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July 2010 Updates
Ed was fast all night and picked up his 104th
Sprint car win at Lernerville on Friday - 7/23/10
All day Wednesday and Thursday, Lynch Racing was working hard to get
caught up from all the bent or broken parts and wings that
were a result of the Silver Cup race at Lernerville on Tuesday, not
to mention the hours Eric spent cleaning the mud covered floor and
reorganizing all the tools in the trailer that were helter-skelter
after the engine change between the heat and B-Main when the team
was tested to the max and had everything conceivable happen in the
course of the evening.
Also, it's hard to believe that "luck of the draw" had Ed starting
both his heat and the feature from the front row and he used that
good fortune to lead every lap in the eight-lap heat and 25-lap
feature to cap off a 94 degree day with blistering speeds all night
long. Ed had an uphill battle all night at
Lenerville's Don Martin Silver Cup on Tuesday - 7/20/10
The World of Outlaws presented their twin 30's Tuesday night at
Lernerville Speedway in the Annual Don Martin Silver Cup race which
Ed looks forward to each year, but the night turned out to be an
uphill battle and not at all what he had planned as he had to use
the Provisional spot he won previously in a Lernerville race to
start the first 30-lapper and ended with a 16th place finish in the
nightcap.
The start of everything was delayed because of rain, but once things
got going, it was a fast moving night. There were 39 cars
signed in the pits and Ed's pill draw put him in the third group of
four to hot lap. He was OK in the ranking until the first and
second group were given another session and the times there were
much faster. He went out 29th and timed in at 12.994, which
seemed to be OK for the inversion of 16 cars for the four heats,
until Dale Blaney, the last car to quality, timed in at 12.894 and
that bumped Ed to 17th overall.
He lined up fifth in the first heat behind Lucas Wolfe, Kerry
Madsen, Joey Saldana and Lance Dewease. Sammy Swindell
followed, then Tim Shaffer, Jac Haudenschild, Don Kuriger and Dave
Delisle. Ed lost ground through out the eight lap distance,
finishing eighth behind Madsen, Wolfe, Saldana, Swindell, Dewease,
Shaffer and Haudenschild. The other heats were won by Steve
Kinser, Jason Sides and Adam Wilt.
After a short discussion, it was decided to change engines in the
#2L. They pulled the car in the hauler and proceeded to remove the
engine and install another engine, but even though the swap was
completed in record time for the crew, the track was hurrying the
program along and it didn't take that long to run three eight-lap
heats and a six lap dash. They were calling out the B-Main
lineup and Ed was just getting in the car and the crew was buttoning
everything up, but he was pushed to the line late and instead of the
pole position where he was scheduled to start, he was relegated to
17th starting spot.
Ed then used his Provisional spot that he won here a couple of weeks
ago and officially started 26th in the first 30-lap portion that had
Blaney and Jason Sides on the front row. There were restarts
before a lap was scored. The first was for Haudenschild and
Daryn Pittman and the second yellow came when Stevie Smith jumped
the cushion in turn four and got up on the front stretch wall and
and landed on Ed's car as he was coming by. Ed really never
saw Smith, but had seen Shaffer on the gas and off and because of
Ed's right sideboard he never saw Smith until he landed on Ed's car.
Ed went to the work area where the crew just tried to pound out his
right sideboard and send him out again. The race then went
until lap 14 before a yellow came out, but Ed was not handling well
with the right sideboard so smashed in, that handling was an issue
especially in the turns. Blaney led through18 laps then
Dewease got by and when 25 laps showed on the score board, Steve
Kinser got into the turn four wall and caused another yellow.
Lap 27 saw a flip by Madsen, who was running third at the time,
right at the flagstand front stretch wall. Three more yellows,
extended the race to 32 laps and Blaney ran out of fuel and went
pitside. Dewease won over Schatz, Sides, Paul McMahan and
Jason Meyers. Ed was credited with 20th.
During the 18 minute break changes to the #2L included a top wing,
shocks, torsion bars and headers. The horn sounded and it was
time to hit the track.
