Ed Makes Starting Field for Will

Saturday morning the crew changed the steering and front axle on the #2L in the motel parking lot. They then headed for Williams Grove Speedway where 54 cars returned for the final day of the 45th Annual National Open sanctioned by the World of Outlaws paying $50,000 to win.

Ed felt a big improvement when he went out for hot laps and by the time he went out 20th to single-lap quality, his time of 16.732 was second quick to the fast time of the night set by Lucas Wolfe at 16.611.

The first four cars from Friday were exempt from times. Instead, Chad Layton, T.J. Stutts, Kerry Madsen and Donny Schatz were guaranteed pole sitters for tonight's four qualifying heats. The rest of the heat line-ups came from time trials staggered and straight up. Thus, Ed started outside Stutts in the second heat.

The first two cars from each heat automatically went to the Dash, so Ed set out to win his heat. He took the lead immediately and built a five-car margin over Stutts when a red had to come out for a flip by Clark Simonton. When the green replaced the red, Ed took charge and once again pulled away only to have a yellow slow the field after seven laps when Bob Felmlee dropped fluid on the track because of engine problems. The race had to end on a green, white, checkered so the checkered came after nine laps. Ed held on for the win over Todd Shaffer. Wolfe won over Greg Hodnett in heat one, while Kerry Madsen beat Doug Esh in heat three and the final heat went to Schatz over Freddy Rahmer.

Jason Meyers won the C-Main which ran before the Dash. In the Dash, Ed started sixth and finished seventh which meant the 40-lap A-Feature line-up would be Schatz and Todd Shaffer in the front row with Esh and Hodnett in row two. Wolfe and Madsen maade up row three, while Ed and Rahmer were in row four. Layton and Stutts came next in row five. The B-Main then sent Lance Dewease, Paul McMahan, Billy Pauch and Steve Buckwalter to the A-Main.

The National Open had a tough time getting a lap in the books. After the parade lap for the SPEED-TV cameras, the race was underway, but before the field could get through turns three and four, Rahmer flipped out of the park, Madsen was damaged and parked against the outside rail in turn four and the cars of Layton, Tim Shaffer, Jason Solwold were involved.

The lineup was adjusted and the field tried again. This time, Steve Kinser and Keith Kauffman had an incident with a scary flip by Kinser resulting in heavy, heavy damage to his car. Fans were shocked to see his car go by on the boom of a wrecker with no front end or bottom rails in addition to overall damage to every other corner of the car. In a separate flip at the same time, Billy Pauch and Tim Shaffer tangled and flipped. With the field now down to 22 starters from the original 28, Ed was starting sixth. But as serious racing now underway, Ed was not able to keep up. By lap six, he was 10th and by lap 16, he went down a lap to Schatz.

There was a yellow for a flat on Wolfe's car on lap 32, which now put all the lapped cars behind the clean cars for the remaining eight laps. Wolfe rejoined the field and started last of the unlapped car in 12th position. At the checkered flag, it was Schatz, Todd Shaffer, Dewease, Danny Lasoski and Hodnett in the top five. Next came Esh, Joey Saldana, Paul McMahan, Daryn Pittman and Stutts in the top 10. Sean Michael and Wolfe completed the 40 laps while one lap down it was Meyers, Craig Dollansky, Jason Solwold, Layton and Ed in 17th. Terry McCarl finished two laps down, while the rest of the field dropped out at various stages of the race.

Ed was 19th overall in hot laps for the 57 cars signed in for opening night of the 45th Annual Williams Grove National Open. He improved to 14th in official time trials which made the 16-car heat inversion and started him on pole of the second heat.

However, he was unable to capitalize on the good starting position because at the drop of the green with Jason Meyers on his outside, Ed took off. WoO officials called back the start, saying he had jumped and penalized him one row. Now, starting third, he fought the car's handling problems. If he was running inside, the car wanted to go to the inside rail. If he was outside, it wanted to go to the outside rail.

After two laps, running fourth, he spun to the inside in between turns three and four. On the restart, in last, he continued to fight the steering and handling problems, taking it to the pits after two more laps. Kerry Madsen won that heat with T.J. Stutts, Chad Layton and Steve Kinser winning the other heats. This made Ed start fourth in the B-Main. But, despite changes, he fought handling problems again, finally finishing 12th behind winner Doug Esh.

