MECHANICSBURG
 Friday night was a dream come true for Brian Leppo.

 The New Oxford racer started alongside the best sprint car driver in the history of the sport-Steve Kinser- and outraced Kinser into turn one at the start of the 25-lap preliminary night feature of the Cleveland Brothers Summer Nationals.

 Leppo then knew all he had to do was race 25 mistake free laps and hope that Kinser and any of the World of Outlaws wouldn’t post a serious challenge.

 Leppo had to hold on through numerous yellow flags and was able to bring home his first ever World of Outlaws A-Main feature win.

 The win was also the first ever Williams Grove win for his car owners Floyd and Joyce Swope of East Berlin and was the second time Leppo has stood on the front stretch at the Grove following a win. His other win came in June 0f 2005 when he piloted the Apple Motorsports sprinter to victory.

 When asked if he knew he just beat the World of Outlaws, Leppo simply stated “Are you sure” to track announcer Bruce Ellis in a mob scene in victory lane.

 “It’s definitely something I’ve always dreamed of doing,” Leppo said of defeating the Outlaws. “It feels pretty good. I think we had about one too many yellows but I just tried to keep myself together and keep the car straight for 25 laps.”

 Kinser challenged Leppo briefly during the early laps of the feature.

 The first of five yellow flags came out on lap eight when Terry McCarl spun in turn four.

 On the restart, Lucas Wolfe and Joey Saldana made contact on the backstretch causing Saldana to roll over and bringing out a red flag.
 Danny Lasoski’s stopped car on lap nine kept the pace slow but Leppo jetted out to a comfortable lead on the restart only to have a two-second advantage wiped out on lap 15 when Jac Haudenschild spun.

 A caution for Keith Kauffman, who got into the back of a slowing Alan Krimes on lap 17 and another on lap 22 for a flat tire for seventh running Mark Smith kept Kinser glued to Leppo’s bumper but Leppo never gave Kinser a chance for the top spot.

 “I knew I had to get Kinser on the start and I think we got a little better start than he did and was able to get the groove,” said Leppo, who earned $5,000 for his first win of the season in the Swope Salvage and Recycling, H & H Contractors, Eastern Caisson, Walker Chiropractic sponsored No. 71 JEI Chassis. “You definitely don’t want to make any mistakes when Steve Kinser is behind you. Dave Yingst came down under the red and told me to keep it in the black stuff and I’d be in good shape.”

 Leppo sped away from Kinser over the final three laps to score the big win for the Pennsylvania Posse heading into tonight’s $20,000 finale of the Summer Nationals.

 Kinser, of Bloomington, Indiana was second over Mechanicsburg’s Wolfe, Nashville, Tennessee’s Paul McMahan and Elk River, Minnesota’s Craig Dollansky.

 Thursday night winner Donny Schatz came from 16th to finish sixth trailed by Kenny Jacobs in the JEI Performance house car, Jason Sides, Doug Esh and Jason Martin.

 Steve Buckwalter paced the 54-car field during time trials with a lap of 17.219 seconds.

 Kinser, McMahan, Saldana and Martin were heat race winners. Jim Siegel won the C-Main, Tim Shaffer won the B-Main and Kinser was the dash winner.