and the
All Star show at Eldora on Saturday night.
May
Lernerville Speedway - 5/31/02
Friday was a late night at Lernerville. The Sprints were the 3rd feature and
didn't get pushed off until 11:30PM. Ed won his heat and started 12th in the
20-lap feature. A red flag halted the feature action after the first lap. The
next red came on lap 6 and was a lengthy one because after a severe crash, the
driver of the #15 car, Kenny Hardy, was transported to the hospital.
On the restart, Ed had moved up to 6th and by lap nine, he was 4th. Just 4 laps
later on lap 13, he was 2nd and chasing pole sitter, Rog George. Another yellow
waved on lap 15. After each yellow, it seemed like Ed needed several laps for
his tires to kick in. But George was running the top groove and making no
mistakes for his audience. Ed had to settle for 2nd place.
Racing Plans for 5/31-6/2/02
Ed had a tough decision with race plans for this weekend. He would like to be in
two places on Friday night. He would like to try his luck with the World of
Outlaws at Sharon Speedway, however, his boys want him to keep trying for the
record at Lernerville. Already, four Lernerville opportunities have been lost to
the rain and he feels he has to stay with his goal.
On Saturday, the team will travel to Mercer Raceway, then on Sunday, it will be
back to Tri City.
Best Guess Wins Two Pit Passes - Details Below
Thanks to you fans, Ed's website is fast approaching 20,000 hits. To show his
appreciation for your interest and notes of encouragement, he wants to invite
two people as guests of Lynch Racing into his pit area for the night at any
track where he races. All you have to do is go to Comments and send the time and
date of that 20,000th hit. The winner will be the one closest to the time
leading up to number 20,000 but not beyond it. Good Luck.
Tri City Speedway 5/26/02
The crew made the two hour tow north to Tri City on Sunday and Ed's Knoxville,
Iowa friends, Charlie and Nancy, finally got to see him in victory lane. There
were big fields in every class and a total of 34 sprints. Ed started 11th in the
2nd heat and finished second. After starting eighth in the 20 lap feature, Ed
watched outside polesitter, Rob Eyler lead the first four laps before moving the
#2L to the outside and into the lead on lap five. Brian Ellenberger stayed with
Ed and on lap eight, Ellenberger managed to go outside Ed and into the lead. As
the two diced, Ed chose the inside in turn two on lap 14 to make his winning
move and went on for the win, unchallenged. It was his 11th career win here.
Weedsport NY 5/26/02
On Sunday afternoon, Ed's Mom, Jean, was inducted
into the DIRT Hall of Fame. This marked the first time that women were
recognized for their contribution to DIRT over the years. Jean has 30 years with
the DIRT Organization.
Sharon Speedway 5/25/02
The weather was doubtful, so the crew loaded the Sharon car and the Mercer car
and headed toward Interstate 80. They didn't run into rain so they arrived at
Sharon where there were 19 cars on hand. Ed was in the 2nd heat and started
eighth. He finished 2nd to Jason Jacoby who started in the front row.
Promoter Dale Blaney stopped by to say that rain was on the way, and the wind
picked up and clouds rolled in, however, no rain. The sprints were the 3rd
feature and the Modifieds took quite a while to run their features. It was 10:45
when the sprint feature pushed off.
Ed started sixth in the 25 lap A-main and immediately worked the outside groove.
Jeff Schrum started on the pole and led every lap until Ed passed him on lap
nine and after a yellow flag for a stopped car past the half-way mark. while the
field was under the caution, the heavy rain came halting the program. Since the
race was past the half-way mark, Ed was declared the winner. It was his second
win of the year at The New Sharon Speedway.
Lernerville Speedway 5/24/02
Ed and crew never had a chance to hot lap Friday night because of one wave of
light showers after another, forcing Lernerville to cancel for the 4th time this
year.
However, friends from Knoxville IA (Charlie and Nancy) did get to see the track
and Charlie was interviewed on the live radio broadcast....as the fan who had
traveled the farthest to see the races that night.
Racing Plans for 5/24-26/02
Friends from Knoxville, Iowa, Charlie and Nancy will be visiting Ed so they can
see the tracks where he races weekly. The team will be at Lernerville on Friday,
then use our rain-checks from two weeks ago on Saturday night at Sharon. Lots of
garage work resulted from that broken bracket while leading at Tri City last
Sunday. The rear-end had to be replaced, the torsion arm and of course, the
bird-cage, etc. Ed would like to see if he can get the car close to the set-up
he had there last week, so he will head there on Sunday. By the way, did we tell
you the Sprint feature pushed on the track at 8:30PM last week?
Tri City Speedway 5/19/02
With all the talk since Saturday about War Emblem going for the Triple Crown of
horseracing....Ed was going for his own record 4th track opener Sunday night at
Tri City Speedway. He nearly pulled off this long-shot win, but a critical
suspension part broke one lap after he took the lead on lap 14.
The 29 Sprints ran 3 qualifying heats and Ed started 6th in the 2nd heat and
took the lead from Jarod Larson on the last lap to qualify for the A-Main. It
was his 20th heat race victory here, placing him 2nd behind Bob Felmlee with 21
on the heat-win list (under the Graham ownership).
The pill draw started him 8th in the 20-lap A-Main. He had made good time at the
start, however, a red flag after one lap seemed to negate that and the restart
on lap 2 had him starting 8th again. The red was for a double flip in turn 2,
then a yellow quickly came out before a lap was completed and he was still in
8th.
Once green flag racing returned, Ed moved to 6th by lap four and was 4th by lap
six. On lap 9, he had chased down the leaders, Daryl Steimling and Rod George.
The trio diced for spots and on lap 10 George had the lead. Ed took over second
on lap 12 and passed George for the lead in turn 3, to lead lap 14.
Going down the back stretch, almost into turn 3, Ed heard a loud noise and felt
a slam on the track and then the right rear tire exploded, forcing him to slow
and pull off the track on the turn three pit ramp while leading.
In the pits, it was discovered that the right rear bracket to the bird cage
broke, causing the torsion bar to drop and dig into the track, slaming the car
down on the rear axle and then blowing the right rear tire. What a
disappointment....to drop out while leading.
Ed did not race anywhere Saturday night. After Sharon cancelled early and Mercer
did not run 410 Sprints, he couldn't convince himself that Hagerstown was going
to get the WoO in with all the rain around the area, so he just did garage work.
WoO Thoughts and Weekend Plans for 5/17-19/02
Did anyone notice that Lernerville's Point Leader beat the WoO Point Leader in
every race Wednesday night? Ed and Danny Lasoski ran together in the heat, dash
and feature and Ed finished ahead of him in all three races! Friday night, Ed
had loaded the car in the trailer despite rain drops at the garage. They put the
door up, but called the track before pulling out and found out the Lernerville
show had just been rained out. Then, plans to listen to the Grove WoO race on
SCN were rained out also.
Saturday could be a flip of the weather channels between Sharon Speedway and
Hagerstown. Right now, they both might rained out! Hopefully, Tri City will get
a chance to race on Sunday. If they race, Lynch Racing plans to be there.
Lernerville Speedway 5/15/02
After a one day delay because of rain, Wednesday night Lernerville Speedway
hosted the Commonwealth Clash featuring the World of Outlaws. There were 33 cars
for time trials and Ed picked #l pill and went out first. His time of 12.891
ranked 12th overall on a night when Joey Saldana set a new track record of
12.335. The next six cars were 12.7 then the next five were 12.8. The first 11
cars were WoO regulars.
With four heats and six from times inverted, Ed started fourth in the 4th heat
and looked great winning, it over Dale Blaney, Mark Kinser, Donny Schatz, Danny
Lasoski and others. The other heats went to Kenny Jacobs, Jac Haudenschild and
Johnny Herrera.
He was now qualified for the lst 8-car O'Reilly Auto Parts 5-lap Dash. The pill
draw for inversion had him starting mid-field and he finished 5th, which lined
him up 9th in the 35-lap A-Main.
For the feature, Ed had selected rear tire combinations that changed the stagger
of the car and it developed a push. The longer the race went, the more the tire
grew and the more push he had. So, needless to say, he had his hands full the
entire race with too much stagger. He held on for 14th place and was the highest
finishing local in a race won by Stevie Smith.
Sharon Speedway - 5/11/02
Everyone had signed in at the New Sharon Speedway, Saturday night, and the
drivers' meeting was over and hot laps were completed when the first rain came
in the form of a light shower.
There were 22 sprints and Ed was scheduled to start 9th in the second heat. The
Modifieds ran their heats first and then another light shower hit the track.
Ed and the crew loaded the car, but then quickly unloaded when the rain stopped
and the first sprint heat ran. Ed's heat got the green flag and at least three
cars immediately in trouble in number one turn, with a flip occurring causing
the red flag to come out. Ed was lucky enough to miss everyone, but five cars
left the track on wreckers and the complete restart now had Ed starting third.
He led all eight laps, winning by a straightaway.
Unfortunately, after another light sprinkle, the push trucks ran the track in,
but only four more heats ran before another wave of showers came...this time
forcing the cancellation of the event.
Lernerville Speedway - 5/10/02
It was a good night for Lynch Racing on Friday night at Lernerville Speedway as
Ed picked up his heat win, as well as the feature win, to edge a little closer
in his quest to become the all-time Sprint feature winner at Lernerville.
With 24 sprints on hand, Ed's draw put him in the first heat and starting 7th.
He took the lead in turn two on the last lap to pick up the checkered after
eight laps.
The redraw for the 20-lap feature staged him in 8th starting spot (his best
starting spot in five races here so far). By lap 4, he was up to 4th as the
yellow flag waved. The race went back to green, but then had an immediate red
flag. Once the race resumed and lapped traffic entered the picture, he moved
into 3rd and continued then took 2nd with his eyes on the leader Gary Kriess.