The lead-lap cars were reversed, putting Tyler Walker and Brian
Ellenberger on the front row for the last 30-lap race, with Ed
starting 20th. Five laps were in when the leader, Walker spun
in turn two and recovered to place well back in the field.
Shaffer caused a yellow on lap 11 and Ed was three positions
forward, but when he tried to run in that pack, there was contact
and he spun bringing out a yellow on lap 13. He went to the
back of the field and raced until the last yellow came out on lap 24
for Jonathan Allard and Wilt. Saldana led from lap six
to the checkered and Craig Dollansky came on strong to finish
second. Meyers, Schatz (who earned the title of Champion of
the race because of his combined finishes 2nd and 4th) and Paul
McMahan rounded out the top five. Sides, Swindell, Sam
Hafertepe, Dewease and Kraig Kinser ranked in the top ten. Ed
finished 16th.
Ed plans to be at Lernerville Friday night.
Ed is eliminated before he gets a lap
in at Tri City's All Star race Sunday - 7/18/10
The unexpected happened to Ed Sunday night at Tri City Speedway
where he was set to compete against the All Stars on his way home
from his top ten finish in Eldora's Kings Royal Saturday night.
A field of 31 cars were on hand and time trials had been completed
in which Ed had to stand on his first lap for his official time
because his front wing broke a bracket on the second trip around the
1/2 mile oval just north of Franklin PA. His first lap of
16.370 ranked second in the total standings with Tim Shaffer turning
a 16.478 on his first lap, but his second lap of 16.138 was the
fastest of the night.
The cars were divided into three heats (staggering and inverting
six) and Ed was to start sixth in the second heat where the front
row included Brian Smith and Lance Dewease, with Dave Blaney and Cap
Henry in row two. Ed started outside Greg Wilson in row three.
Bill Rose, Bob Felmlee, Brent Matus and Brandon Matus followed.
The field took the green flag, went down into turn one. Blaney
spun and tried to keep it going, but collected Ed.
Blaney drove to the pits and didn't return fo finish the heat, while
Ed had severe front-end damage and had to go off on a wrecker.
He assessed his damage which was extensive, the crew loaded up and
went home.
There is never a good time to trash a race car, but with the Silver
Cup on Tuesday, it poses a real problem.
Lernerville's biggest Sprint car race of the year is Tuesday.
The drivers were introduced to the large crowd and escorted onto the stage individually and each had an opportunity to walk up the red carpeting, climb the stairs and sit on the King's throne that was between two five-foot trophies (one for the winning driver and one for the car owner). To call attention to the center stage and the King's red velvet chair, two eight-foot torches with flames two feet high helped to set the scene. The heat winners were inverted setting
the first three rows as follows: Kinser, Lasoski,
Hafertepe, Madsen, Pittman and Smith. McMahon and Saldana were in
row four and Schatz and Ed were in row five. In the early laps
before the first red flag for a flip by Saldana, who was running
sixth, Ed had handling issues and was losing ground and was 14th.
On that red, only two minutes were allowed for fuel only. With
Kinser leading Madsen, Hafertepe and Schatz, on the
double-file restart Kinser chose the outside Madsen finished second followed by
Lasoski, Schatz and Wilson in the top five. Sammy Swindell was
sixth despite two position penalties, then Shaffer and Ed in 8th.
Kemenah and Kaeding rounded out the top ten. Ed has plans to run the All Star race at
Tri City on Sunday.
Because he won the last Sprint feature
at Lernerville, Ed knew he had to start 12th Friday night, but what
he wasn't counting on was being forced into the infield as he
started down the back stretch on lap six after working his way up to
sixth and was in the process of passing fifth place Carl Bowser and
4th place Danny Holtgraver with an inside move, but Bowser's left
front wheel hit Ed's right front wheel, forcing Ed into the infield
and by the time he could get the #2L back on the track, he was 12th
again.
