Sports Previous Articles Steelers Penguins ... Other Sports Auto Racing: Outlaws don't intimidate local sprint car drivers Thursday, May 20, 2004 By Chris Dolack
Ed Lynch Jr. is such a dominating sprint car driver in Western Pennsylvania that even when Chad Hill had the lead Friday night at Lernerville Speedway, he had resigned himself mentally to a second-place finish. Hill wasn't going to concede the lead, but he knew Lynch had won more sprint car races than anybody in the track's 35-year history and was looking to add his fourth victory this season. But Friday night belonged to Hill of Cowansville. He started on the pole and, with a little help from the wet weather and some timely cautions, he was able to keep Lynch in second down the stretch. "I really didn't beat Ed," said Hill, who is Lynch's brother-in-law. "I started on the pole, Ed started 12th. On lap four, he was in third place. He never passed me so I never got to pass him back. I'm a pretty big stickler on that. If you start on the front row, you should win. In three previous weeks, someone else started up front and Ed beat them. It was good to know that he couldn't beat me, but I didn't beat Ed. There's two ways of looking at it." No matter how you look at it, the victory was the third in Hill's career and it couldn't have come at a better time. The local drivers have only tomorrow night's race as a tuneup before the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series rolls into Sarver Tuesday for the Commonwealth Clash. Earlier this month, the Outlaws' new ownership group signed deals with 15 drivers to compete at each event, including 18-time champion Steve Kinser. | |
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