Around lap 14 Ed took the lead for good and when he passed under Kent Michael's
checkered flag it was for his 3rd win here this year and his 52nd career
Lernerville win.
Race Plans for 5/10-5/14/02
Lynch Racing will be at Lernerville Speedway Friday which will serve as the
final tune-up before the World of Outlaws show on Tuesday, May 14. On Saturday,
Ed hasn't decided whether it will be Mercer or Sharon and Sunday he will head
for Tri City. Tuesday, of course, he will sign in at Lernerville.
Tri City Speedway - 5/5/02
After a big birthday celebration for Ed III, the crew headed to Tri City
Speedway, Sunday for their season opener, an All Star event.
A strong field of 39 cars were on hand and the pill draw had Ed going out 21st.
Track conditions seemed better earlier as eight of the top times were turned by
the first dozen car on the track. Ed's best time ranked him 15th overall.
He lined up 3rd in the 3rd heat and finished 4th, which qualified him for the
feature. Starting 15th in the 30 lap event, he dropped back a spot then gained a
spot during most of the race. He tried high and low with not much results and
eventually finished 14th.
The New Sharon Speedway - 5/4/02
Ed put his name in the record book at The New Sharon Speedway, Saturday night
when he became the first feature winner on the redesigned and refurbished 3/8
mile track at Hartford, Ohio, now owned by Dave Blaney. A large opening night
crowd and a high car count was on hand for this event that had been rained out
after hot laps the previous week. Ed and the crew used their rain-checks to sign
in with 22 other sprints for the season opener here.
Ed started 6th in the 2nd heat and took the lead on lap two, running high, then
switching to the bottom until the checkered. This started him outside the
pole-sitter Larry McPeak for the start of the 25 lap feature event. McPeak led
at the drop of the green, but Ed pulled ahead going down the back stretch and
then led every lap despite three yellow flags which tightened up the field. The
final caution on lap 22 put second place Mikie Lutz and Jarod Larson right on
his tail, but Ed was able to win by six car lengths.
Lernerville Speedway 5/3/02
The Lynch Racing team thought we finished 2nd at Lernerville Speedway Friday
night...it was even on the score board, but then it was changed to 3rd. Pretty
confusing, right? Ed knew he was 2nd and saw it on the scoreboard. He loaded up
and pulled out of the track and then he learned that the finish had been changed
to place him 3rd. He called and protested the finish.
At home the video tape was reviewed and it shows he was 2nd. The cold night
started with 29 sprints signed in and lined up in 3 heats. Ed started 4th in the
1st heat and won. Because of winning last week, he started 12th in the 20 lap
feature.
Jamie Smith started on pole and led every lap.
Ed was off to a good start, passing 4 cars on the outside in turn 2 and down the
backstretch of lap one. He moved into 6th two laps later and was up to 4th by
lap 6 and had just moved into 3rd at the flagstand when the first yellow came
out on lap nine, placing him back in 4th.
The restart line up showed Smith, then Ralph Spithaler in 2nd, then two lapped
cars, then Bob Bennett and Ed. He got by Bennett before the next yellow on lap
15. That restart showed the top 3 were nose to tail.
Several times Ed was beside Ralphie on the inside, but a lapped car would
prevent the pass until coming out of turn 4 for the checkered and Ed pulled
ahead on the inside and according to the video tape, crossed ahead of Ralphie to
take 2nd. Ed is waiting to hear from the track officials.
Jamie Smith drove a flawless race to record his first win here since 1998.
Racing Plans - 5/03-4-5/02
Ed will be at Lernerville Friday, May 3, then use the rain checks from Sharon
this Saturday and the All Star show at Tri City on Sunday.
Magazine Article 4/30/02
In Consumers Truck Mart magazine, April 18, 2002 issue, Jim Zufall writes about
the Lernerville opener and Ed's win and his goal of eclipsing Johnny Beaber's
record of 55 wins. The publication is FREE and features Trucks, Vans, RV's and
motorcycle that are for sale.
June
Tri-City Speedway - 6/30/02
26 sprints signed in at Tri- City tonight. Ed was scheduled to be in the 1st of
3 heats starting 7th. Dry and slick track conditions made it tough for Ed to get
to the front. He finished 4th with the win going to Ricki Ferkel, who started on
the pole. Other heat race winners were Rod George and Rob Eyler.
The sprints were the 2nd feature of the night and Ed started 10th. The race went
non-stop for 20 laps with Ed making his way to the 2nd spot, while Rod George
won coming from 5th.
Due to Ed's heavy work load this week, he will be unable to attend any of the
Ohio Speedweek shows. His racing plans for next weekend include Lernerville
Friday, The New Sharon Speedway Saturday, and Tri-City on Sunday.
The New Sharon Speedway - 6/29/02
Twenty-one sprints were on hand Saturday night at Sharon Speedway and Ed started
11th in the first of two heats and finished 3rd. The odd thing about the winner,
Elvis Jackson, who drove the #61 car normally piloted by Gary Edwards, was that
Elvis looked just like Dale Blaney. C.W. Harshman won the other heat.
The sprint feature was the first feature and the pill draw had Ed starting 5th
in the 25-lap event. He took the lead on lap three and despite 2 red flags and 1
caution flag, he was never seriously threatened. Jimmy Hawley started 4th and
finished 2nd.
The win was Ed's 5th consecutive and pushed him into 4th in the all-time sprint
feature win column at The New Sharon Speedway behind George Bishoff, David
Blaney and Kenny Jacobs.
Lernerville Speedway - 6/28/02
If there were passing points awarded Friday night at Lernerville, Ed would have
received the most, although he only finished third. The MACS Late Models had
time trials, heat races and a 40-lap feature before the 24-car Sprint feature
and there was not much passing most of the night.
Two heats were scheduled for the sprints and Ed started on the pole of the 2nd
heat with Rod George beside him in the front row. George won the heat and Ed was
2nd. The pill draw for the feature showed Jamie Smith and Jimmy Hawley in the
front row with Ed starting 9th.
After Ed watched ex-sprint car driver, David Scott start on pole and lead all 40
laps of the Late Models race, Ed changed his car and feels that it was some
better for the race. However, with a lot of follow the leader racing and only
one caution on lap 11 (when Ed was up to 6th), the team feels getting up to
third at the checkered was OK. The front row finished one-two, with Hawley
winning over Smith.
Racing Plans for 6/26/02
Ed will be at Lernerville Speedway on Friday night, however, the rest of the
weekend is undecided and a decision will be made on Saturday morning.
Tri City Speedway - 6/23/02
Sunday night at Tri City Speedway was not a lot of fun, but Ed managed a 2nd
place finish in the 20-lap feature after starting 10th. There were 21 cars
signed in and Ed started 5th in the first heat and won it and things seemed OK.
Daryl Stimeling won the other heat.
The feature showed Andy McKisson leading the first 3 laps with Rod George up
from 8th to second on lap 2. Ed was only up to sixth by a lap four restart with
George moving into the front spot after that.
Ed moved into 3rd on lap 10 and was pressured from that point on by Kevin
Andrusky. Ed and Andrusky swapped 2nd place about five times. After a red flag
on lap 12, Ed's set-up seemed to change and he had his hands full keeping the
#2L off the front straightaway wall. The restart had four or five lapped cars
between Ed and the leader, George.
Ed got by the lapped cars, but Andrusky was still contending for 2nd spot. Ed
finally nipped him at the checkered flag, but could not catch George.
Sharon Speedway - 6/22/02
Although only 3 races are in the books at The New Sharon Speedway, it was
Mid-Season Championship time for the Sprint cars, Saturday night. The event was
supposed to be the 11th race on the original schedule, but the combination of
delay in opening and rainouts, made for a short season so far. There were 25
sprints that ran in three heats. Ed started 4th in the second heat and finished
behind pole-sitter, Jack Sodeman, Jr.
The 25 lap Mid-Season Championship feature carried double points and Ed started
12th in the 24-car field. There were numerous cautions and even a red flag
before the checkered was displayed. The Modifieds ran their feature first and
then it was time for the Sprints.
Jamie McKinney and Jeff Schrum were in the front row at the drop of Mike
Henshaw's green flag, with Jarod Larson and Gary Edwards in row two. It didn't
take Larson long to go into the lead and Ed was up to sixth with six laps in the
books.
Ed advanced quickly and was into 2nd by lap 11 and trying to close in on the
leader Larson when a lapped car spun and collected Larson in turn four and both
cars were done for the night. Ed inherited the lead, but there were several
yellows after that with Doug Kekich being the main challenger. But Ed was able
to stay in front the rest of the way for his 4th win at Sharon.
Lernerville Speedway - 6/21/02
The biggest crowd of the year showed up Friday night at Lernerville Speedway and
enjoyed a huge Zambelli Fireworks display before the 20-lap Sprint feature.
There were 26 Sprints signed in, but several were eliminated in heat race
competition and so all cars that answered the call started the A-Main.
Ed was scheduled to start 3rd in the 2nd of three heats, but the outside pole
car scratched and so he started 2nd and won. Jamie Smith and Charlie Holben won
the other heats.
The pill draw for the feature showed Smith and Brian Woodhull on the front row,
then Rod George and Jimmy Hawley in the second row. Kevin Schaeffer and Ed made
up row three. Ed was able to pass Woodhull before the yellow flag came out after
two laps were in the books. Smith still led the field, but as lapped traffic
entered the picture, George ran him down and slipped into the lead around lap
six.