The Sprints were scheduled to be third all
night and the 21 cars were divided into two heats and luck of the
draw put outside pole in the second heat which he won a wide margin
over Brandon Spithaler, Rod George, Jack Sodeman, Jr, Scott Priester
and Lindsay Enscoe. The first heat went to Bob Felmlee over
Holtgraver, Bowser, Andy McKisson, Dan Kuriger and Brent Matus.
The Late Models had quite a time in their
feature plague with yellow flag laps and then the Modifieds had
their turn. So, what looked like an early night, turned
out to have the Sprint feature on the track at 10:00PM.
The redraw there showed McKisson and Bowser in
the front row for the 25 lap Sprint A-Main. Then came Kuriger
and Mauts with Enscoe and Scottt Priester in row three.
Felmlee and Spithaler lined up in row five ahead of Sodeman, Jr. and
Ed in 12th spot.
Ed kept his wheels turning, but by the
time he made it back on the track, he was 12th again. But just
one lap later, Enscoe spun in turn four bringing out the yellow and
when the green waved again it was McKisson, Kuriger, Felmlee,
Holtgraver and Bowser. Ed made up two spots before that first
yellow and found himself now in 10th.
A red flag for a flip by Bowser on the
front stretch wall on lap 11 showed McKisson leading Kuriger,
Holtgraver, Felmlee and now Ed. On lap 13 the AMB i.t. timing
showed Ed gained one position over Felmlee, then one lap later he
passed Holtgraver. It wasn't until lap 17 that he got by
Kuriger and set sail to reel in McKisson, who was 12 car lengths
ahead.
Ed cut into McKisson's lead every lap, but once
again ran out of laps and fell short by .919 seconds at the
checkered flag. For McKisson, it was his first
Lernerville win. Finishing third through 10th, it was
Holtgraver, Sodeman, Jr., Felmlee, Todd Bauer, Kuriger, Spithaler,
Pete Miller III and Brent Matus.
Ed was always fond of PPMS, the Monster Half-Mile just west of
Pittsburgh and is still the leading Sprint feature winner there with
13, and Saturday night he fell just short of adding to that total
when he ran out of laps as he closed to less than a second (0.509)
on the leader Dan Holtgraver on Mosites Motorsports Night dubbed The
Flight of the Phoenix, where he started tenth and finished second.
Once a year the Miley family that owns PPMS schedules a Sprint car
race and Ed looks forward to that event. "The track is so wide
and it was prepared very well for our event," said Ed after nearly
pulling off a win that he wanted so badly on a track that got faster
as the night went on.
Again, the #2L turned the fastest lap of the night on the AMB i.t.
timing system with a time of 16.547 and a speed of 135.976 on lap 14
of the 20-lap feature event up from 18.003 in his winning effort of
his heat race where his top speed was 124.979mph.
In last year's only Sprint race here on June 6, Ed had a half-lap
lead, but tangled with a lapped car and was unable to finish, so
hopes were high again for Saturday night when 14 Sprints showed up
and hot laps were in the books and Ed's car was fast again.
Luck of the draw for the heats put Ed outside pole-sitter Kevin
Schaeffer with Danny Holtgraver and Carl Bowser in row two.
Brian Steinman and Jack Helget made up row three followed by Davey
Jones. Schaeffer led the first two laps before Ed passed him
to lead lap three and go on to the checkered ahead of Schaeffer,
Bowser, Holtgraver, jones, Steinman and Helget. Heat number
two was won by Jack Sodeman, Jr. over Andy Priest, Andy McKisson,
Rod George, Brandon Spithaler, Bobbi Rankin and Jeff Taylor.
A random draw resulted in an inversion of ten for the 20-lap
feature. Spithaler and Jones led the field to the green
followed by George and Holtgraver. In row three it was
McKisson and Bowser then Priest and Schaeffer. Row five had
Sodeman, Jr. inside and Ed outside in tenth. Spithaler led the
first lap from the pole, but Jones dropped to the inside, leaving a
clear shot for Holtgraver to lead starting with lap two.
