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Sunday, April 06, 2003

A new season is unfolding on racetracks in Western Pennsylvania, but it might be impossible for Ed Lynch Jr. to improve on what he accomplished in 2002.

Lynch, whose family-owned team is based in Apollo, posted a total of 19 sprint-car victories on four different tracks in the area. He also finished 23rd in the A-feature at the prestigious Knoxville Nationals in Iowa, where 118 drivers were racing for the title.

	Chris Dolack is the senior writer for Auto Racing Digest magazine. He can be reached at cdolack@chrisdolack.com.

Along the way, he broke the Lernerville Speedway record by winning his 56th career sprint-car feature, won his third Cavalcade Points championship and moved to within five victories of tying the career mark at Sharon Speedway.

While that alone is impressive, what earned Lynch national accolades was his victory against the World of Outlaws in the Don Martin Memorial Silver Cup race at Lernerville. In a classic sprint-car race that featured three-wide racing and passing for almost every position from start to finish, Lynch scored his first victory against sprint-car racing's elite series.

"He's definitely the cream of the crop around here," said Rod George, who won the season titles in the sprint division at Lernerville and Tri-City Speedway in Franklin, Pa. "There's no doubt about it. [At Lernerville] last year he was the fastest guy every week."

But for Lynch, last season wasn't as much about speed as it was about comfort behind the wheel.

"The cars were real comfortable and the engines were real drivable, so it was a good match for us," he said. "That's the whole key to everything. You work to change the cars around in dirt-track racing to make them as comfortable for the driver as you can and that's what we found."

Finding a way to beat the Outlaws, though, was always something that eluded Lynch, 47, since he started competing against them in 1983.

"We've had fast cars before for the special races and little things would get in our way," he said. "We kept saying, 'Geez, oh man. Are we over-engineering ourselves? Are we doing this wrong or doing that wrong, getting the jitters?' For a couple of years I went with the same old car I would run all the time and I would turn the same lap times. But [the Outlaws] would come here and turn laps a half-second quicker. [Last season] I had J&J build me a car. I drew it on paper and told them what I wanted. I talked with [engine builder] Paul Kistler to get the engine a little more drivable. It was blowing the tires off. I wanted to make the combination a little better for hard, slick tracks.

"When I brought it out for the Silver Cup, I think the car was five days old, the engine was fresh, it felt good all night long. I didn't change anything but the rear tires for the feature. The car was nice and, in dirt-track racing, the car is never nice for an entire 40-lap feature. This car could go anywhere it wanted to go the whole night long."

It ended up going to victory lane and collecting a $35,000 check, giving Lynch the pinnacle moment of his long racing career.

Don Gamble, a former driver who is host of two weekly radio shows that focus on racing, has seen almost every racer from the area since the 1950s. He believes Lynch's 2002 campaign was one of the best by a sprint-car driver.

"I would say it's his best season ever," said Gamble, who put Lynch in a category with Lou Blaney and Johnny Beaber. "Not just the Outlaws win, but his entire season. He was the man to beat."

Lynch isn't about to relent, either. He won the opener at Lernerville March 28 for career victory No. 57 and is taking aim at the Sharon Speedway career mark. He needs five victories to tie George Bischoff's record of 30.

"We were the track record-holder of the half-mile track at Sharon so we wanted to do well at the new track," said Lynch, who had six wins at the Dave Blaney-owned track in Hartford, Ohio. "David and I go back a long way and that track felt comfortable to me, too. I keep saying that word, comfortable, but that's what it's about."

New management

For the second consecutive season, one of the two NASCAR Weekly Racing Series tracks in Western Pennsylvania has a new owner. When the green flag drops April 12 on the USAR Hooters ProCup race at Jennerstown Speedway, it will mark Dave Wheeler's first race as owner. Wheeler and his business, Wheeler Bros., Inc., have been sponsors of the late model division.