The halfway signal was given by flagman Kent Michael just before the only other
yellow flag was displayed. Ed was fourth after getting inside Schaeffer in turn
four prior to this yellow.
After the restart, he concentrated on Jimmy Hawley. Three laps later Ed went
inside on the front stretch to get by Hawley.
That brought Smith within range and Ed set sail. Ed tried inside, but Jamie
would get a big run on the outside and pull ahead, then Ed would gain going into
turn three.
Finally, coming for the checkered flag, they reversed lanes and Jamie went
inside and Ed stayed high and outside and Ed just nipped him at the line, but
had to settle for 2nd again, unable to rundown George.
Racing Plans for 6/21-6/23/02
Ed and the team will try to get to victory circle Friday night at Lernerville.
Saturday they head for Sharon and Sunday will be a Tri City appearance.
For anyone who wasn't at Tri City last week, Ed had a transponder mounted on his
car and turned the fastest lap of the night when he took the lead in his heat
race. His time converted to an average speed of 106.289 mph, which meant that he
was going at least 110 to 115 mph on the straightaways.
Tri City Speedway - 6/16/02
Ed, Jr. was able to give his Dad the perfect Father's Day present on Sunday
night...a feature win at Tri City Speedway!
Once again, there were lots of phone calls because of threatening weather
conditions in the Franklin area, and the crew arrived later than usual.
But for the second week in a row, track owners, Mike Graham and Roger Crick
decided to go straight into heat races with no warm-ups.
Eighteen sprints were present and ran two heat races with Ed starting 4th in the
2nd heat and picking up the win. The draw for the 20-lap feature was a "0" and
so Brian Ellenberger started on pole with Ed outside.
At the drop of the green, it was Ed who make it into number one turn first.
Despite a red on lap 3 and a yellow on lap 5, the #2L was able to chalk up his
12th career Tri City feature. Rod George kept the pressure on, but had to settle
for 2nd.
Race Plans for 6/15-6/16/02
The team held off leaving for Sharon Speedway on Saturday because of many
persistent rains at the garage and received word just in time to save a long tow
for nothing as Sharon was rained out. The weather looks questionable for Tri
City on Sunday, but if they race, the team will be there.
Lernerville Speedway - 6/14/02
Ed came up one position short in his quest for a feature win at Lernerville
Speedway, Friday night. There were 26 sprints signed in and their heats were
first on the program. Ed started 4th in the 3rd heat and finished 2nd to pole
sitter Gary Kriess.
After the Sprint heats and Modified heats a sudden rain hit the track causing
over a one-hour delay. Although the Sprint feature was scheduled to be first, it
was 11:15PM when the cars were pushed off.
Ironically, Kriess started on the pole and Ed started 4th in the 20-lap A-Main.
On the first lap, Ed was 2nd coming out of turn two and the first yellow came
out after the completion of lap one. On that restart, Ed looped it in some slime
in turn two and continued. There was a flagman's yellow and Ed was placed where
he recovered from his spin in 4th. Two more yellows occurred on laps 3 and 6
with Ed still 4th.
On lap 7 Ed passed Ralphie Spithaler for 3rd, then the red came out for Chad
Hill on lap 11. It took Ed three more laps to move by Brent Matus into 2nd. He
closed in on Gary Kreiss at the finish, but had to settle for 2nd.
Tri City Speedway - 6/9/02
After changing engines, the crew headed to Tri City Speedway on Sunday, where 18
sprints were signed in for competition on the 1/2 mile. Ed started outside front
row of the lst heat and won it.
The inversion for the 20-lap feature put Ed in 8th starting spot with Scott
Priester on the pole. Ed was up to 4th when the first caution came out on lap 8.
During a red flag on lap 11, the leader, Priester, was forced to retire with
rear-end problems.
Rod George inherited the lead with Ed and Brian Ellenberger following. Ed tried
the bottom on the restart and Ellenberger passed him. But within 2 laps, Ed was
in 2nd again.
On lap 14, another red flag waved while Ed was in between turn l and 2 and Ed
was off the gas going down the back stretch. He was 1/2 way down the back
stretch when Ellenberger, claiming he didn't see the red, hit Ed in the rear and
forced him into the outside wall with heavy damage to the car, ending Ed's night
in 14th spot.
Sharon Speedway - 6/8/02
After thrashing in the garage until 2:00AM following the Lernerville crash
Friday night, the crew was back at it early Saturday morning. They installed
"Hammer II" (Ed names all his engines) in a back-up car to try to get ready for
Sharon Speedway. By 2:30PM, they had finished the car and timed the engine and
started the 2 hour tow to The New Sharon Speedway. Exactly 24 sprint cars were
signed in and Ed drew pole position in the 3rd heat and won it with a
comfortable lead. The re-draw for the feature had him starting 6th in the 25-lap
A-Main, with Goob Schuler and Brian Ellenberger on the front row.
The first caution on lap 2 had Schuler leading and Ed up to 4th. Two laps later
another yellow had Jared Larson leading and Ed now in 2nd. On lap 7, yet another
caution, with Ed still following Larson, but when the race resumed Ed was able
to stay with Larson and passed him low in turn four and led down the front
stretch. There were two more cautions before the last half of the race went
non-stop. Ed made good moves through lapped traffic and went on to collect his
3rd feature in a row on the new 3/8 mile track.
Lernerville Speedway - 6/7/02
It was a tough night for Lynch Racing at Lernerville Speedway, Friday night.
With approximately 30 cars on hand, Ed ran the first of three heats. He started
eighth and was second after an early red flag, and finished a close 2nd to Jimmy
Hawley, who started on the outside of the front row.
In the 20-lap feature, it was a different story as Hawley had started outside
the front row, with Ed starting 6th. Ed was fast from the start and was working
the inside groove coming out of turn #4 with Hawley on the outside. Ed passed
Hawley for 3rd, however at the flagstand, Hawley got into the back of Ed sending
the #2L toward the outside wall. Just as Ed saved it from crashing and got it
gathered back up, Hawley hit him again and sent him flipping down the end of the
front chute.
Ed was OK, however, there was severe damage to the car, bent front axle, wheels,
frame, all radius rods, torque tube, all shocks, all rear suspension parts, bird
cages, etc. The crew worked until 2:00AM taking the car apart and assessing the
damage.
20,000 Hits Contest - 6/6/02
Thanks to everyone who sent in their best guess on the time and date of the
20,000th hit on Ed's web site. The response was great and the earliest guess was
Friday, May 31 at 11:54pm and the latest guess was July 1 at 7:00pm.
According to the Webmaster, the winning date was Wednesday, June 5. There were
several entries for various times on that date, but the winner with a time
closest to the 20,000th hit without going beyond it was RACINGJSUT. So if that
e-mailer will send his or her name, address, phone number and preference of the
track where they would like pit passes, Ed will act on that right away.
When the winners experience their up-close and personal night in the Lynch pit
area, we will share that with everyone, so we can all enjoy their special night.
Ed thought this contest was a lot of fun, seeing the many guesses come in and is
already thinking he might have another contest.
Racing Plans for 6/7 - 6/9/02
Ed will be trying for a win at Lernerville on Friday, then Saturday the choice
will be Sharon and Tri City is scheduled for Sunday.
Tri City Speedway - 6/2/02
Twenty-nine sprints were on hand for the season opener of the York Triathlon
series at Tri City Speedway, Sunday night. Ed started on pole of the 3rd heat,
by luck of the draw and he won.
The redraw for the top 12 spots in the 25-lap, $1,300-to-win A-Main was done on
the front stretch by on-track announcer, Brian Spaid. Ed took his youngest son,
Sye, along to do the draw and the four-year-old drew #12 starting spot for his
Dad.
Brian Ellenberger and Jason Jacoby drew the front row and Ellenberger led from
the pole until lap 10, which was not easy to do because of a yellow flag every
lap for the first four laps.
The first yellow on lap l, showed Ed up to 10th. The next round, had him in
eighth, while the red on lap four showed that he was up to 7th. From that point,
the green stayed out and the front-runners got to watch the action up front and
personal.
Ed was 4th on lap 17 when Rod George passed Jimmy Hawley for the lead. With
Flagman, Kent Michael's signal of two laps to go, Ed passed Ellenberger and held
on for third at the finish behind George and Hawley
Mercer Raceway Park - 6/1/02
Ed made his 2nd trip of the year to Mercer where there were 36 sprinters signed
in to run four qualifying heats. Five cars qualified from each heat for the
main, but only the top three were part of the handicap system. Ed started 3rd in
the 2nd heat and finished 2nd behind pole sitter, Rob Eyler. Their handicap
points had Ed starting 10th in the 25-car field set to run a 20 lap A-Main.
Pole sitter and race leader Gary Kriess tangled with a lapped car in turn two
and three more cars ended up parked in between turns one and two on lap six. Ed
was already on the outside. With no where to go, Ed was able to stop before
hitting them, but had to go to the rear because he stopped on the track.
He advanced to 12th on lap 10 when a caution came out, and then 10th on a lap 13
caution. He made it back up to 6th at the checkered flag, in a race won by Jimmy
Hawley.
July
The New Sharon Speedway - 7/31/02
Ed scored a top five finish Wednesday night in the second World of Outlaw show
this year at Sharon. It was, however, the first one for Ed. Sharon's previous
show was on a Friday night and Ed stayed at Lernerville because of his all-time
feature winner goal there.
There were 37 sprints on hand for the program and time trials showed Joey
Saldana's 13.298 the fastest and Ed ranked 9th with a 13.682. The cars ran four
heats with six inverted. Ed lined up 4th in the first heat and finished 2nd
behind pole sitter, Donny Schatz. Rob Chaney, Tim Shaffer and Greg Wilson had
victories in the other heats.
