Ed Passes The Most Cars Coming F

The 25-lap Sprint feature at Lernerville Speedway Friday night had all the makings of a non-stop event. With Ed starting ninth and Rod George on the pole, the Apollo Rocket was making tracks to the front and mastered his way to second spot when the lone yellow flag came out on lap 22.

There were two lapped cars separating Ed from the leader, George, on the restart. Ironically, the lapped cars ran side by side with no safe way around or through them for two laps and once Ed was able to get by, there was no chance of catching George and Ed settled for second.

The day had started with a morning rain which continued as a light on and off sprinkle all afternoon. After many calls to the track, the crew loaded up and left. Much to everyone's surprise, the evening was rain free and the 22 Sprints were second on the rotation and ran two heats. Ed started outside the front row of the second heat and led every lap finishing ahead of Brian Ellenberger, Carl Bowser and Charlie Holben. George led all laps of the first heat over Scott Priester, Danny Holtgraver and Dan Kuriger.

The feature lined up at 10:00PM with George and Ralphie Spithaler on the front row. Ed and Ellenberber made up row five, but early in the race, Ed made good moves and had passed three cars by lap four. He chose the bottom groove at this point and just held his spot for another five laps. Near the half-way mark, he was on the board in fifth and working his way around lapped traffic to the front four.

Finally, he moved to the top of the track and started picking off positions. He passed Lutz to capture fourth spot with six to go, next he set his sights on third place Kevin Schaeffer with four to go. With that done, one lap later, the yellow came out for Kuriger off the back stretch but the two lapped cars between Ed and the leader George proved to be a spoiler and Ed fell short, settling for second ahead of Schaeffer, Spithaler, Lutz, Ellenberger, Holtgraver, .Priester, Holben and Carl Bowser in the top ten.

******************************************************************************** Ed will spend Saturday morning in the garage preparing for Knoxville. He had planned to have a car ready to test on Friday night but a busy job schedule prevented him from having it race-ready. So the crew will diligently work on it and other things necessary for the big trip to the Sprint Car Capital, of the World - Knoxville, Iowa where he qualifies on Wednesday, August 8, 2007

On Sunday, July 29, Ed will be signing autographs from 12:00noon until 3:00PM at a Car Show held at Prime Time Pizza on Route 66 at North Washington

After a late show on Friday night, Ed and the #2L were loaded and headed two hours North to Sharon Speedway in Hartford OH by 2:30PM Saturday afternoon. They arrived at the track, signed in and received tickets for a drawing to be held in conjunction with the track's Christmas in July Celebration.

The weather was perfect and the pits were full with cars anticipating the 6:00PM start. However, there was a delay in track preparation. There was an equipment failure (water-truck) and the two inside grooves looked very soft. At 8:15PM track officials made the announcement that "due to the equipment failure" and track conditions that were deemed unsafel for competition, the races were cancelled. Further, all rain checks from tonight's race will be honored for the rest of the year. Please call the track at 1-724-300-5481.if you have any questions.

Next up should be a regular show at Lernerville and an open Saturday night (because WoO Late Models will be at Sharon Speedway.), then on Sunday July 29, will be the Ed's autograph session plus a car show.

Ed's feature was third on the docket and there wasn't much race track left when the Sprints got the green flag to start their 25-lap feature at 11:23PM. Despite the slick surface, Ed managed to advance to second after starting eighth. Perhaps because of the many changes the crew made to the car following hot laps including tires, wheels, torsion bars, gears, front axle and shocks.

Photo Contest Winner Zack Zuck {see separate story) was involved in the thought process behind all those changes and was an active participant in preparing the car throughout the night. He will have many stories to tell his friends at home in Taiwan when he returns there in several weeks.

First, the Late Models nearly set a record with something like 13 yellow flags in their feature, then came the Modifieds followed by the Sprints. Scott Lutz and Doug Dodson made up the front row with Carl Bowser and Scott Priester in row two. Next came Dan Kuriger and Brent Matus then Jeff Busby and Ed in eighth.

Ed was off to a pretty good start with Dodson leading the first lap followed by Priester, Scott Lutz and Ed in fourth. However, there were two separate red flag incidents after one lap of the Sprint feature. The first involved the car of Greg Bartchy upside down into the front stretch fencing and the second was for a turn-over by Mike Lutz in turn two. All drivers were OK.

Eventual winner Scott Priester (who was driving one of Ed's older cars that he recently purchased and repainted red with his own number 11 on it), took the lead on the restart and never looked back as the Sprints went the rest of the way to the checkered flag in non-stop fashion. Ed got up to second by lap five, but by this time, Priester was almost a straight-away ahead. The lapped traffic was spaced pretty much all the way around the track as the laps clicked off. Ed cut into Priester's lead with three laps to go and closed to within three car lengths at the checkered. Finshing third, it was Kuriger followed by Carl Bowser, Rod George, Kevin Schaeffer, Scott Lutz, Dan Shetler, Brent Matus and Dodson all in the top ten, with Jeff Busby in eleventh the only cars in the 23 car field to complete all 25 laps.