Heavy rain hit Lernerville Speedway before 3:00PM Friday forcing
cancellation of the night's races. Thus, next Friday, July 16
will feature Fab Four Racing and Nostalgia Night on Dollar Dog
Night.
Ed and his team will be at Pittsburgh's Pennsylvania Motor Speedway
Saturday night when Mosites Motorsports will present a special race
for 410 Sprints. When the gates open at 5:00PM the U.S. Army
Field Band will be entertaining the fans. Hot laps for race
cars will be at 6:00 and racing will be at 7:00PM.
Ed and the crew got to Sharon Speedway early on Wednesday because
they anticipated a large crowd and a packed pits because of the 2nd
Annual Lou Blaney Memorial Race, NASCAR Night with stars Tony
Stewart, Kasey Kahne and Dave Blaney on hand to race 410 Sprints and
sign autographs for fans, plus a special BRP race for Big Block
Modifieds and with 32 Sprints on hand, Ed did well, qualifying
through his heat and coming from eighth starting spot to finish
fourth on a "challenging" 3/8 mile track.
The pill draw was OK by the team's standard high number draw luck,
picking 25 out of 66. This set the #2L in fourth spot in the
third heat, which ended up stacked with NASCAR stars. WoO
driver Brian Ellenbeger got the pole with Sheldon Haudenschild
outside, while Danny Holtgraver and Ed were in the seccond row.
Next came Jack Whitmore, Dave Blaney, Tony Stewart and another WoO
competitor, Tim Kaeding.
To be eligible for the feature pill draw, Ed had to finish in the
top three and he did that by following Ellenberger and Haudenschild
across the finish line after eight laps. From the first heat,
it would be Mike Lutz, Tim Shaffer and Brandon Wimmer. The
second heat sent Dale Blaney, Cole Duncan and Paul Kish to the
redraw while Kasey Kahne, Bob Felmlee and Holtgraver went from heat
number four.
The day was clear and in the 90's and Sharon had many things planned
for intermission, including an on-track exhibition event for the
many vintage race cars on display. Finally, the 30-lap feature
was pushed on the track with Ellenberger and Lutz showing the way
from the front row. Tim Shaffer and Haudenschild made up row
two with Holtgraver and Dale Blaney next. Row four had Felmlee
on the inside and Ed outside in eighth spot. Next came Duncan,
Wimmer, Kahne and Kish. Stewart and Dave Blaney started 19th
and 21st respectively.
Four early yellows for single car incidents came around laps seven
and eight before the first red flag came out for Tim Kaeding who
crashed in turn three. Each time, a lapped car was placed ahead of
Ed as he had worked his way into the top five. When officials
determined they had a combination of 46 total green and yellow flag
laps they called for a "fuel and air only" stop. But, instead
of bringing all the cars to one area so their crews' activities
could be policed, the cars were spread all around the track, making
it impossible to keep the adjustments limited to fuel and air.
Another yellow was needed on lap 15, the half-way mark for Cole
Duncan, who thought he had packed a wheel and the final yellow came
with 20 laps in for Rod George with mechanical trouble on the back
stretch. Lutz continued to lead Ellenberger at this point and
Shaffer got by Blaney for third and Ed was in fifth.
Ironically, Ellenberger and Stewart did not cross the scales before
going to their pit area, but Track Manager Dave Willowby said that
didn't matter and paid them for third and fifth respectively.
Ed plans to be at Lernerville on Friday and Pittsburgh's
Pennsylvania Motor Speedway on Saturday for Mosites Motorsports
night.
The #2L crew plus Ed, Jr., his sons Ed III and Sye celebrated July
4th with watermelon and Gatorade in the pits at Tri City Speedway on
a 90 degree Sunday that featured their Sprint Challenge Race on Dave
Blaney Night and his induction into the Tri City Hall of Fame.
In the hot lap session for the 20 Sprints on hand , Ed was the
fastest with an AMB i.t. time of 15.255 and a speed of 117.994mph.