Because Ed was in the fastest 16 cars that qualified in the heats, he qualified
for the 1st Dash starting 4th and finishing 5th with the win going to Saldana.
This automatically put Ed in 9th starting spot for the A-Main. Brad Furr won the
2nd Dash.
The feature showed Saldana and Furr in the front row, leading Stevie Smith and
Paul McMahan. Next came Steve Kinser and Randy Hannagan, then Tim Shaffer and
Danny Wood. Ed lined up inside the 5th row with Jac Haudenschild on the outside.
With Saldana leading the first of 30 laps, the rest of the field stayed close.
Despite most of the front-runners selecting the high groove, Ed stayed on the
bottom with smooth, consistent laps. The only caution came on lap 20 for a flat
on Steve Kinser's car. Ed was 5th and looking for more. As the green replaced
the yellow, Ed switched to the top of the track. In the last 10 laps, he was
able to reel in Shaffer and get by momentarily on the bottom, coming out of turn
2. However, Shaffer re-passed Ed and then in third it was Brad Furr. Hannagan
switched and passed Furr for 2nd with one lap to go. Saldana took the checkered
followed by Hannagan, Furr, Shaffer and Ed in 5th.
The Lynch Racing team celebrated their top five finish by joining Stan Hover's
grandson Craig's 15th birthday celebration after the races. Craig's cake had a
picture of the #2L on it and it was delicious.
Racing Plans for 7/31-8/3/02
Ed plans to race Wednesday's WoO Show at Sharon and then try for a win Friday at
Lernerville. Saturday he will be at Eldora's HBO.
Knoxville 1200 Pound Nationals - 7/27-7/28/02
Points were everything at Knoxville this weekend. There were Passing Points,
Championship Points, Heat Points and Feature Points. When all points were
totalled, Ed ranked 18th out of 98 cars, and was just two points shy of being
locked into Saturday night's big A-Main. With the alphabet soup on the program -
E-Main, D-Main, C-Main, B-Main and A-Main, Ed had problems and was not able to
advance from the B-Main. The 2nd Annual two-day 1200 Pound Pella Knoxville
Nationals held Friday and Saturday, had entries from 18 states and Australia. On
Friday, cars drew for starting positions in the 10 Qualifying Heats and Ed drew
56, which started him 5th in the 5th heat.
As the cars got in formation for the anticipated start in turn #3, Mike Moore
out of Des Moines hit Ed in the back with his front bumper. At the drop of Doug
Clark's green flag, Ed was going forward and was in 4th after one lap and had
passed another car in turn #1 and had the 2nd place car lined up in turn #2,
when the yellow came out for debris on the track, which turned out to be Moore's
front bumper.
This put Ed back to 4th and his car was not the same as he struggled to get back
to 3rd at the end of 10 laps, finishing behind Travis Rilat and Bret Antil. This
qualified him for 14th in the preliminary A-Main, earning him 94 Championship
points and 52 position points and 3 passing points. The Odd heats were to run a
B-Main and an A-Main that night and the Even heats were to do the same. However,
heavy rains hit the track at 10:25PM after 9 laps of the Even B-Main and washed
out the rest of the program. Saturday, the pit gates opened at 2:00PM so that
all rigs could be unloaded. The team stays with Charlie and Nancy Van Howelingen
(just blocks from the speedway) and the temperature on the clock on the way to
the track flashed 92 degrees and climbing! The heat index was 105! Since last
year, much of Knoxville's infield is now concrete and that seemed to hold the
heat even more than their original black dirt. Ed's rained out A-Main ran after
hot laps and three heats for the 360's...at approximately 8:30PM.
The race had been shortened from 25 to 20 laps, but got off to a shakey start
with a yellow and two reds before a lap was completed. By lap five, after
starting 14th, he was up to 12th. Then he moved to 9th on lap 12. A yellow on
lap 14 showed him in 7th behind Calvin Landis, Kenny Jacobs, Travis Rilat, Paul
McMahan, Kelly Kinser and Jeff Shepard.
But, there was another yellow and on the restart, Kerry Madsen with Dean Jacobs
(who was behind Ed) went to the inside in turn #1, got up over the infield lane
berm, which was about 10 inches tall, and shot back onto the track nearly taking
Ed out, Ed finished 9th, giving him another 184 points. His total points put him
18th overall and only the top 16 were locked into the A-Main. So, Ed was lined
up 2nd in the B-Main outside Brook Tatnell at 12:40AM. The tire he put on was
too hard and he was 4th after one lap and a red flag for a three-car flip. He
was 6th, and still in a transfer spot , when another red came out as he was
coming out of turn #4. By the time the car ahead of him cleared to allow him a
view of the red being displayed, he got on the brakes and went to the only open
lane....the outside, next to the guardrail. Just then Chris Walraven, the car
ahead of him, got on the brakes hard and moved to the outside, crowding Ed and
leaving him no place to go except over his right rear wheel. The #2L slammed
down on the track and broke either a shock or torsion arm (or both) and the car
spun around backwards and a broken piece dug in to the track and tipped him over
on his side, ending his night. Jeff Shepard started on pole and won the 30-lap
finale with Dean Jacobs second.
Notes from Tuesday Night & Weekend Plans for 7/26 - 7/28/02
Just a few of the things to share with Ed, Jr's website followers that made
Tuesday night so special for him, his family and his team....After the checkered
flag on the cool-down lap, both Tim Shaffer and Mark Kinser pull alongside and
gave Ed the "thumbs-up" sign.....You may have noticed that he was thinking about
spinning a celebration donut coming out of turn four onto the front stretch, but
there were too many people already there......The victory fireworks display was
a pretty spectacular one......Track owner, Helen Martin had tears of joy showing
in victory lane (she and the rest of the Martin family and Bowman family have
watched Ed, Jr. through all his racing years)......She also noted that it was
the first time that the fans remained for the whole presentation and interviews,
instead of making a mass exodus for the parking lot with five laps to
go....Orr's Jewler presented Ed with a watch......When Ed headed back to the
pits, one of the first to his trailer was Karl Kinser, who grabbed him and gave
him a big hug, and telling him that he had put a whoopin' on the
Outlaws.......Sammy Swindell and Amy came in the trailer to congratulate him
along with many of the local drivers.....Ed signed autographs for two hours at
his trailer.....So many fans were very patient and stood in line for a long
time, just to shake his hand and tell him how much they enjoyed the
race.....They were even patient while the World of Outlaws officials did their
tech of his Kistler engine......The rig finally arrived at the garage at 2:00AM
and after unloading, Greg Stevens showed Ed the feature that he had just
won.....The group celebrated with non-alcoholic champagne.....On Wednesday, over
70 phone calls came in from across the country (including calls from Oklahoma's
Andy Hillenburg and Brian & Sarah Carlson and Ed's engine builder for many
years, Bob Kriner) while 67 comments were posted on the website.....Most,
describing the race as one of the best they had ever seen.....The local papers -
Pittsburgh, Tarentum and Butler all ran big stories about the win.
Plans are to leave for Knoxville at 4:00 AM Thursday to be there for the
Friday-Saturday 1200# Nationals. Then, depending on the traffic, Ed might try to
make it to Tri City for Sunday's show.
Lernerville Speedway - 7/23/02
Ed
and the team had their best racing night ever Tuesday night at Lernerville
Speedway where Ed started on the pole, lost the lead four times but came back
each time and went on to win his first-ever World of Outlaw feature. The event
was the 40-lap 11th Annual Don Martin Silver Cup race which carried a top prize
of $35,000.
"This new J&J car built by Jack Elam in McKenzie TN, the new Paul Kistler engine
under the hood, Vince Valariano's VRP Shocks and Stan Hover's Hoosier tires were
the perfect set-up for tonight," were Ed's comments from the victory stage under
a full moon and a sky filled with a spectacular fireworks display.
Sanctioned by the World of Outlaws, the format for the 37 sprint cars included
time trials where Ed timed 7th overall behind Stevie Smith, Joey Saldana, Danny
Wood, Danny Lasoski, Tim Shaffer and Randy Hannagan. The new WoO method of
lining up the four heats had Ed starting 5th in the 2nd heat where he finished
3rd behind winner Donny Schatz with Sammy Swindell, Brian Ellenberger and Steve
Kinser capturing the other heats. The inversion for the 5-lap Dashes was four
and that put Ed on the pole of the 1st Dash with Shaffer outside. Ed led every
lap which earned him pole position in the feature. Mark Kinser won the 2nd Dash
and started beside Ed in the outside row, Shaffer and Saldana made up row two.
At the drop of Kent Michael's green flag, Ed was able to be ahead by a wheel
until turn two when Mark carried his momentum from the outside groove through
the turn and led down the backstretch. Ed followed close behind for 3 laps when
Mark jumped the cushion in turn #2 and Ed drove by. Once in the lead, Ed moved
to the top of the track and set sail until lap seven brought out the lst caution
thrown when Stevie Smith looped his car on the front stretch. Once underway
again, Ed was pressured by Saldana, who briefly took the lead, only to have Ed
take command again one lap later. The action in the top five positions was hot
and heavy for the next 23 laps.
After a red flag on lap 30 for a tip-over by Saldana, the scoreboard showed Ed
leading and Tim Shaffer now 2nd. Shaffer succeeded in getting by to lead lap 32,
but Ed came back again to pass him and take charge once more. The two diced for
the lead as the laps were ticking away. The entire crowd was standing for the
last three laps as Shaffer was relentless in his efforts to get by. Ed switched
from the extreme top groove against the front stretch wall, to the bottom groove
and made it work for the win. It was his 5th Lernerville win of the season, now
needing two more to become the track's all-time Sprint feature winner.
