Jean Lynch, 88, of Washington Township, Apollo, PA died unexpectedly June 20, 2023 in Juniper Village, Monroeville, PA. Born February 8, 1935 in Markle, PA, she was a member of the First Presbyterian Church in Vandergrift. Jean was fiercely dedicated to two things: family and dirt track racing. Taking her grandsons to various baseball games, practices, and training camps was a real joy for her. You could always find her sitting in a lawn chair, cheering on her grandsons and scoring the game (the umpire double checking the count with her), then hosting a family cookout on her side porch, with sweet tea, and as always, a dessert. She cherished family vacations to Jupiter Beach, Florida, making cinnamon pies and stocking the refrigerator with apricot juice.
Auto racing has been a passion of hers since she married Ed Lynch Sr., who became an accomplished race car driver, also known as the original “Apollo Rocket”. Jean found a niche for herself in auto racing, which grew into a career for her as a general manager/promoter, board member, racing official, publicist and scorer for various tracks and racing associations such as: NASCAR, Championship Auto Racing (CART); ten years at Indianapolis Motor Speedways’ Indy 500; Al Gerbers’ Race of Champions for modified stock cars; All Star Circuit of Champions (ASCoC) and coordinator of the Ohio Sprint Speedweek; NY D.I.R.T. Modifieds and East Bay Raceway’s Winter Nationals
Jean was a general manager/promoter at racetracks in Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Florida; rented facilities and promoted races at 9 different tracks. She was truly a pioneer, legend, and a great ambassador to the sport, not only in Western PA, but nationally.