Ed was a spectator for the 25-lap A-Main which had two red flags and four yellows. Pole sitter Layton led all laps despite constant pressure from Madson who lost second spot on the final lap to Stutts. Donny Schatz worked his way to fourth, the final spot locked into Saturday's finale, after starting 21st. Jeff Shepard, Greg Hodnett were next.

Sharon Speedway fans were treated to a mix of races from an Australian Pursuit, a Crack The Whip, a Heat Winners' race and action-packed features to wrap up their 2007 season Saturday night. In addition, Ed capped off his season at Sharon with win number six here, maintaining his status as leading all-time Sprint car winner now at 50 career wins.

After leaving Eldora Speedway Friday night, the weary crew stayed over night at Lima OH arriving at the motel just in time for the last call for pizza delivery.

Saturday morning they walked the parking lot, admiring The Rod and Custom Cars in town for an annual event at the Fairgrounds, before they continued the trip to Sharon, arriving just after the pit gates opened. A total of 16 Sprints signed in and the division ran two heats. One for the drivers that had won heat races this season and one for drivers that had not won heat races. Jody Keegan and Ed were in the front row of the first heat but the victory went to Bob Felmlee and Ed finished second. Andy McKisson won the other heat.

Unfortunately, the other divisions were acccident plagued and by the time the Sprints pushed off to be the fourth feature, it was 11:00PM. It was a strange inversion for the lineup by points with 35th place Danny Holtgraver sitting on the pole and Tommy Quarterson was outside. Jason Dolick and Scott Bonnell made up row two with Ricky Byers and Russ Sansosti next, then Ed was inside row four with Bob Lime outside.

The first caution for Brian Stainman who spun to the inside of turn four was on lap five. The restart lineup showed Quarterson leading Holtgraver, Bonnell and Ed. One lap later Ed was past Bonnell into third. He made a nice inside move coming off turn two which powered him down the backstretch past Holtgraver and into second. Ed's winning move past Quarterson came as they completed lap eight.

Now, the trick was to master the lapped traffic and maintain top speed. But on lap 14 Holtgraver, who was running second, got backwards in the heavy cushion high in turn two. Holtgraver's miscue put Felmlee on Ed's tail for the restart. Ed was able to hit his marks perfectly and had maybe a three car lead as the two got into lapped traffic. Flagman Mike Henshaw used his layover flag to alert slower traffic as Ed made good moves on the individual lapped cars, keeping Felmlee at bay.

But on lap 19, as Ed came out of turn two, there were two lapped cars running side by side. While Ed lifted to figure a way past them, Felmlee closed right up. Then Sansosti brought out the final yellow on lap 20, clearing the track for Ed to lead the final five laps. Ed's fastest lap of the race came on lap 22 as he was able to put a little distance between himself and Felmlee. His margin of victory was 1.4 seconds over Felmlee, then came McKisson, Quarterson and Bonnell into the top five. Rounding out the top ten it was Keegan, Dolick, Holtgraver, Brent Matus and Ricky Byers.

Ed drew the number one pill for time trials and made the most of it. Friday night at Eldora Speedway, he set fast time over a field of 48 cars in the last World of Outlaw Sprint race of the season here. His run in the 30-lap A-Main resulted in a 13th place finish, to kick off an American Revolution Weekend at the big "E". On Saturday the USAC 4-Crown (Wingless 410's, Midgets, Dirt Camp Cars and Modifieds}

After hot laps Ed was eighth overall with a 13.998, but his near-perfect job on lap one on the official amb timing clocks improved to 13.172. Joey Saldana came closest to him with a time of 13.240.

With four heats staggered and four cars inverted, Ed started fourth in the first heat and finished second behind Dale Blaney. At the start of that heat, an odd situation happened in turn four when a car hit the wall hard. Ed stopped on the track in turn four and WoO announcer Johnny Gibson thought there was a problem with the #2L. It turns out that the flagman had turned the red light on for a split second and then turned the yellow back on. WoO push truck driver Workin' Woody radioed the tower with that info and Ed was given his spot back and the race was restarted. Danny Lasoski won the second heat over Saldana and in heat three, it was Paul McMahan over Randy Hannaghan. Donny Schatz beat Steve Kinse in the final heat.