Lernerville on Tuesday, July 23
Lernerville hosts a World of Outlaw show this Tuesday, July 23 and Ed will be
there.
Tri City Speedway - 7/21/02
After an all-nighter trip back from Eldora, the team finished up the plumbing on
the new engine about 11:00 AM and caught about 4 hours sleep, then headed 2
hours north to Tri City to test everything.
Once again no hot laps due to the dry, hot weather conditions for the 20 sprints
on hand. Ed started 4th in the 2nd heat and won it with Rod George taking the
1st heat.
The draw for the 20 lap feature placed Ed and George in the fourth row, with
Brian Ellenberger on the pole. Only one caution was needed on lap five with Ed
up to 2nd behind early leader, Ellenberger and George in third. Tri City's press
release described it as "one of the finest races of the year" as Ed and George
displaying skills that featured side-by-side racing, dicing through lapped
traffic and exchanging the lead several times. After that lap 5 caution, they
were almost three-wide at the flagstand on lap six with George leading on the
inside, Ellenberger sandwiched in the middle and Ed on the outside.
With the outside being Ed's preferred line, George never came off the bottom of
the speedway and finally the top groove went away and Ed's tire blistered.
George made the inside work and slipped ahead again on lap 17. Several times Ed
got a good bite off turn #2 on the outside to nose ahead, but finished 2nd at
the checkered.
Eldora on 7/20/02
The team headed for Eldora's Kings Royal race on Saturday and made the car count
37. Four heats were scheduled and Ed started 8th in the 2nd heat after timing a
disappointing 30th. Most of the heats had little or no passing, however, Ed
looked great in his heat.
Determined to finish at least 5th to make the feature, he was up to 4th with two
laps to go in his heat when the engine went "fuzzy". He pulled out and that was
the end of his night as the engine came out and the replacement engine needed
different plumbing and some hardware from the garage at home. The team installed
the new engine in the car, then loaded up and watched the race.
Lernerville Speedway 7/19/02
A yellow flag at the wrong time spoiled a victory on the maiden voyage of Ed's
new car. After Saturday's crash at Sharon, there was no possible way to repair
that car, so Ed took delivery of a new J&J frame on Thursday. About 30 hours
later, the team had built a new #2L and headed for Lernerville. Unable to even
take fast laps because Ed discovered a brake problem while in the line-up chute,
he pushed off early for his heat and tried to get the feel of the car before the
green flag was displayed.
With only 24 Sprints on hand, two heats were run and Ed started 4th in the
second heat and finished 2nd behind Gary Kreiss with the lst heat going to Jamie
Smith.
The luck of the draw put Jamie on the pole and Ed started 7th in the 20-lap
feature which was the 2nd feature on the card. With the drop of the green, Ed
was going forward and had picked up two spots using the inside groove in turn #2
and by the first of six yellow flags, he was up to 3rd with two laps in the
books, running behind Smith and Chad Hill. Ed moved into 2nd by going inside
Hill down the back stretch on lap three.
Another yellow came out on lap four, but the one that hurt was the yellow on lap
10 after Ed had passed Jamie on the backstretch. They came to the line with Ed
in front, but that lap didn't count because Bill Kiley came to rest on the
inside of the backstretch and thus, another yellow. More yellows on lap ll, on
lap 13 and lap 15, gave Smith a clear track and he picked up the win with Ed
finishing 2nd for the sixth time this year at Lernerville.
Plans are to run Eldora's Kings Royal on Saturday and Tri City on Sunday.
Sharon Speedway - 7/13/02
22 cars signed in at Sharon. Ed was scheduled to start 10th in the first of two
heats. The 8 lap event went non-stop with Ed making his way to the 3rd spot,
finishing behind Jarod Larson and Deana Barbara.
Ed started 7th in the 25 lap feature event. The green flag flew and by turn 3 he
was up to 4th. As Ed entered turn 4 on the bottom of the track, Goob Schuller
was in the process of spinning out on the top of the track. Schuller came down
hard into Ed causing him to flip. The damage on the 2L was extensive therefore
needing the flatbed truck to remove it from the track.
Racing plans for next weekend include Lernerville on Friday night and the Kings
Royal at Eldora on Saturday. Sunday is undecided.
Racing Plans for 7/13/02
Ed will run Sharon on Saturday, but nowhere on Sunday because Tri City is not
running Sprints.
Lernerville - 7/12/02
The Lynch Racing Team didn't have much fun Friday night at Lernerville Speedway.
A night like this makes everyone appreciate those nights when things go well.
There were 27 sprints signed in and Ed started sixth in the 2nd of three heats
and finished third behind Kevin Schaeffer and Jamie Smith, with the other heats
going to Brent Matus and Gary Kriess.
Ed had to start 12th in the 20-lap feature because of last week's win and the
sprint feature was third on the night. The front row showed Kriess and Rod
George and they finished in that same order. The first yellow was displayed
after four laps and Ed was 11th. The only other caution came on lap 17 with Ed
struggling to get up to 8th where he finished.
"I changed too many things on the car and had my hands full all night. It didn't
matter where I tried to run on the track, it was a handful and I'm sure it
wasn't pretty to watch. I am lucky to roll the car into the trailer," Ed said
following the feature.
Tri-City Speedway - 7/7/02
21 cars signed in at Tri-City. Ed started 4th in the 1st of two heats. By the
time Ed got to turn two, he was leading the race. Despite a caution on lap 1, Ed
went on to win the heat race by a large margin. The second heat race was won by
the #7 of Andrusky.
The sprints were the 3rd feature of the night and Ed was scheduled to start 12th
by way of inversion. He was up to 4th on lap 10 when a caution came out, with
Rod George leading the race. In the next few laps, Ed was able to make his way
to the 2nd spot but George had a half-a-track lead on him. A caution on lap17
seemed to be the break Ed needed to close the gap on George. But when racing
resumed, Rod pulled away and went on to win the feature with Ed holding on to
the 2nd spot.
The New Sharon Speedway - 7/6/02
Ed grabbed his 6th win in a row at the New Sharon Speedway. They (Sharon) called
it the "Sprint Spectacular" and invited the sprints from Mercer Raceway Park to
come over to Sharon and have a showdown. 29 cars were on hand and due to a low
pill draw, Ed started on the pole of the first of three heat races. He led every
lap and won. Other heat race winners were Jarod Larson and Gary Edwards.
The sprints were the 3rd feature of the night and followed an awesome display of
Zambelli fireworks. Ed started 4th in the 25-lap event. By the time the first
lap was completed, Ed was in the 2nd spot behind the 0 of Ricky Ferkel. Ed
passed Ricky on lap 5 just before another caution came out. The line-up now
showed Ed as the race leader. One last caution on lap 23 slowed the racing
action giving Ed an open track ahead of him for the re-start. Ed captured the
"Sprint Spectacular" win at the New Sharon Speedway.
Lernerville - 7-5-02
Tonight was a night of victory for the Lynch family. Ed Jr won the sprint
feature...Sye won his 4th bike race...and Eddie won his baseball game 21-13.
There were 32 sprints signed in tonight at Lernerville. Ed was scheduled to
start 7th in the 3rd heat race but due to a red flag on the start, he re-lined
in 6th position. Two cautions and 8 laps later, Ed had to settle for the 2nd
spot with the win going to Dan Shetler in the 7K. Other heat race winners were
Ralph Spithaler and Gary Kriess Jr.
Ed started 7th in the 20 lap feature knowing he had a tough job ahead of him
with Rod George starting on the pole. By the 3rd caution (lap 12), Ed made his
way to the 2nd spot with Rod still leading. Heavy lapped traffic made it
possible for Ed to close-in and pass Rod for the lead on lap 17. Ed went on to
capture his 4th win at Lernerville bringing his overall total to 53.
August
Two Day Sharon Nationals: 8/31 - 9/1
Saturday 8/31 - Ed Gets Top Four Finish
50 cars were on hand for Saturday the first night of the Sharon Nationals.
Because of his flip on Friday, Ed was not sure how close his car would be, so he
was anxious for hot laps and he was in the second group. He didn't hav to make
that many changes and got set for time trials where he went out 24th and set a
new track record of 13.102. However, eight cars later, Tyler Walker went out and
set a mark of 13.090.
Ed started 4th in the 2nd heat and finished second behind Dale Blaney. Walker,
Johnny Herrera, and Phil Gressman won the other heats.
Next came the Dashes to determine the inside and outside rows of the 30 lap
feature. Ed started 3rd in the second Dash behind Blaney and Gressman. He
finished 2nd to Blaney with Walker winning the 1st Dash.
The feature line-up was set with Walker and Blaney on the front row. Herrera and
Gressman were in row two and Paul McMahan and Ed in row three.
The race went non-stop for 21 laps and Ed was 4th behind Walker, Blaney, and
McMahan and that order did not change for the remaining 9 laps. The top four are
locked into Sunday's race.
Sunday 9/01/02 - Ed Comes From Last to Eighth
After starting sixth and moving up into fifth (working on fourth), six laps into
the 40-lap Sharon Nationals finale, Ed hit a clod of mud in the cushion of turn
#2 so hard, that it jolted his head forward and his teeth came together with
such force, it broke away the outside of his left double molar.
He came off the turn and down the backstretch and through the turn thought the
car had a broken suspention parts. He kicked it out of gear and coasted to a
stop between turns 3 and 4.
Under the yellow, his crew could find nothing, broken, so he pushed off to tail
the field in 28th spot. Once again he lost his momentum about four laps later
when he hit mud again in the cushion. The race ran green until lap 36 for a flat
on Fred Rahmer's car.