Three heats were run with Ed in heat #3. Jack Whitmore and Danny
Holtgraver were the front row starters with Ed and Brandon Spithaler
in row two, then Brent Matus and Bob Felmlee. Holtgraver took
off at the start and Ed was held up momentarily by Whitmore, but
then Ed moved into second with Felmlee third. The finish
showed Holtgraver ahead of Ed by 0.478 sec . the NASCAR star,
himself, Dave Blaney in the Gene Jenkins #55 car won the first heat
over Jack Sodeman, Jr. and Rob Eylar who took the second heat over
Jared Ridge. With the heats in the books. The top 12 Sprints
from the heats then were eligible for a redraw on the front stretch.
Announcer Brian Spaid had Frisbies with numbers on them for a
driver to select, when their name was called. The drivers, of
course, were facing the crowd and couldn't see the numbers. Ed
was lucky this time and picked up the Frisbie #1 and threw it to a
fan in the grandstand.
Thus, the first six rows of the feature were now set as follows:
Ed, Bob Felmlee in row one. Spithaler and Suprick made
up row two. Holtgraver and Sodeman, Jr. were in row three
ahead of Jared Ridge and Blaney in row four. Rob Eyler,
Jeff Taylor, Rod George and Matthew Reed were the last of the
qualified drivers to draw.
All eyes were on the front-row cars of Ed, Jr. and Felmlee as they
completed the first of 25 laps virtually side-by-side. This
tight battle continued with Ed leading the first seven, before that
set-up issue started to cause Ed handling problems . Felmlee
capitalized at this point and passed Ed to take the lead at the
flagstand on lap eight.
One lap later, Blaney took advantage of Ed's problems with his
changing stagger and made his move to take possession of second
spot. On lap 12, George moved ahead of Ed dropping him to fourth.
It was on lap 16 that Blaney made his winning move, dropping Felmlee
to second, Now, it was George in third and Ed in 4th and
Sodeman in fifth. As the laps wound down, the top five
continued to deal with lapped traffic.
At the checkered flag, it was Blaney by 3.859 seconds over Felmlee,
followed by George, Ed and Sodeman, Jr. in the top five.
Rounding out the top ten only Matthew Reed and Holtgraver completed
the 25 laps, down one lap in eighth place it was George Suprick,
then Matus and Spithaler in the top ten.
Plans are for the team to compete at Sharon in the Lou Blaney
Memorial on Wednesday, July 10; Friday would be at Lernerville
and Saturday would be at the Mosites Motorsports Sprint Special at
Pittsburgh's Pennsylvania Motor Speedway.
The 40-lap FASTRAK feature followed and track re-grooming was
necessary before the second Sprint feature. The crew had plenty of
time to change shocks, gears and tires. Of course, Spithaler
and Miller were on the front row for that one with Ed starting ninth
and Bowser tenth. After six laps, a three car tangle on the
outside coming out of turn two involved Scott Priester, Chris
Shuttleworth and Todd Bauer caused a second yellow and Ed was still
ninth.
With just nine laps to go, Ed did get past Bowser, Rod George and
Spithaler but ran out of laps and had to settle for sixth behind
Miller who led all the way for his first feature at Mercer, Felmlee,
Sodeman, Holtgraver and Kuriger.
Plans are to run Tri City on Sunday, then the Lou Blaney Memorial at
Sharon on Wednesday, Lernerville on Friday and Pittsburgh’s
Pennsylvania Motor Speedway on the special Mosites Motorsports night
for Sprints.
The final yellow came on lap 15 and after following Kuriger and
Bowser for another lap, Ed lined them up for a pass on lap 17 -
first getting by Bowser and a lap later taking third from Kuriger.
At this time, Ed may have run over debris on the track, because his
right rear tire started to go down. Meanwhile, up front,
Holtgraver replaced Priester as the leader on lap 18. While
those two were battling it out and running side-by-side for a lap on
lap 20 with Priester regaining the lead on lap 21. Ed passed
Holtgraver on the inside to take 2nd on lap 22.
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