Ed

"I've always dreamed of winning a race at Eldora," said Ed Lynch, Jr. (who collected his 200th career sprint car win just one week ago). in the interview following his All Star Ohio Sprint Speedweek Finale on Saturday night worth $10,000. " When Earl Baltes owned this track he used to say to me, 'Some day you're going to win here, son' and I'm glad he and Bernice are here tonight to see that I finally got that win!"

Ed continued, "Tony Stewart has made so many improvements since he bought the track and the surface tonight had several good grooves and I think I tried them all. This car worked well everywhere. When Kenny Jacobs got by me, I tried moving my wing more. But, then he broke....I guess it was to be my night."

After starting fourth in the 30-lap feature, Ed wasted no time passing Rob Chaney, Brock, Mayes and pole-sitter Jimmy Stinson, to lead lap one. His familiar black body panels with the bright yellow #2L and checkered block patterns were attached to a brand new J&J chassis and his Kistler engine ran strong the entire distance. By lap five, Ed caught the back of the field and fast-timer Kenny Jacobs was in hot pursuit.

At the half-way mark, the non-stop action got its first yellow when Chaney lost power on the front stretch. On the restart, Ed continued to hold off Jacobs, Mayes, Dustin Daggett, Dale Blaney, Phil Gressman and Danny Smith.

Jacobs was relentless in his attempt to take the lead away from Ed and the two exchanged the top spot twice before Jacobs went high in turn four and carried a lot of momentum down the front stretch. He dove to the inside of Ed in turn one, completed the pass and proceeded to drive away on lap 18. But, a broken drive-line ended Jacobs night on lap 22. Daggett and Greg Wilson experienced flat tires on the restarts.

During the final eight laps, Ed hit his marks perfectly, keeping Mayes two or three car-lengths back. Dale Blaney was up to third on this last restart followed by Stinson and Gressman. Blaney, who had won three Speedweek shows, saw his hopes to notch a fourth one here tonight and collect the $50,000 bonus for pulling off such a fete, as his car slowly lost positions at the end of the race finishing seventh.

Ed crossed under the double checkered flags just three car-lengths ahead of Mayes. Shane Stewart came all the way from 22nd to finish third ahead of Stinson, Gressman, Chad Blonde, Blaney, Brian Paulus, Danny Smith and Dean Jacobs in the top ten.

In the four heats for the 39 cars, Kenny Jacobs, Stewart, Ed Lynch, Jr. and Paulus were victorious. With the top six inverted in each heat, Ed and Kenny came from sixth to win. In time trials, Jacobs went out second and turned a 13.439, while Dustin Daggett turned a 13.573 when he went out eleventh. Ed went out 22nd and clocked in at 13.602. Stewart won the Dash while Neil Shepherd, Brandon Martin, Caleb Griffith and Bill Rose advanced from the B-Main.

Champagne was sprayed when Ed climbed out of his J&J tonight at Sharon. The family and crew celebrated their 200th career Sprint Car win in fine style as they toasted with plastic cups and dirty faces! It was an accomplishment that Ed set out to achieve earlier this season and pulled it off nicely while also capturing his 47th win at Sharon Speedway.

20 Sprints were on hand at Sharon tonight. Ed was scheduled to start 8th in the second heat. Ed made his way to second cautiously in 7 laps, but it was the pole sitter of #6au David Doherty who took the checkers by a few car lengths over Ed.

The Sprints were the third feature tonight and after a long intermission and heavy track preparation, the 20 car field lined up to take the green.

The front row showed the #6au of David Doherty and the #23s of Sansosti, while Ed was slated to start 6th. The #20au of Troy Little took the lead early as Ed found himself in second place by lap 5 with the #6f of Bob Felmlee charging hard from 9th to 3rd. On lap 10 going into turn one, the #2L and #20au split the lapped traffic with Ed going low and Little going high. It was Ed who came out ahead and continued to pick his way through the heavy lapped traffic until a caution came out on lap 15 for the second place runner of Troy Little. This now put Felmlee behind Ed with two lapped cars between them on the restart. Ed pulled ahead on the restart and continued to cruise to the finish but one more caution would put a hold on the event. Despite the spin on lap 24, Ed went on to celebrate his 47th win at Sharon Speedway and his amazing 200th overall career Sprint Car win!

Ed says in victory lane tonight at Lernerville Speedway, "When you start up front, you're expected to finish up front!" Although lapped traffic didn't make it easy to stay up front, Ed had his hands full throughout the entire feature.

