Pink Power - VanderBeek wraps up the USMTS Summer Speed Weeks

BRAINERD, Minn. -- A grueling and often wet month of June came to a conclusion Saturday night as the USMTS Casey’s General Stores National Tour powered by Swan Energy made its final stop of USMTS Summer Speedweeks at the North Central Speedway in Brainerd, Minn.

It was also the last time that Zack VanderBeek would sport the colorful pink and black colors on his USMTS Modified in support of the Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure to help fight and find a cure for breast cancer.

And although he hadn’t led a single main event lap yet this season, VanderBeek found a way to put his special-themed machine in victory lane for the first time since the 4th Annual Texas Winter Nationals at the Houston Raceway Park last November.

VanderBeek drew the outside of the front row for the start of the 30-lap WIX Filters “A” Main but it was current USMTS Rookie of the Year points leader Jason Grimes taking control at the drop of the green flag to record his career-first laps as the leader of a USMTS feature race.

But the 30-year-old from Jamestown, N.D., gave way to the 2004 USMTS Rookie of the Year when VanderBeek squeezed past Grimes to lead the fifth circuit.

Back-to-back cautions on laps 11 and 12 didn’t help the cause of the rest of the 25-car field as VanderBeek was the class of the field for the final 25 laps.