From Williams Grove
Mechanicsburg, PA – Brian Leppo of New Oxford turned an intended one-night stand in the Zemco No. 1 sprint car into gold on Friday night by leading early and late to claim the $5,000 All Star Circuit of Champions Sprints feature at Williams Grove Speedway.
In the 20-lap ARDC Midget main, Tim Buckwalter wired the field for the victory, his second overall of the ARDC season.
Leppo won the dash to earn the pole for the All Star main event and pulled out to the lead at the start over second starter Brian Montieth and third starter Stevie Smith.
It became apparent from the beginning that the trio would end up being the prime factors in the event and sure enough, with 10 laps down all three drivers were on half a straightaway together, racing for the lead.
Montieth took advantage of a top groove floundering Leppo with 12 away to drive into the lead and start putting daylight between himself and Leppo as he began to race through lapped traffic.
With 10 laps to go, the race’s non-stop pace was halted for Paul McMahan who had stopped while racing inside the top five after suffering leg injuries due to a broken driveline.
On the restart, Leppo tried to take the lead back only to watch Montieth lead again down the backchute before the pair again swapped the lead in turns three and four with Montieth prevailing at the line to lead lap 21.
Another lap found another pair of lead changes however this time Leppo powered by Montieth in the middle of the backstretch in convincing style to burst into three again as the leader and hold it to the line.
Leppo was on his way to the victory when Logan Schuchart stopped with a flat tire with three laps to go setting up what would be a fracas at the new green.
When action resumed, Montieth didn’t, and instead sputtered up the inside of the frontchute as the field behind him throttled forward and into a bunch as it got jammed up behind him.
Chad Layton wound up spinning and Cory Haas flipped at the flagstand, needing medical attention.
Fifth starter Greg Hodnett bolted under Smith for second on the restart but Smith came back to end up second behind Leppo.
Hodnett finished third followed by Daryn Pittman and top All Star, Tim Shaffer.
Sixth through 10th went to Don Kreitz Jr., 14th starter Lance Dewease, Danny Dietrich, All Star David Gravel and Brent Marks.
“That was awesome right there,” a happy Leppo said. “That’s one of my favorite races.”
“We (Leppo/Zemco) made a one race deal and I’ll be damned if we didn’t win the thing!”
Smith set fast time ove rthe 36-car field with a lap of 16.776 seconds and won the $300 Fast Tees Fast Time Award.
Heats went to Schuchart, Layton, Dietrich and Adam Wilt. Leppo won the dash and Tony Stewart took the B Main.
Tim Buckwalter started fourth in the ARDC Midget field and took the lead at the start to never look back for the victory.
Steve Buckwalter, who started 14th in the field, drove into second with three laps to go and drove down his leading cousin but ran out of time to steal the victory.
PJ Giargiulo crossed the line third followed by Park Evans and Drew Heistand.
Triple heats went to Gargiulo, Tim Buckwalter and Alex Bright.
Williams Grove Speedway returns to action on June 15 with a twin bill program of 410 and 358 sprint cars at 7:30 pm.
June 8, 2012 Feature Finishes:
410 sprint cars, 30 laps: 1. Brian Leppo, 2. Stevie Smith, 3. Greg Hodnett, 4. Daryn Pittman, 5. Tim Shaffer, 6. Don Kreitz Jr., 7. Lance Dewease, 8. Danny Dietrich, 9. David Gravel, 10. Brent Marks, 11. Ryan Bohlke, 12. Jim Siegel, 13. Logan Schuchart, 14. Tony Stewart, 15. Chad Layton, 16. Brian Montieth, 17. Cory Haas, 18. Rick Lafferty, 19. Paul McMahan, 20. Alan Krimes, 21. Fred Rahmer, 22. Ryan Smith, 23. Adam Wilt, 24. Cap Henry.
DNQ: TJ Stutts, Frank Cozze, Michael Ruttkamp, Dale Blaney, Ryan Taylor, Gerard McIntyre Jr., Pete Miller, Davey Sammons, Nicole Bower, Steve Buckwalter, Aaron Ott
ARDC Midgets, 20 laps: 1. Tim Buckwalter, 2. Steve Buckwalter, 3. PJ Gargiulo, 4. Parker Evans, 5. Drew Heistand, 6. Dusty Heistand, 7. Steve Drevicki, 8. Brett Arndt, 9. Nick Wean, 10. Zack Daum, 11. Brett Wanner, 12. Brenden Bright, 13. Brian Gilmore, 14. Eric Heydenreich, 15. Jimmy Glenn Jr., 16. Bruce Buckwalter, 17. Alex Bright, 18. Trevor Kobylarz, 19. Shawn Jackson, 20. Mark Gilmore, 21. Dave Shirk