25 Sprints (2 from Australia) signed in at Lernerville tonight. Ed was scheduled to start on the pole of the second 8 lap heat. He led every lap and won by a large margin over the #4 of Rod George. Dan Kuriger and Scott Priester both collected wins for the first and third heats.

The Sprints were the second feature in the rotation of events tonight and at 10:13pm the green flag waved for the 25 lap race. The front row showed the #15 of Mike Lutz and Ed, powering his newly built J&J car. On the start of the race the #6au of David Doherty, from Australia, spun in turn two bringing out the first of four cautions for the feature. On the restart, Ed made a quick decision to go to the bottom of one and two while passing Lutz then Ed committed to the high side of three and four. He tried to consistently run that same line throughout the race but with a full field of cars to contend with, it was no easy task. In the meantime, Dan Shetler was closing in on Ed running the same line Ed was. Cautions on laps 6 and 15 allowed an open track for Ed on the restarts but by the final caution on lap 23, with only two laps to go, Rod George found himself in the third spot behind Shetler and Ed with no lapped cars separating them. An exciting two lap dash to the checkers unfolded as Ed chose the bottom of the track, with Shetler following, and George trying the high side. George got by Shetler coming out of turn four for the checkered flag, but Ed was able to hold off George to capture his 7th win of the season bringing his overall total wins in a Sprint Car to an astounding 199!

The #2L crew had worked hard Saturday morning to correct the problems they had Friday night and it paid off for them with a trouble-free feature at Sharon Speedway on Saturday night where Ed started the 25-lapper in seventh and came home second.

The 17 cars signed in were divided into two heats. The first of which rolled on the track at 6:10PM showing Russ Sansosti and Troy Little in the front row followed by Bob Felmlee and Leo O'Malley. Keih Taylor and Tait Hilbert were in row three with Mike Palmer and Ed in row four. Felmlee wasted no time to get to the lead spot while Ed made it up to fifth at the end of one lap. Then Ed moved into fourth on the next round. He claimed third spot behind Felmlee and Little and the top three finished in that order at the checkered flag. The second heat went to Dan Shetler over Mike Kekich.

In a remarkable effort to speed the show along, pit officials were calling the Sprints to stage their feature and it was still daylight! By 8:22PM, the front of the field, Kyle Moffit and Hilbert got the initial green. However, the start was voided when Hilbert and Sansosti spun together in turn one, nearly collecting Ed. The restart now showed Ed moving outside Felmlee in row three.

The race got underway once again with Little now in control followed by Felmlee for the first five rounds. Ed was up to third at that time and the next circuit showed Felmlee's move to the lead. Ed still had to deal with Little and by lap 10, Ed claimed second. Now, lapped cars entered the picture and with 15 laps in the records, Bob Lime caused a caution. The restart line-up was questionable with extra laps being made to put three lapped cars in between Felmlee and Ed.

Ed quickly got the lapped cars behind the #2L and set sail for Felmlee.and ironically, late in the race on lap 19, both drivers had their fastest lap of the feature event with the AMB transponders recording only .014 thousandths of a second difference in their laps with Felmlee being the faster of the two.

During the final 10 laps, Ed could close in on Felmlee, but not close enough to mount a challenge for the lead and he would have to settle for second. Rounding out the top five it was Shetler, Little and Kevin Schaeffer.

After starting 12th in the 24-car A-Main because of his previous win at Lernerville, Ed developed problems Friday night almost right away when water from a leaking radiator cap came back and apparently shorted out the electrical system on the engine. He almost pulled out at one point when the engine quit on him on the back stretch, but it fired again and so he stayed out on the track.

Three heats were run for the 24 cars and Ed started last in the first heat. He was fastest of all cars and turned a lap of 13.654 for a speed of 105.464mph when he took the lead and had a clear track on the final lap of his heat to finish ahead of Gary Rankin. Pole sitter Rod George easily won the second heat of Dan Shetler while Kevin Schaeffer started fourth and won the third heat over Dan Kuriger.

With a big night of fireworks and a parade of Cochran Pontiac cars mid-way in the show, despite trying to hurry the program along, the Sprint 25-lap feature rolled on to the track at 12:21AM. The good thing was at that time of night, much to everyone's surprise, it went non-stop. Scott Priester and Charlie Holben brought the field to the start, followed by Carl Bowser and Gary Rankin. In row three, it was Shetler and George, then came Danny Holtgraver and Kuriger, the Australian Troy Little and Ralphie Spithaler. Schaeffer and Ed made up row six.

