As Sye Lynch works to establish himself among the nation’s premier sprint car drivers, the 23-year-old racer from Apollo, Pa., is constantly surrounded — both literally and figuratively — by the legacy of his famous racing family.
“The race shop that I’m currently in is the same race shop that my dad (Ed Lynch Jr.) and my grandfather (Ed Lynch) worked out of. That aspect of it is very nice to have the nostalgia and have the family name to it — in the same town, on the same land,” Lynch told SPEED SPORT. “We fire the cars on the same stretch of road that my grandfather and my dad did. It’s pretty remarkable. To be three generations out of the same shop is amazing. It’s a small race shop right beside my grandparents’ house.
“My grandfather, my dad and my grandmother (Jean Lynch) all took value in keepsakes and things that meant a lot to us. You look around the shop and we still have some parts off of my grandfather’s modifieds from way, way back when — I don’t even know the years. We have some parts from my dad’s cars,” Lynch added. “Even the tools we use are the same as they had.”
Lynch’s late grandfather, Ed Lynch, was a local racing legend and a three-time modified champion at Lernerville Speedway in Sarver, Pa. His grandmother, Jean Lynch, is in the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame for her work as a publicist and promoter. And his father, Ed Lynch, Jr., won 235 sprint car features and earned four Lernerville track titles before retiring from the sport in 2016.
Serving as the owner, driver and crew chief for Sye Lynch Racing, the third-generation member of the Lynch family is quickly building his own racing legacy.
“Anytime you are a generational driver people believe you have everything handed to you. My dad had a very stout racing career, but he did it all out of his own pocket,” Sye Lynch explained. “Businesswise, what he insinuated to me was there was nothing to be handed down. His team was run as a business and when he retired from racing that business ended.
“So there was no passing of the torch. As far as knowledge and advice, yes. But as far as physical assets, I had to work for it from the beginning. I had to make my deal happen. I needed to go out and find my own sponsors and find my own crew and everything.”
Lynch grew up working on his father’s No. 2L sprint car, but he dreamed of being behind the wheel.
“I wanted to drive all along,” he said. “Ever since I was a kid, I wanted to get into go-karts, quads or any form of racing, but my dad never allowed me. There was never time in the schedule as he was doing 60 to 100 races a year and he also had a full-time job. That didn’t leave a lot of free time.
“When I was 15 years old, I had the opportunity to test drive a mini late model, a three-quarter-scale late model. They were going to try to get that series going around here, but it never took off,” Lynch continued. “Then, when I was 16 years old Joe Lockhart gave me an opportunity, just out of the blue, to start a 305 team and race a 305 sprint car. I did that for about half a season. From there, I had an opportunity in a 410 and it just kind of took off.”
Lynch is among a rare group in a segment of the sport that continues to become more and more specialized.
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