It’s been nine years in the making for Steven Brooks, but the hometown favorite has found his way back to DIRTcar Summit Racing Equipment Modified Nationals Victory Lane.
Brooks, of Bourbonnais, IL, first broke through with the UMP Modified series on July 6, 2017. Fast forward to Monday night — almost nine years to-the-day — and he’s done it again, leading the final 15 laps of the main event at his home track of Kankakee County Speedway for his second career series triumph.
“I am on Cloud 9 right now,” Brooks said. “We’ve done this thing for a long time. We’ve chased these wins for a while, and I can’t believe it’s been nine years since we got a Summer Nationals win. To get one here at Kankakee, it’s in our backyard, it’s our home track. I always say I am going to defend the home turf and we got it done, this is so awesome.”
At the start, Mike McKinney and Brooks showed shades of their weekly battles at the Illinois 1/4-mile oval, racing side-by-side for the top spot.
McKinney led the opening lap by a nose as he worked the low lane while Brooks used the top and began to find some momentum. Michael Ledford soon became a factor, taking advantage of Brooks slipping on the top to go by for second.
On Lap 10, lap traffic was in play, and just as Ledford made a move around the outside of McKinney, the caution flew for a car spun in Turns 3 and 4. Brooks found the middle lane on the restart and used it to propel himself to second off Turn 2. Brooks used that momentum to drive to the outside of McKinney, leading Lap 11 by a nose at the line.
A caution on Lap 11 for a three-car pileup saw McKinney head off the racetrack under the yellow with a flat tire. On the restart, Ledford found new life as he worked the bottom and pulled even with Brooks. As the battle for the lead intensified, a new challenger approached as Zeke McKenzie railed the top to make it a three-car duel for the lead.
McKenzie washed high exiting Turn 2, allowing both Brooks and Ledford to get by. As the race continued, Brooks continued to get faster, and he pulled away to over a one-second advantage and crossed the start/finish line to secure the victory.
Ledford finished second, McKenzie extends his points lead with a third-place finish, Curt Spalding was fourth, and Tyler Spalding was fifth.
UP NEXT
The DIRTcar Summit Racing Equipment Modified Nationals returns to action at Montpelier Speedway in Montpelier, IN on Tuesday, July 7.
How can you watch the Summit Modifieds? Every race is live on DIRTVision.
Feature (25 Laps): 1. 5-Steven Brooks[2]; 2. 09-Michael Ledford[3]; 3. 24-Zeke McKenzie[5]; 4. 5CS-Curt Spalding[4]; 5. 1TS-Tyler Spalding[15]; 6. 27D-Beau DeYoung[9]; 7. B5-Matthew Baker[6]; 8. 0-Travis Kohler[11]; 9. T23-John Toppozini[14]; 10. 7-Brad DeYoung[10]; 11. 01K-Billy Knippenberg[12]; 12. 77-Ray Bollinger[8]; 13. 48-Adam Pockrus[7]; 14. 310-Guy Sutton[13]; 15. 68W-Damion Wilmoth[16]; 16. 96M-Mike McKinney[1]; 17. 94-Nick Pasek[18]; 18. 40F-Tyler Fengya[20]; 19. (DNS) 25B-Braiden Bohlmann; 20. (DNS) 23B-Ethan Boomsma