With the Sprints running last all night, to give some idea of track conditions, more than half the field turned their fastest lap of the race in the first five laps. Pole sitter Priester and Holben ran one-two for the first 10 laps then George moved into second and took the lead on lap 15. He seemed to be the only one on the move. Meanwhile, after starting side by side, Schaeffer and Ed battled back and forth the entire distance. Schaeffe finallly got by Ed with eight laps remaining for the seventh spot and Ed had to settle for eighth. No one was a match for George as he won by a five-second margin over Priester. Carl Bowser and Charlie Holben plus Troy Little and Shetler rounded out the top six..

The front row starters were Leo O'Malley and Russ Sansosti followed by Mike Kekich, Mike Palmer, Keith Taylor and Jody Keegan. In row four, it was Kevin Schaeffer and Kyle Moffit, then Jarod Larson and Ed in tenth. Bob Felmlee who started 12th found his way to third in three laps, while Ed moved from tenth to fifth in those same three laps.

As Ed moved to the outside around Schaeffer in turn one, Ed got into the marbles and spun bringing out the first caution on lap four. Ed restarted last (15th) and set sail to the front again as Felmlee moved past the two front-runners to lead lap seven with Ed up to ninth. Two laps later, Felmlee spun exiting the second turn bringing out the second caution. Ed move into fifth on lap 10.

With Sansosti leading, followed by Kekick, Schaeffer and now Ed's #2L, the next three laps were close, but Ed darted past Schaeffer to claim third spot on lap 15. A spin by Mike Palmer slowed the pace on lap 17 and bunched the field behind Sansosti. It was now a heated battle for second spot. Ed tried going outside Kekich on the front stretch and into turn one, but Kekich slid out. Then Ed tried the inside down the back stretch and dove beneath Kekich in turn three, when the two made contact. As the two cars spun, Keegan was collected and eventually flipped as Ed's machine now rolled on its side. This brought out the red flag, but all drivers were OK.

Ed and Keegan went off on wreckers and over the remaining laps, Larson chased Sansosti and finally caught him with an inside move in turn three to lead on the front stretch and take the checkered flag. It was Larson's first of the year and he was followed by Sansosti, Moffit, Keith Taylor and Bob Lime. Ed was credited with eleventh. The first heat went to Schaeffer overKeegan and Ed won the second heat over Felmlee.

The crew held off loading up the race car until the last minute on Friday afternoon. The impending storm showed high winds, but only rain drops. The car was loaded and tied down as the crew waited in the garage making frequent calls to Lernerville for the latest weather conditions. The word finally came...."The races are rained out."

The crew will switch cars and race at Sharon on Saturday.

Despite multiple showers all day long on Tuesday, Ed and the crew loaded up the #2L in the rain and headed for the All Star Circuit of Champions show at Lernerville Speedway. They chased an electrical miss in the engine the early part of the night and ended the night on a positive note with a solid third place finish (while still fighting problems with the new steering) in the 35-lap A-Main.

With 36 cars signed in, Ed drew a low pill and went out fourth to take time. Earlier the crew discovered a miss when they put heat in the engine and then Ed had to cut his hot-lap session short because the miss was still there. There wasn't much time until they had to qualify, but they changed the MSD box and pushed off for time trials. Ed made that first lap a near-perfect one of 13.071 and pulled off the track with the car still not running right. His one lap turned out to be the fastest of the night. More changes were made in time for his heat which was the very first one.

The fastest cars from times were staggered and the top six inverted, which started Ed sixth in the first heat. Arnie Kent and PA Posse driver Kevin Nouse were on the front row with Gus Wasson and Brian Paulus in row two. Brock Mayes started inside Ed in the third row. The first five cars would qualify for the feature and Ed finished fourth behind Kent, Knouse and Paulus. Brian Ellenberger, Ed Neumeister and Rob Chaney won the remaining heats. The Dash for the All Star members was won by Ellenberger and the B-Main advanced Bob Felmlee, Scott Priester, Wasson and Jesse Hockett.