Ed was fast and ran the high groove. Most of the cars were still running so
there was heavy traffic all around the 3/8 mile oval. He ran out of laps at the
end, but had a great run to come back up to 8th at the checkered.
The first five cars Tyler Walker, Johnny Herrera, Dale Blaney, Shane Stewart,
and Paul McMahn all started in the first five spots. Then came Brian Paulus,
Sean Michael, and Ed. Walker seemed to have things covered, but Ed felt his car
was good enough to at least challenge Walker.
The 39 cars that took time had a track with a lot more moisture than the night
before and Herrera set a new record of 12.973 and won his heat with Stewart,
Wayne Johnson, and Rahmer taking the other heats. Walker won the first Dash ad
Ed finished the second Dash behind Blaney and Stewart.
Lernerville - 8/30/02
Ed was not injured, but will probably be sore in the morning after flipping in
turn #3 of the opening lap of the 35-lap GumOut feature, Friday night at
Lernerville Speedway. The car suffered heavy damage to both wings, the front
axle, a wheel, torsion arms, a bent frame, etc.
There were 42 cars on hand for this special event and Ed timed 4th overall
behind Brian Paulus, Shane Stewart and Tyler Walker. This started him 4th in the
4th heat which showed Craig Keel and Jeremy Campbell in the front row and Byron
Reed inside Ed. By lap 4, Ed was leading and even the yellow flag waving on lap
6 didn't effect his drive and he won in convincing style.
The winners of the 1st and 3rd heats (Johnny Herrera and Tyler Walker) started
in the front row of the 1st Dash, while the winners of the 2nd and 4th Heats
(Shane Steward and Ed) made up the front of the 2nd Dash. Ed's 2nd place finish
in the Dash put him in 4th spot of the feature, behind Johnny Herrera and
Stewart with Walker inside in row two.
The 4-wide parade lap occurred and the fireworks were finished as the field took
the green flag. Herrera led from his pole position with Stewart 2nd and Ed 3rd.
As they came out of turn 2 and down the back stretch, Ed gained on Stewart and
quickly moved to the outside and ran side by side with him from the middle of
the back stretch toward turn three. With Ed on the outside, he saw Stewart's
wheels turn right into Ed's front end and all Ed could do from that point was
hang on.
He went out over turn #3 and flipped. "It's a shame, the car was going
great....the engine was running fine and I feel we were going to win it," Ed
said as he slipped another front axle under the car, in order to load up and go
home.
Racing Plans for 8/30, 8/31 and 9/1/02
Ed plans to race this Friday at Lernerville Speedway's Gum Out show, then
Saturday and Sunday he plans to return to Sharon Speedway for the first time
since his 5th place finish in the WoO show on July 31st. According to Sharon
Speedway records of sprint car winners over the last 33 years, Ed ranks 4th with
25. He is five features away from tying the leader, George Bischoff who has 30
wins.
Tri City Speedway - 8/25/02
Sunday night was the final Sprint race of the season at Tri City Speedway and 18
cars competed in two heats and a 20-lap feature.
In preparation for #2L's next race, it had taken hours to clean all the mud off
everything from Lernerville's heavy rain prior to Friday night's races. Then
early Saturday morning, Ed, Sr. suspected a radiator problem and was off to the
repair shop where (underpressure) nine pin-holes were discovered in the core. He
returned several hours later and the team was thrashing to get ready for Sharon,
when the call came about15 minutes prior to loading up....that the races had
been cancelled.
Much more garage work continued and then around 2:15PM on Sunday, the rig headed
for Tri City. Ed was scheduled to start 8th in the first heat, but at the last
minute, there was another problem with a radiator and the team requested to
start last in the 2nd heat. Repairs were made in time for Ed to race and he won
that heat.
The inversion was "0" and thus, he started outside Andy Priest, who won the 1st
heat. The second row showed Rod George starting 3rd. Despite two cautions on
laps 1 and 5, Ed led every lap and held off George at the finish. The race ended
with a yellow and checkered waving because of an accident involving Jack Sodeman,
Jr.
It was Ed's 5th victory of the year at Tri City.
Lernerville Speedway - 8/23/02
On the very last point show of the Lernerville Speedway season, Ed completed a
goal he had set for himself way back on March 2 at the track's annual awards
banquet. He told the crowd that his family, Heather, Ed III and Sye all wanted
him to try for the all-time sprint winners' record during the track's 35th
season. He would need seven wins to do that. On Friday, August 23rd, he took the
checkered flag for his 56th career feature win here and became the new record
holder. The victory lane celebration included interviews, pictures, champagne, a
banner reading "Ed Lynch, Jr. - all time feature win record holder" with a
silhouette of his #2L, and a chocolate cake with crossed checkered flags on the
icing and a message saying, "Congratulations - Ed Lynch, Jr - 56 all-time
feature wins!" The program was slightly delayed because a rain hit the track
after the gates were open. The 26 cars that signed in ran 3 heats and Ed started
8th in the lst heat and won it with Kevin Schaeffer and Brent Matus picking up
the other heats.
Ed started 12th in the 20-lap feature by virtue of his win last week. In the
early laps led by Chad Hill, Ed made good moves and was up to 6th and had passed
Rod George on the outside for 5th when the yellow came out after 2 laps, taking
that pass away.
On the restart, Ed passed George once again, this time on the inside, only to
have that lap brought back because of a red flag. On that restart, he seemed to
be able to use any lane to pass George again, then set sail to the front. Two
more yellow flags after lap 5 and lap 7, showed him in 2nd behind Hill. When the
action resumed, the two front-runners raced several laps side by side until they
entered lapped traffic on lap 13 and Hill got into the back of a lapped car,
damaging his front wing.
Ed was on the inside groove and made good time through the lapped cars and was
1st when the final yellow came out on lap 14. He had the cushion of one lapped
car, then came Jamie Smith who turned up the wick, but was about 1/2 a
straightaway off the mark at the end. Congratulations to Rod George, who
finished 3rd which was good enough to give him the season championship. Ed would
end up 2nd in points with 7 wins and six 2nds and maybe there were 6 rainouts
for the year, plus he was absent two nights - going to the 1200# Nationals and
the Knoxville Nationals.
Tri City Speedway - 8/18/02
Ed was surprised to end up in victory lane Sunday night at Tri City Speedway.
The night before at Mercer he had a rock put a hole in his radiator with five
laps to go and the crew had to wait until Sunday morning to survey the damages.
A new radiator was installed, but there was concern about how the loss of water
Saturday night might effect the engine.
There were 19 sprints on hand and Rod George ran away with the lst heat and Ed
won the 2nd heat. The pill inversion put these two heat winners in the 6th row
with Ed starting 11th and George starting 12th in the 20-lap A-Main.
George made his usual good inside moves early and a caution on lap 7 showed him
already in the lead with Ed only up to 6th. Then, Ed worked hard to gain three
spots over the next five laps as George continued to lead. By the next yellow on
lap 12, the restart showed George in front followed by Scott Bonnell and Ed now
in third. Waiting for the restart, Ed said to himself, "What am I doing running
this lower groove....the car doesn't really want to run well down here....so, I
guess I'll try the top."
When Greg Wheeling threw the green, Ed moved to the top of the track and passed
Bonnell on the outside on lap 13 in turn two and one lap later, he caught and
passed George (again on the outside) in turn four. His winning margin increased
with each lap and he had a comfortable five second lead at the finish.
Tri City maintains a list of all drivers in all divisions that earn "Hard
Charger" points for each car passed in feature competition and Ed leads the
Sprint Division drivers so far with only one week remaining in competition for
that award.
Mercer Raceway Park - 8/17/02
It was Mercer's 4th Annual "Sprint Slug-Out" Saturday night and 28 sprinters
signed in to try for the $3,000 prize at the end of the 30-lap feature.
Ed started 9th in the 2nd heat and finished 2nd to Gary Edwards, with the other
heats going to Jason Jacoby and Charlie Holben. The heats took a toll on
equipment with crashes involving the cars of Deena Barbara, Dale Blaney, Scott
Priestly, Dave Wagner and others.
The pill draw for the "Slug-Out" had Ed starting outside Arnie Kent in the front
row, directly ahead of Jimmy Hawley and Jacoby. Jamie Smith and Scott Bonnell
brought up the third row. At the drop of the green, the inside row took off and
Ed's car was slow on the take-off.
Kent led the first six laps before the first yellow with Ed in 2nd and Hawley in
3rd. Two laps later the same three survived another caution. Then the field got
into some serious racing with many lapped cars an issue. But the attention was
at the front of the field where Hawley had taken over the lead and Ed still held
2nd. Just when it was going to be decision time for Hawley in lapped traffic
with Ed in second waiting for an opportunity to take advantage of any move
Hawley might make, the yellow came out, giving him a clear track and Ed had to
settle for 2nd.
Lernerville Speedway - 8/16/02
It was history in the making Friday night. After trying for almost the whole
season, Ed tied Johnny Beaber for the most all-time Sprint wins at Lernerville
Speedway. Both drivers now have 55 total wins, which means Ed needs one more win
to achieve the goal he announced back on March 2, 2002 at the Lernerville awards
banquet of becoming the all-time leading Sprint feature winner in the track's
35-year history.
The 25 sprints on hand ran three heat races with Ed starting 7th and passing
pole-sitter Brian Ellenberger late in the race for the win. Kevin Schaeffer and
Rod George won the other heats.
In all previous features here this year, Ed never started higher than 6th, but
tonight's pill draw put him on the pole for the 20-lap A-Main. Schaeffer started
beside him, while Ralph Spithaler and Ellenberger made up row two.
