After several near misses in the early going this season, Zack VanderBeek finally found the road to victory lane and garnered his 48th career USMTS win at the 81 Speedway on Thursday night.

The 34-year-old from New Sharon, Iowa, hasn’t employed any drastic measures to get faster, just plugging away.

“We made some little changes, but we’re just working hard and not giving up,” he said after receiving the winner’s trophy just shortly after 10:30. “It’s a heck of a lot easier when you can start in front of these guys.”

Local favorite and Wichita native Cody Schniepp snagged the Sybesma Pole Award, but VanderBeek muscled his familiar No. 33z Casey’s General Stores VanderBuilt Race Cars USMTS Modified into the top spot to lead the first lap.

About 20 minutes and 40 laps later, ‘The Z-Man’ finally had a checkered flag to take home from C. Ray Hall’s historic facility-a place where VanderBeek had piled up several near-misses over the last decade.