With the top six that qualified through their heats inverted for the feature, this set up the front row with Ellenberger and Mayes followed by Danny Smith and Rod George, then Ed and Dale Blaney in row three. Ellenberger took off at the start and there was no catching him for the first 15 laps when the first caution came out for Wasson stopped on the back stretch. The restart showed a lapped car behind Ellenberger, then Smith and another lapped car then George and Ed in fourth.

Another quick caution on lap 17 for Mayes had only one lapped car now behind Smith, then came George and Ed. A third caution was necessary for a problem on the Arnie Kent machine. Ellenberger continued to lead Smith and George. The scorers put the lapped car of Bill Kiley in front of Ed. During the next green flag period of seven laps, there was a lead change when Ellenberger slipped over the cushion on the back stretch and Smith and George blew by. There were 30 laps in the books, when Bill Rose brought out a yellow, the leader was Smith, then George, Ellenberger, Ed Lynch, Blaney and Paulus. Ellenberger coasted to a stop under the flagstand on lap 34, setting up a green-white-checkered finish.

Taking his first checkered flag ever at Lernerville it was All Star veteran Danny Smith, followed by George and Ed in a solid third. Next, it was Blaney, Paulus, Hockett up from 23rd, Felmlee, Rob Chaney, Nouse and Mayes in the top ten.

After arriving home at 2:00AM Saturday following Sharon's World of Outlaw show where Ed finished seventh, the family was up at 7:00AM to get ready for 'Lil Ed's 9:00AM High School Graduation in the 2007 class of Kiski Area High School. Following the morning ceremony, the family had lunch and prepared to return to Sharon for their regular five-division show (except for 'Lil Ed who had a baseball game at 3:00PM).

Arriving at the track at 4:30PM with a spare generator because of a problem with the truck's generator, the crew set about the task of preparing for the night's program. The skies were cloudy and dark and finally rain drops started to come down. Most crews didn't unload or loaded up and waited for the weather to clear. But instead, it finally rained harder at 6:00PM (race time) and the announcement came over the PA system that the races were cancelled.

Ed almost put all the pieces together in Friday night's World of Outlaw show at Sharon Speedway. The one missing piece was the tire selection. "I was good at the start of the race, but after every caution my tires seemed to seal over and toward the end of the race I could just bearly touch the gas," he explained after his seventh place finish against the world's best sprint car drivers.

With 37 cars signed in, Ed drew a low pill for qualifying, but had trouble getting off turn four and ranked 15th overall which started him on pole of the third qualifying heat. With Randy Hannagan outside and Jason Meyers and Jason Solwold in row two, Ed turned the second fastest time of the four heats .Despite a caution for Brooke Tatnell after one lap, the rest of the race went non-stop and Ed won over Solwold, Meyers, Hannagan, Jeremy Campbell, Craig Dollansky, Chad Kemenah, Tatnell and Chad Hillier. Rob Chaney won the first heat from the front row and Joey Saldana beat Steve Kinser in the second heat. Danny Lasoski started on pole for the fourth heat and won over the other front row starter Jac Haudenschild.

Cars that finished in the first two spots in their heats were eligible for the Dash. The lineup for this race is determined by a draw and during the "Pit Party" when fans were allowed to enter the pits and visit the drivers, a small girl at Ed's car drew a number two for his starting spot. Saldana started in the front row with Ed. Chaney and Lasoski made up row two ahead of Kinser and Haudenschild. Solwold, Jason Marting, Bob Felmlee and Justin Henderson completed the field. Saldana won and Ed was second, followed by Kinser, Lasoski and Haudenschild which then determined the starting spots for the 35-lap A-Main.

After the traditional four-wide parade lap for the fans, the field was formed with Joey and Ed bringing the 26 car field to the green flag. This time it was Ed who shot into the lead from the outside row to lead the first three laps before a yellow flag for Tatnell slowed the action. On the single file restart, Ed had a tire problem and Saldana took advantage and passed for him for the lead on lap four. Solwold came on strong and sent Ed back to third on lap seven. A second yellow came out on lap 11 for Hannagan and Kinser took third away from Ed on that restart.

By the half-way mark, Kinser moved into the lead with Saldana now second, followed by Solwold and Ed. On lap 20, Donny Schatz laid claim to fourth place and then Lasoski got by before the caution on lap 22 for Dan Shetler. Haudenschild and Pittman got by when the green replaced the yellow, dropping Ed to seventh. On the final yellow on lap 28 for Solwold, Ed had Meyers, Henderson, Chaney and Martin on his tail, but Ed held his own in the low line around the track.