After two ragged original starts in which Schaeffer got the jump using that fast
top lane. The field settled in for 2 laps with Schaeffer leading, before cars
tangled in between turns 1 and 2. On the restart, once again Schaeffer went to
the top groove and Ed tried to make the bottom work. He could be equal to
Schaeffer in turn two, but each lap, Kevin's momentum would shoot him ahead of
Ed down the back-stretch. One time when Ed tried the bottom, third place
Ellenberger used the top groove to close in on Ed's back bumper just as Ed got
back up to the top of the track.
Another 3-car scramble, again in turns one and two, brought out the yellow after
six laps. The restart was Schaeffer, Lynch, Ellenberger, Jamie Smith and Jimmy
Hawley. This time, Ed stayed with Kevin and both driver circled the top. Three
laps later, Ed couldn't resist trying the inside in turn 2 once again as lapped
traffic now entered the picture.
Coming down to complete 10, it was like a drag race as the two cars were
side-by-side, but this time Ed made the inside work and passed Kevin in turn one
and immediately went to the top groove and had a 1/2 straight-away lead by lap
14 when Ellenberger flipped at the flagstand, bringing out the red flag.
The final six laps went caution-free and Ed passed under Kent Michael's
checkered flag for the 6th time this year for his 55th career win at Lernerville.
Schaeffer, Smith, Kriess and Hawley rounded out the top five.
Weekend Racing Plans for 8/16-8/18/02
Ed's plans for this weekend include Lernerville on Friday, Mercer on Saturday
and Tri City on Sunday. See you at the races!
Tri City Speedway - 8/11/02
Loading up after the Knoxville Nationals, the team made the 13 hour tow to Tri
City Speedway just north of Franklin PA. The team arrived at 3:00 PM and Ed
started working on getting the car back to a set-up he would be comfortable with
by changing torsion bars and suspension points.
For at least a month now, because of the hot, dry weather, Tri City has
eliminated hot laps and goes straight to heat races at 6:00PM sharp! The 20
Sprints on hand ran two heats with Ed starting 3rd in the lst heat and won it by
a big margin. Rod George won the other heat.
The 20-lap Sprint feature was after the Modified feature and the draw for
inversion from the heats was four. Thus, Ed started 8th and George started 7th
behind the front row of Ricky Ferkel and Daryl Stimeling.
It was Stimeling who took off at the start with the field only getting one lap
in the books before the only yellow of the event came out. The scorers had the
single file restart with George in 4th and Ed still 8th. On the restart,
Stimeling, working on his first career Tri City feature win, again took off,
building over a 1/2 track lead over Ed, who was making his way through the field
into 2nd on lap four.
Ed's set-up allowed him to run anywhere on the 1/2 mile track and he caught
Stimeling at the 1/2 way mark, and spent three or four laps trying to get under
him for the lead as the two front-runners had to deal with heavy lapped traffic.
Finally, with two laps to go, Ed found the opening he needed and dove under the
leader. Ed held on for his 13th career win at Tri City despite a valiant effort
by Stimeling on the final lap. Fans from Franklin told Ed they had seen two
interviews he had done with
Ralph Shaheen on Speed Channel.
Knoxville Raceway Recap - 8/10/02
Ed and the team were certainly proud to make the A-Main in Saturday's 42nd
Annual Mopar Knoxville Nationals. However, after starting 16th, his 23rd place
finish was not what he had planned, but his set-up was wrong right from the drop
of Doug Clark's green flag and Ed had his hands full the entire 30 laps. Steve
Kinser drove with determination to win the $125,000
prize.
With the Nationals' format and 118 of the best sprint car drivers on hand, it
was a tough job to make the final night A-Main. Just to make the finale of the
4-night, richest sprint car race in the country was worth $5,000. The packed
grandstands (front and back-stretch) did show a lot of support for their
favorites with roaring cheers during driver introductions and Ed had cheering
sections both places. Saturday's Des Moines Register newspaper had a feature
story with a large picture of Ed, Jr. and Ed, Sr. in its Sports section, so even
fans he had never met before were familiar with the history of the "Apollo
Rocket" team that came from 800 miles away to race at the "Sprint Car Capital of
the World."
Ralph Shaheen, now a sportscaster for Speed Channel, did two interviews with Ed
that are to show on Sunday and through the week with highlights of the
Nationals.
Ed was surprised to meet so many new fans that wanted to congratulate him on his
big WoO win in the Don Martin Silver Cup race. Many of them visit his website
and have sent messages from California, Colorado, Nebraska and Australia (for
example), so it was great to meet them in person! By now, half the grandstand
knows Ed's fans from Colorado....they do enjoy their racing!
This was the first year that Ed and his family were able to take in all the neat
things during "Nationals" week. For example, there are area races to watch on
Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, leading up to the start of the Nationals on
Wednesday. Some of the traditional things to do include, good eating places,
like Kin Folks and Udders, a Queen's contest, non-stop race talk, a parade, a
corn maize, home-made pie and ice-cream tent, visit the National Sprint Car Hall
of Fame and Museum, the beef and pork producers tents with sandwiches and great
corn-on-the-cob! His whole family used bikes for most of their transportation.
Ed feels you can't meet a stranger in Knoxville during this week. Over the
years, he has met two host families through the Chamber of Commerce and has
stayed with them. Charlie and Nancy Van Howelingen and Julie and Dave Smith have
turned their homes into more than just "Bed and Breakfast" places for the Lynch
Racing team. Charlie and Nancy were able to come to Pennsylvania to visit three
tracks where Ed races weekly. This is what makes the Knoxville Nationals so
special for Lynch Racing every year and why we can't wait until next year to do
it again.
Knoxville Raceway - 8/8/02
The top 50 in points for the 116 cars that raced Wednesday and Thursday at
Knoxville Raceway have been determined and The top 20 are locked into the
A-Main. Ed's total points have him in 16th spot and therefore, he starts 16th in
Saturday night's A-Main. The front row will be Joey Saldana and Danny Lasoski;
the 2nd row - Daryn Pittman and Tim Shaffer; 3rd row - Jac Haudenschild and
Craig Dollansky; 4th row - Steve Kinser and Johnny Herrera; 5th row - Donny
Schatz and Tyler Walker; 6th row - Lance Dewease and Greg Hodnett; 7th row -
Mark Kinser and Paul McMahan; 8th row - Stevie Smith and Ed Lynch, Jr.; 9th row
- Jason Sides and Sammy Swindell; 10th row - Kerry Madsen and Shane Stewart.
Knoxville Raceway - 8/7/02
Ed is one of 122 entries in the 42nd Annual Mopar Knoxville Nationals. The cars
are divided into two nights of qualifying. This is the first time Ed has chosen
to qualify on Wednesday night instead of Thursday.
There were actually 55 cars on hand for qualifying and with transponders on all
cars made it easy to see the progress of the times during the hot lap sessions.
Ed was in the first of four groups and the track was pretty wet. That first
group was immediately given another session. Then as the other groups had their
hot lap sessions, the times dropped dramatically as track conditions improved.
Ed had fast time for all of that first group and it held up until near the end
of the second group. By the end of time trials, he was 6th overall with a time
of 15.537 behind Joey Saldana( 15.218), Daryl Pittman, Craig Dollansky, Tim
Shaffer and Brian Paulus.
The fastest 50 cars ran five heats with all 10 inverted by times, so Ed started
9th in the first heat and finished 3rd, which qualified him for the preliminary
night A-Main. In the A-Main the first eight cars were inverted and he started
4th behind the front row of Lance Dewease and Steve Kinser. Paul McMahan started
inside of Ed. It was a 25-lap feature and Ed was in trouble when the track
slicked over. Ed was 7th on a yellow on lap 14, but lost several more spots with
3 laps to go and ended up 12th at the checkered flag. Kinser won in a last lap
move under Saldana.
Ed got 190 points for time trials, 94 points for his heat and 178 for the
feature. His total points of 462 place him 8th overall at the end of Wednesday
nights events. After Thursday, the points are combined and the highest 20 will
be in Saturday night's A-Main.
Eldora Speedway - 8/3/02
Eldora Speedway presented the HBO X (10th Annual Historical Big One) Saturday
night and a field of 27 cars were on hand to try for the $100,000 first place
prize. Ed felt he was not fast enough in his hot lap session and made changes,
but was still searching for more speed and timed 24th overall. This started him
8th in the second heat and only the top five cars qualified for the A-Main. He
finished 5th and that started him 15th in the 24-car field for the 40-lap
feature.
After about 15 laps, he was not comfortable with the set up and decided to go to
the pits. He was credited with a 20th place finish.
The team then headed for Knoxville, Iowa where he is scheduled to qualify on
Wednesday night. That show will be broadcast on SCN or Knoxville's website -
www.knoxvilleraceway.com (remember Knoxville is Central Time)
Lernerville Speedway - 8/2/02
There were showers as the #2L team headed for Lernerville, but they were
scattered and the Pits were open and full. The car was unloaded, but never had a
chance to fire the engine as another light rain hit the track. "Ouchie" had a
fleet of vehicles set to run the track in, but even they had to be pulled off
when another line of showers moved through forcing a cancellation for the night.
The trailer loading and stacking process started as soon as Ed got to the garage
and the team will head out tomorrow for Eldora's HBO and then the Knoxville
Nationals will be next. Anyone interested in listening to Knoxville "live" can
go to their website www.knoxvilleraceway.com......but remember, there is a one
hour time difference. Ed is scheduled to qualify Wednesday night.
September
Ed and His #2L Make A Local Appearance
Apollo, PA…9/21/02….Ed Lynch, Jr. will have his #2L Sprint car at the Grand
Opening of River Road Auto Sales & Service at 786 River Road, North Apollo, PA
from Monday, September 30th through Saturday, October 5, 2002.