For the six-lap dash, Ed made changes that he admitted, "did not help." After starting eighth, he finished ninth behind Schatz, McMahan, Saldana, Kinser, Lasoski, Hannaghan, Blaney and Terry McCarl. Behind Ed it was Daryn Pittman. How the cars finished the Dash is how they started the feature event. With just one lap in the books, Rob Chaney had a torsion arm problem and came to rest on the front stretch. Changes made to Ed's car made his fuel setup rich and the car did not take off on the start. The single-file restart showed Ed in 12th.

On lap 10, the leader Schatz had a right rear tire go flat and he came to a stop hugging the back stretch inside wall. He rejoined the field as Kinser inherited the lead and Ed was now 11th. Saldana drove hard and took the lead away from Kinser before the next yellow for Craig Dollansky on lap 24. At the same time, Lasoski went to the work area, but both cars rejoined the back of the field in time to continue.

However, as the cars were circling the track, WoO Officials announced the total amount of green and yellow flag laps exceeded the total for fuel allowance, so a red flag "fuel only" was called for with one crew member allowed to service the car with fuel and/or air only. Ed was 12th at the time, but in the last six laps, lost a spot to Schatz who was on the move forward trying for more points to maintain his narrow point lead over Saldana.

When the checkered flag flew on lap 30, it was Saldana, Kinser, McMahan, Pittman and McCarl in the top five. Blaney, Schatz, Hannagan, Jason Solwold, Jac Haudenschild, Lasoski and Justin Henderson finished ahead of Ed in 13th.

It had been a long time since Ed had visited Fremont Speedway, but he and 43 other 410 Sprint drivers were in attendance Saturday night for the Chuck Kears Memorial and promoter Jim Ford's "Big Bang" race to celebrate his departure after eight years at the helm of the 59-year old facility that he brought back to life after two previous promoters left it in bad shape.

Ed made the main event, but pulled out after 32 laps because he was not able to make his set-up match the smooth track conditions.

He drew a low pill, number eight, and went out in the first hot lap session. He was the fifth car to take time with everyone getting one lap on the clock. Ed's lap was a slow one that slotted him 23rd overall. He just barely made the 24-car inversion and started on the pole of the third heat. He led all 10 laps despite two cautions on laps two and seven. Mike Linder finished second, then it was Rob Eyler and Caleb Griffith. Other heat winners included Paul Weaver, Alvin Roepke and Brian Smith.

Finishing in the top four sent 16 cars to the feature, then four cars came from the B-Main, plus the top four Fremont regulars that didn't make the A-Main would be added to make up the 24-car field.

Cars pushed off to line up for the start of the 50-lapper at 10:40PM with Rod George and Brandon Wimmer in the front row, followed by Mark Keegan and Mike Linder. Next came Byron Reed and Kevin Huntley. The top eight that qualified through their heats were inverted and everyone else got their time back. Thus, Ed started 18 in the feature.

George led early and there were two yellows on lap three for separate incidents involving Chris Knopp and Reed. Someone helped Reed get spun around on the front stretch coming out of turn four and many drivers, including Ed had to take evasive action to miss him. Once lap three was in the books, it was typical Fremont racing, fast and furious. But Ed never got a good bite of the track surface as he searched evey groove and he was lapped around lap 23 by leader Stevie Smith. He stuck it out for another ten laps, but exited the track on lap 32, still unable to make his set-up work well.

With the race winding down, on lap 42, a red flag came out for Mike Linder and Greg Dobb who both tested the outside soft (foam) wall coming into turn three. Drivers were OK and the race resumed and Smith went on to victory and the $15,000 prize.

Mercer race fans got to see Ed at his best Saturday night in his second appearance of the year there. He mastered lapped traffic, going high, low and splitting some slower cars where there was just barely enough room to squeek through during the final 17 non-stop laps of the 30-lap 19th Annual Western PA Sprint Championship which earned him the top prize of $3,000.

The race has a storied history at Mercer. After a 22-year hiatus, it was brought back in 2004 and Ed was the first modern day driver to win it that year, with the previous winners all retired - Ralph Quarterson, Bobby Allen, Johnny Beaber, Kenny Weld, Jan Opperman, Buddy Cochran, Lynn Paxton and Lou Blaney.