After raining out the original Tuesday show, the 16th Annual Don Martin Silver Cup Race was held on Wednesday with 46 cars returning. Ed started his night in good shape, but later he discovered a broken push rod and was done for the night.

He didn't complete his hot lap session, because he felt he had an exhaust leak, and he shot to the pits to change headers.

Ed drew a high pill which had him going out 43rd in time trial order. Normally, there is not a lot of racetrack left at that point, buthHe got a hold of every bit of track surface he could and pulled off an amazing 13.025 for an overall speed of 124.376mph. Only Paul McMahan was faster with a time of 12.953.

With the World of Outlaw format, the top four are inverted in four heats. Thus, Ed started fourth in the second heat.and that's where he finished behind Tim Shaffer, Craig Dollansky and Lance Dewease. Other heats were won by Daryn Pittman, Steve Kinser and Stevie Smith. Next up for Ed would be the Crane Cams Dash where McMahan and Ed made up the fifth row based on their times.

It was during the Dash that Ed heard a sound coming from the engine and he backed off trying to figure out what the problem was. He finished the race in 10th place which assured him of 10th starting spot in the 40-lap $30,000-to-win feature. However, once he pulled into his pit area, he decided to take off a valve pan cover and much to his disappointment, he found a broken push rod which made it impossible to start the feature. He notified the WoO officials who had Johnny Gibson announce it to the dis-believing fans.

The feature went non-stop and Donny Schatz drove a flawless race to collect the big check over Dollansky, Pittman, Kinser and Shaffer.

There were two attempts to get time trials in Tuesday night at Lernerville Speedway, but each time, just past the half-way mark of the 51-car field, rain spoiled any chance to complete the show.

Ed had drawn a high pill and was set to go out 38th in the time trial order, but the first time the rain came at 7:45PM, just 29 cars had recorded times with Joey Saldana being the fastest. Once the heavy rain stopped, the track crew worked hard to prepare the surface to start time trials all over again, but this time, each driver would get only one lap on the clock.

The next session of time trials had 26 cars officially on the clock and the rain started at 11:05PM causing officials to shut down activities once again. Shortly after, the announcement came to postpone the race 24 hours with gates set to open at 5:00pm Wednesday 7/18/07.

With gridlock in the exit areas of the track, Lynch Racing never got back to the garage until 12:45AM and before the website could be updated, the entire area lost power. With everything covered with mud, the crew will be scrubbing away, but as of 9:00AM Wednesday the heavy rains are still with us.

With 51 cars on hand for the 24th running of the Kings Royal at Eldora Speedway Saturday night, Ed was able to go out 15th and turn the second fastest time of the night of 13.719. This would prove to be essential for him to make the 24-car starting field after he could not advance through his heat or the B-Main.

Kenny Jacobs who went out ninth and set quick time of 13.687, pulled a number "5" pill for the heat inversion. This proved hard to overcome for most as all six heats were won from the front row. Both Jacobs and Ed started fifth and finished fifth in their heats. Ed looked good briefly as he dove into third spot in the first turn after the green flag was displayed, but he couldn't stay down there and advance, because the top seemed faster and he was back to fifth by the time he completed a lap at the flagstand. Chad Kemenah won Ed's heat and other heat winners were Craig Dollansky, Brandon Wimmer, Kerry Madsen, Jason Solwold and Donny Schatz.

With only the top three locked into the feature, Ed had to run the B-Main where he started eighth. Only the top four would advance. Before Ed could make headway, Tim Shaffer who started two rows ahead got into a mix-up and climbed another driver's wheel and Ed had to back off. The rest of the field was gone by then and those who advanced were Steve Kinser, Danny Lasoski, Chad Hillier and Greg Wilson.

This is where it paid off for Ed to time well as both fast time and second fast time were added to the field as 23rd and 24th starters. Ed immediately made large scale changes in hopes of getting better grip on the race track, but nothing seemed to help. He ran the entire race, still searching for answers. Meanwhile, Dollansky led the first five laps of the 40-lapper until pole-sitter Schatz went by on the low side and set about to put a bunch of lapped cars behind him. At the checkered flag, Schatz led Jason Meyers, Terry McCarl, Jason Solwold and Joey Saldana. Rounding out the top ten it was Paul McMahan, Dollansky, Jac Haudenschild, Kemenah and Paulus. Ed was two laps down at the end, crediting him with 22nd.

The team towed to Lernerville Friday night and ran into rain on the way. They parked in the Pit Sign In lane until track officials declared a "rain out" around 6:15PM. Once they were back at the garage, plans were made for the next day's trip to Eldora Speedway for the 24th Annual Kings Royal. The race will be live on the internet at www.DIRTVision.com at 7:00PM ET and on TV the next day, Sunday at 12:00noon on ESPN2. In last year's time trials, Ed set fast time of the 53 cars on hand and was presented a special edition Tony Stewart Articat four-wheeler for his effort.