The Allera family has owned the business for over 30 years and present owner,
Jim Allera is understandably excited about his brand new facility, built by
local contractors, on a site across the road from his previous business
location. At River Road Auto Sales & Service, they specialize in low mileage,
reconditioned cars, trucks, SUV’s and mini vans.
The Lynch Racing #2L that Ed drove to 19 feature wins this season, will be on
display in the showroom during all business hours through the week. Monday
through Thursday 8:00AM to 8:00PM. On Friday the hours are 8:00AM to 5:00PM and
Saturday starting at 8:00AM they will be open until 3:00PM. For more information
call (724) 478-3883.
Ed’s “Big Check” for his $35,000 World of Outlaw, Don Martin Memorial Silver Cup
victory will be on display in the showroom all week. Ed will be signing
autographs on Thursday evening from 5:00PM to 8:00PM and Saturday from 11:00AM
to 3:00PM. The local Christian Radio Station WAVL will be broadcasting on site
and do an interview with Ed on Saturday.
Fans will receive his new autograph card, or they may bring their personal
cameras for a picture with Ed. His new T-Shirts in sizes from infants to 4XL
will also be on sale.
Another sports figure on hand for the Grand Opening will be Chuck Farneth,
winner of ESPN’s “Great Outdoor Games” in Fly-Fishing Competition. Farmeth, a
three-time medalist in that event, is a former “Valley” resident, but will be
traveling to River Road Auto Sales & Service from his present home in Little
Rock, Arkansas.
Sports Activities - 9/14/02
Football activities increased greatly this past week for Ed and his family. His
son Ed III played a great game on Wednesday on Kiski Area's 8th grade team. He
had a couple of nice runs, caught a pass and gained some yardage and made a
couple of critical tackles. On Friday night, the 7th, 8th and 9th grade teams
were introduced to the large crowd on hand for Kiski's Varsity "Quad A" game at
Davis Field in Vandergrift.
On Thursday, September 12, Ed did a live interview on the internet with a
reporter for the paper "Kiski Valley Today." The subject was racing. Plans are
in the works for Ed to make an appearance with his race car and
sign autographs at a local business. There will be details posted on his website
"Updates" page within one week.
Ed Clinches Two Titles 9/8/02
#1 COCHRAN CAVALCADE POINTS FOR SPRINTS
Ed received word from Walt Wimer that he had officially clinched the #1 Cochran
Cavalcade Points Title for Sprint Cars. Throughout the season, for many years,
Wimer has kept track of the finishes for drivers in the tri-state area. His
system awards points for the top three spots in the feature races only. The
title is Ed's third in the Cavalcade Points, having won in 1990 and again in
2000.
ORIGINAL COORS HARD CHARGER AWARD AT TRI CITY SPEEDWAY
Ed was declared the winner of the 2002 Original Coors Hard Charger Award in the
closest chase for the title in track history. Points for the Award are
accumulated in each feature for all four divisions at Tri City during the
season. A driver earns one point for each position advanced in that night's
feature from his original starting spot. Basically, it means that Ed started
pretty far back in the features on a regular basis and therefore passed the most
cars of all the drivers in competition in all divisions this season. He earned
66 Hard Charger points and won by one point over DIRT Modified driver, Dave
Murdick.
Raceway 7 - 9/6/02
Twenty-six cars were on hand for the Triathlon Sprint race at Raceway 7, Friday
night. The line-up for three heats was by luck of the draw and Ed started 5th
and won the 2nd heat with Jimmy Hawley and Gary Kreiss taking the other two.
The 30-lap feature had a re-draw for the first 12 spots and Ed drew 10. An early
caution showed Ed 8th and a red flag on lap 3 had him up to 6th. He was 3rd
behind Troy Preston and Arnie Kent when the caution came out on lap 15. On the
restart, Ed got over the wheel of a lapped car when it took a right before
turning left in a turn and that caused a problem with a torsion arm on the #2L
and Ed spun. He restarted last and got up to about 4th, but on the last lap, the
left radius rod bent and he spun again. He may have finished 12th.
October
Autographs on Saturday, October 5,
2002
Ed signed autographs, visited with fans and had a quick lesson in Fly-Fishing
from 3-time medalist in ESPN's "Great Outdoor Games", Chuck Farneth on Saturday
afternoon at the Grand Opening Celebration of Jim Allera's River Road Auto Sales
& Service in North Apollo.
Fans brought items from their personal collections for him to autograph. There
was a beautiful quilt with #2L cars on it, some of his older t-shirts (but still
fan favorites), models of the #2L sprint car, poster of the #2L from a bedroom
wall to be signed and put back up on that wall and many other items.
He personalized the new autograph cards by request and signed many of his new
t-shirts.
First of Two Autograph Sessions - 10/3/02
It was a fun night for everyone Thursday night and Saturday, afternoon, October
5, race fans of all ages are invited to stop at the River Road Auto Sales in
North Apollo between 11:00am and 3:00pm to share their racing stories with Ed
Lynch, Jr.
Ed and his family, wife Heather and sons Ed III and Sye, were meeting and
greeting fans Thursday night at the Grand Opening of Jim Allera's River Road
Auto Sales.
Fans received his new autograph card and brought many of their own items for
Ed's signature. Many brought their own cameras for a family picture with Ed.
On display in the show room was the #2L, the "big check" from his Don Martin
Silver Cup World of Outlaw win, newspaper articles of his win, a specially
designed Silver Cup, and a TV showing a video of the race. Everyone registered
for a chance to win free Ed Lynch, Jr. T-shirts in drawings at 7:00 and 8:00pm,
compliments of the River Road Auto Sales. There were five different winners.
Another autograph session is set for this Saturday, October 5 from 11:00am to
3:00pm at the North Apollo business. Also on hand Saturday will be Chuck Farneth,
winner of ESPN's "Great Outdoor Games" in Fly-Fishing Competition. Chuck plans
to give Ed and his Mom, Jean, a quick lesson in casting and then have a contest
to see who casts the farthest!
November
Ed's Silver Cup Win Gets National
Ranking - 10/30/02
In the October 30th issue of National Speed Sport News, Mike Kerchner, Associate
Editor of this racing trade paper, asks the question, "What was the most
exciting performance of the season?"
His answer which appeared in the Elbows Up section of the paper read as follows:
There were so many we picked three. 3. Ed Lynch, Jr. winning his first World of
Outlaws race in the Don Martin Memorial Silver Cup race at Pennsylvania's
Lernerville Speedway where Lynch later became the winningest sprint driver in
the track history. 2. David Steele who won midget twin 25's at IRP in
Indianapolis. He won the 2nd one from the rear of the field. 1. Travis Rilat's
win of the Ultimate Challenge non-win sprint race at Oskaloosa, Iowa.
Sad News from Iowa - 11/11/02
The family that Lynch Racing has stayed with for the last nine years during the
Knoxville Nationals, Charlie and Nancy Van Houwelingen, called Ed, Jr. in the
garage on Sunday with really sad news. Their grandson Kenny, just 18 years old,
was killed in an automobile accident.
He was a catcher on the High School baseball team that won the Iowa State
Championship this past summer. Nancy attended all his games through his school
years. Kenny always stopped at his Grandma's house when he knew the #2L was in
town and we had an opportunity to watched him grow from a 9-year old into a nice
young man.
The Lynch race team and family would like to send condolences and have our fans
also join in thoughts and prayers to Charlie and Nancy in their time of grief.
December
Butler Eagle Sunday Edition - 12/29/02
The Sports staff of the Butler Eagle, a daily paper in Butler PA, a town 9 miles
north of Lernerville Speedway, voted on the top 15 sports stories in Butler
County for the year 2002.
The results were published in a full-page spread of the Sports Section of the
Sunday paper on December 29, 2002.
Ed's win at Lernerville against the World of Outlaws on July 23rd ranked second.
The description read: "Ed Lynch, Jr. The local Sprint car driver known as the
Apollo Rocket shocked the Pennzoil WEorld of Outlaws circuit by winning the
annual Silver Cup race in July at Lernerville Speedway." Ed's story was 2nd only
to Jim Kelly, the Buffalo Bills' quarterback from nearby East Brady, being
inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Elbows Up! December 11, 2002
In the December 11 issue of the "Elbows Up!" sprint & midget tabloid insert in
National Speed Sport News, writer Dave Argabright has written and article titled
'Experience vs. Youth' where he says the following:
Think about being a 19-year-old racer, sliding your butt into the seat and
lining up next to Steve Kinser, or Tony Elliott, or Rickey Hood, or Ed Lynch, Jr,
or Terry Gray, or Danny Lasoski. Think you'd be, uh, a little intimidated? You
betcha.
Then, in the center spread of "Elbows Up!" under the headline titled - 'Oh, What
A Year' - there is a paragraph about "The Apollo Rocket" which reads: Ed Lynch,
Jr. had a big season with 19 sprint-car victories, including seven at
Lernerville, five at Tri-City, six at Sharon, and one at Mercer. He became the
all-time winner at Lernerville on August 23 with his 55th career victory. His
Lernerville highlight, however, had to be July 23 when he beat the World of
Outlaws in the $35,000 Don Martin Memorial. Somewhere, Don must be smiling.
National Speed Sport News and Indy PRI Show - 12/4-7
The current December 4 issue of National Speed Sport News, page 11, features a
full-page of color photos in a tribute to Ed and other drivers who had great
success using Kistler engines in 2002. Also, Ed just attended the largest annual
show in the country for the Professional Racing Industry (PRI), held this year
in Indianapolis from December 5th through the 7th. Many of the booths had
stories and picture displays of Ed's $35,000 World of Outlaw Don Martin Silver
Cup win.
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