Luck played an important roll in Ed's victory. The first stroke of luck came when the top 12 cars that qualified through their heats had to re-draw for their starting positions in the A-Main. Ed drew number one! The second stroke of luck came on lap 13 at the expense of race leader, Rob Eyler whose right rear wheel broke as he was about to enter turn four and he flipped. Eyler was OK, but his car was done for the night.

The field of 23 cars lined up at 8:35PM to start the main event with Ed and Charlie Holben in the front row. Eyler and Gale Ruth were in row two, while Todd Bauer and Tommy Quarterson came next in row three. Arnie Kent, Brian Ellenberger, Bob Felmlee and /rid George started next . However, from the drop of the green flag, it was Holben who led the way with Ed tucking into second followed by Eyler. A caution for Butch Beasley on lap five showed the top three as Holben, Lynch and Eyler.

Four laps later, fifth running Ellenberger had top wing problems and spun to the outside in turn four causing a second yellow. On the restart, Eyler made a strong move coming out of turn two to power his way past Ed and into second spot as lap 10 was recorded. Immediately following that move the third yellow came ouut for Aaron Shaffer. Now, the line-up showed Holben leading followed by Eyler, Ed, George and Bauer. Eyler made his bid for first, going around Holben on the outside and was leading when he lost his right-rear wheel with 13 laps in the books.

When the green replaced the red the line-up showed Holben inheriting the lead over Ed, George, Kent and Felmlee. Ed's car was too tight at the beginning of the race, but finally on this restart, he was able to go to the outside of Holben in turn one and pass him on the outside of turn two. From that point, the race went non-stop and Ed knew with Track Champion Rod George hot on his heels, he better make good time through lapped traffic.

When Ed had a clear track in front of him, he could pull away from second place George, but everytime Ed encountered lapped cars, George would close right up . At the checkered flag, it was Ed followed by George, Kent, Felmlee and Holben in the top five.

Three heats for the Sprints showed Quarterson leading over Ruth in the first one. Ellenberger won the second heat over Danny Holtgraver while Ed started seventh in the third heat and finished third behind Felmlee and George. For Ed it was his 13th win of the year and 205 of his career.

It was an emotional start to the races Saturday at Sharon Speedway. One of their faithful Push Truck drivers died after a two-year battle with cancer. His favorite driver was Ed Lynch, Jr. so Ed in his #2L was asked to lead the "Missing Man" formation of push trucks around the track prior to the national anthem.

Following that tribute, Ed stayed on the track to start sixth in the first Sprint heat. But two cars failed to show up and he then started fourth. He took the lead on lap five over C.W. Harshman. The second heat went to Scott Bonnell.

The 22-car field was the first feature and Bonnell and Mike Kekich led the double file formation to the green flag at 8:50PM. Jason Dollick and Jody Keegan made up row two, while Aaron Shaffer and Ed were in row three. There were two aborted starts when the front row couldn't start the race side-by-side. Once the race got underway, Ed seemed to be fast in any groove and was making a pass on Keegan for second, when a yellow flag came out for a tangle in turn three involving Bob Felmlee and Karl Baker, This, of course, negated the move into second and the restart lineup showed Bonnell leading Keegan and Ed.

However, it was just two laps later that Ed was in first place again. Setting a blistering pace, he had two lapped cars as a cushion when Kyle Moffitt rolled to a stop high in turn four on lap eight. The race went green for the rest of the laps and Ed was dominating as he lapped up to the eighth place car and had stretched his margin-of-victory at the end of 25-laps to 8.225 seconds over Dan Shetler, who passed two cars with two laps to go, to finish ahead of Felmlee (who won the Track Championship) and Keegan. Bonnell drove from lap eight with a cracked header to salvage fifth spot. Rounding out the top ten, it was Tommy Quarterson, Kevin Schaeffer (runner-up in the point race), and Danny Holtgraver completing the distance. Down one lap but finishing ninth it was Mike Kekich then Dolick.

Ed is Sharon's leading Sprint feature winner with 49. His career total at all tracks is now 204 and he has 12 wins this year. He does not plan to run anywhere on Sunday. .