Jim Chisholm is chasing the Out-Pace USRA B-Mod title at the Deer Creek Speedway.

Jim Chisholm won one of his first track championships nearly a decade ago on the Deer Creek Speedway grounds.

Now the young driver from Osage, Iowa, has a chance to do it again, on a bigger stage. But he has one race and a tough driver standing between him a track title.

Chisholm has grown up racing at Deer Creek, starting in the Slingshot divisions on Button Buck Speedway—the smaller track inside the big track at Deer Creek—10 years ago. He won the Pee-Wee Slingshot championship in 2010 and 2011, then won the Junior Slingshot title in 2013, while capturing the Senior Slingshot championship in 2013 and 2014.

A strong run Saturday could give Chisholm a title on the big track, this time in the Out-Pace USRA B-Mod division. He is just three points back of Owatonna’s Kadden Kath entering the final points races of the season.

Racing is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m., with grandstand gates opening at 2:30 p.m.

The Out-Pace USRA B-Mod championship is one of two Summit USRA Weekly Racing Series divisions and, according to track announcer/historian Todd Narveson, 114 different drivers have won a track title since it opened in 1996. Only 12 of those drivers did so without winning a feature.

And though Chisholm hasn’t been to victory lane yet, he has been the most consistent driver in the division. While Kath has three feature victories, he has finished outside of the top 10 in three of the 11 features this season. Chisholm has finished in the top 10 in all 11 features and has finished in the top 5 on five occasions.

Defending track champion Dustin Kruse is mathematically alive (he sits 42 points behind Kath), as are Ryan Maitland (66 points back) and Brandon Maitland (82 points back), but those three drivers would likley need everyone ahead of them in the standings to not start Saturday’s races in order to win the crown.

Chisholm nearly won the track title a year ago, actually holding a big enough lead at one point over Kruse in the feature on track title night to give him the championship. But Kruse rallied late in the race and closed the gap on Chisholm just enough to win the championship.

Wasmund clinched USRA Modified title: Every lap Nate Wasmund turns on Saturday will be a victory lap for the veteran USRA Modified driver from Rochester. Wasmund clinched the track championship last week with a fourth-place finish, his 10th top-10 in 11 starts this summer.

He leads the points standings by 112 over Winona’s Josh Angst; Chatfield’s Jacob Bleess is third, 167 points behind Wasmund.

Wasmund has won a pair of feature races this year and finished in the top five in eight of 11 feature races, the most of any USRA Modified driver at Deer Creek.