BUFFALO TWP - Ed Lynch Jr. walked around the pits during opening night at Lernerville Speedway wearing a T-shirt.

The shirt read: "If I was a frog, I'd be the baddest frog in the pond."

"I've been waiting all winter to wear this shirt here," Lynch said, smiling.

Intimidation tactic?

"Nah," Lynch said. "Let's just say I earned it."

That he has. No one will deny Lynch is the baddest Sprint driver on dirt at Lernerville.

"He's our Steve Kinser," said Chad Hill, Lynch's brother-in-law and driver of the No. 44 Sprint. "Ed's as good as it's ever gonna get around here."

Jim Weller III is in his first year racing a Sprint car and plans to pay plenty of attention to Lynch.

"If he's doing something different out there on the track, I want to know about it," Weller said.

And with good reason. Lynch is coming off perhaps the most dominant season anyone has had in Sprint car racing at the Sarver oval:

He finished among the top five in all 16 of his feature starts.

He won eight features and five heat races. No other Sprinter won more than two features at Lernerville in 2003.

Last Friday, he extended his Sprint feature win record at Lernerville to 65. No other current regular Sprinter has as many as 30 wins on this track.

He won 22 features and 18 heat races on area tracks in 2003.

All of that and Lynch is only getting better. He has the experience, the financial backing and the desire to improve.

"You can't sit still, especially knowing you're the target," Lynch said. "I try to keep up on all of the speed secrets. You're always racing against the clock and the racetrack, more so than the other cars on the racetrack.

"There's two ways you can be fast. There's scary fast and there's being fast without knowing it. It's better to be fast and not know it because then you're naturally fast," he added.

Lynch won Lernerville's Sprint points title in 2003 for the first time in 13 years. Only Bob Wearing Sr. - who had a 16-year span between Late Model points titles - had a longer gap between points championships at the track.

Veteran Sprinter Rod George finished a distant second to Lynch in points last year.

"Ed's the guy everybody gauges his program against, and rightfully so," George said. "But there are other good drivers here. Chad Hill is the biggest up-and-comer right now.

"I have to take everybody seriously. I'm another year older, another year slower," he added.

Eric Smith won Lernerville's Hard-Luck Award last year in his No. 7Z Sprint car and is still looking for his first career feature win.

When he gets it, Smith is hoping Lynch is on the track.

"You want to beat the best," Smith said. "Ed makes everybody step up his program here. You're only as fast as the people you race against."

Hill echoed those sentiments.

"The day guys like Ed Lynch and Rod George don't run here anymore, I'll go run somewhere else," Hill said.

"I want Ed Lynch out there when I win. If I beat him, it's an honor," he added.

Gary Kriess Jr., and George and Kevin Schaeffer were Sprinters who won two features each at Lernerville last year.

"There are no better drivers around here than Ed Lynch and Rod George," Kriess said. "It's a challenge running with those guys. It makes it fun, too."

Lynch's race team is always available in the pits to help fellow drivers as well.

"There have been times when I needed a part or was working on setting up the car and their guys helped us," Smith said. "You remember stuff like that."

"He's a credit to the sport," Hill said of Lynch. "They're always willing to help another race team with a problem.

"They want to win, but they want to see quality Sprint car racing, too. There's no better ambassador in this sport than Ed Lynch Jr.," he added.