On Sunday, July 29, Ed has been asked to make a special appearance and sign autographs from 12:00noon until 3:00PM at Prime Time Pizza's car show in North Washington on Route 66.

After working all night Friday and most of the day Saturday putting a car together using spare parts in the garage, the team headed to Sharon. Ed was pleased to find that the engine from last night's crash at Lernerville, after repairing the block today, held up well and produced a strong finish.

Before racing got underway, the owner's of Sharon Speedway (the Blaney's, Kirila's, and Weller's) surprised Ed with a special presentation on the front stretch, honoring him with a beautiful plaque acknowledging his 200th career Sprint Car win that Sharon hosted two weeks ago on June 23rd. Ed showed his appreciation in his emotional acceptance speech in front of a cheering crowd.

The Sprints were third in the rotation tonight for their heats and feature. Ed was scheduled to start 8th in the second of two heat races. He made cautious moves on his way through the field but had to settle for a third place finish with the win going to Shawn Minor, who started outside pole and second place going to Bob Felmlee, who started 5th. The first heat race win went to David Doherty who also started on the front row.

The 25 lap feature showed Jarod Larson and Shawn Minor starting on the front row while Ed was slated to start 10th. A red flag on the start of the race for the #6T of Taylor came early but when racing resumed, it was all green flag laps until a caution on lap 23 came out for the #77 of Kyle Moffit. Ed had steadily and skillfully managed to make his way to the second spot and was closing in on the leader of Jody Keegan when the caution occurred. The restart showed two lapped cars between Jody and Ed with only two laps remaining. Ed was able to get by the lapped cars within the first lap but with an open track ahead of him, it was Jody Keegan who took the win with Ed just a few car lengths behind for a solid finish.

The old car held together, the broken engine ran well, Ed got a nice bonus for being 7th on the 7th lap, and he brought home a commemorative plaque that he'll cherish always. All in all, it was a pretty good night.

The day started off with a last minute engine change at the garage, and later ended with the crew tearing apart a badly wrecked race car. The massive damage to the car had the guys working til after midnight trying to salvage what they could but came to realize that the car was a total loss. Even the steering wheel was bent. Tomorrow they will assess the damage to the engine.

25 cars signed in at Lernerville. Ed was scheduled to start last in the third heat race. By lap five, Ed made his way to the fourth position and was running the bottom of turns 3 and 4, when the #59 of Terry Bowser suddenly shot across the track off of turn 4, towards the infield, leaving Ed with no where to go. The force of the collision sent Ed into a series of violent flips landing him in the middle of the front stretch. He climbed out of the car and walked back to the pits while the track crew picked up the mangled car.

Due to the extent of damage done to the race car, Ed was unable to run the 25 lap feature event. It was a very disappointing end to a very long hard-working day.

In a night that had its trials and tribulations, Ed started 13th in a 24-car field Tuesday night at Tri City Speedway, passing the most cars in the non-stop 30-lap All Star Circuit of Champions Holiday feature to land a top five finish.

The #2L crew was thrashing all night, starting with hot laps when Ed took two laps and headed back to the pits with a sour-sounding engine. The hood came off as they searched for some kind of electrical problem. They changed the MSD box and time trials came up next, but it was evident from the sound that the problem was still with them. For time trials, Ed had gone out 25th of the 29 cars signed in and track conditions pretty much dictated the early cars would have the advantage. Rod George timed first and was almost one-half a second ahead of the rest.. Four of the top five in times were in the first five cars on the track.

Ed's time slotted him outside Todd Bauer in the front row of the second of three heats. Howeve, after spending so much time chasing problems under the hood (which turned out to be a spark plug), Ed had no time to work on chassis set up and he wound up third behind Danny Smith and Dale Blaney. Rod George and Rob Eyler won the other heats.

Last year's All Star Champion, Greg Wilson won the Dash, while the B-Main sent Bill Rose, Kevin Schaeffer,Craig Mintz, David Doherty, Brent Covell and Brock Mayes to the feature.

The front row of the A-Main showed Eyler and Jody Keegan ahead of Dean Jacobs and Wilson. In row three, it was Blaney and George followed by Scott Priester and Danny Smith. Row five held Bob Felmlee and Paul May. Rose and Schaeffer were next and making up row seven it was Ed and Brian Paulus.

Eyler jumped into an immediate lead from his pole position and led the first seven laps before Wilson took charge on lap eight. By lap 10, Blaney moved past Eyler to take over second. At the half-way mark, Ed was only up to tenth, but starting to gain on the field. He passed Felmlee on lap 17 and Keegan two laps later. With 10 to go, Ed was working on the seventh place runner, Dean Jacobs. He gained that spot and set his sights on Eyler and accomplished that fete on lap 23.

With five laps to go, Blaney used an outisde move in turn four to take the lead from Wilson as Ed was reeling in Paulus. Coming to the flagstand for the checkered flag, Ed got by Paulus fo finish fifth. Blaney, Wilson, George, Smith and Ed had top five finishes followed by Paulus, Eyler, Jacobs, Felmlee and Keegan rounded out the top ten.