GREENVILLE, Texas — Everybody held their breath for the first half of Saturday night’s 50-lap main event at the Hunt County Raceway, but the last 25 laps belonged to Jim Chisholm as he roared to his sixth career win with the Summit USMTS National Championship presented by RacinDirt.
Friday’s opener for the Ninth Annual Summit USMTS Texas Winter Nationals was a flag-to-flag barnburner, and the first half of Saturday was no different as three different racers led at one point at the tricky and technical former Superbowl Speedway.
Jason Ingalls led early on, pacing the first nine laps before Tanner Mullens streaked past on the inside to lead the tenth orbit.
The race’s first of six Gorsuch Performance caution flags happened on lap 11 and saw the end of Carlos Ahumada Jr.’s night after claiming runner-up honors 24 hours earlier. Then, before another lap could be completed, Ingalls found himself facing the wrong way and out of contention for his second career USMTS win.
Jason Hughes, who won Friday’s season-opener and three of the last four features dating back to last October, wanted another and muscled by Mullens with 15 laps in the books.
Closing in from behind, however, was Chisholm and the 21-year-old from Osage, Iowa, was the leader at halftime. That was as close as anybody got to Chisholm’s rear bumper again.
“When we came here this weekend it’s a new track to us, so not really knowing what gear we needed and we actually didn’t even have the gear we needed and Dan (Wheeler) lent us it so it was way night and day difference between yesterday,” Chisholm revealed. “I wish we could have had the same thing for Joe (Chisholm) yesterday because I think that’s where a lot of our problems were coming from.
“I’ve got to thank him and Kelly (Shryock). We made a lot of good adjustments this year so far in this car. This is the earliest I’ve ever won with a new car so it feels kind of nice. Normally we struggle for a little bit but made a lot of new and improvements on this one and it feels a lot better already.”
With a margin of victory of more than two seconds, Chisholm pocketed $5,000 en route to Victory Fuel Victory Lane.
Hughes was second at the checkered flag while Mullens settled for third on the Featherlite Trailers podium.
“I was better there before I took off on that restart and go off in the corner just like I didn’t have a right rear tire anymore,” Hughes said. “I don’t know if I got in her maybe a little hot but I never felt like I was as good after that, but after that I was definitely a second-place car. He just kept driving away from us.”
“Well I was better than I was last night,” said Mullens. “It’s a big team effort. We just keep working and we got better each time that we got on the track, and hopefully that will carry on to Rocket (Raceway Park).”
Dereck Ramirez was a solid fourth in the feature with Lucas Schott advancing from the 12th starting spot to finish fifth.
Feature Finish (50 Laps)
1. (6) 24C Jim Chisholm, Osage, Iowa, 2. (5) 12 Jason Hughes, Watts, Okla., 3. (3) 02 Tanner Mullens, Wichita, Kan., 4. (7) 4R Dereck Ramirez, Woodward, Okla., 5. (12) 69 Lucas Schott, Chatfield, Minn., 6. (10) 49 Jake Timm, Winona, Minn., 7. (4) 58X Gary Christian, Broken Bow, Okla., 8. (11) 65 Tyler Davis, Haysville, Kan., 9. (14) 20 Rodney Sanders, Happy, Texas, 10. (9) 91 Joe Duvall, Justice, Okla., 11. (15) 75 Terry Phillips, Springfield, Mo., 12. (22) 01 Jacob Hobscheidt, Plattsmouth, Neb., 13. (2) 12J Jason Ingalls, Longview, Texas, 14. (18) 12H Mike Hansen, Dickinson, N.D., 15. (17) 60 Dan Ebert, Lake Shore, Minn., 16. (23) 55H A.J. Hoff, Mantorville, Minn., 17. (20) 80XX Jason Langford, Palestine, Texas, 18. (24) 7G Gabe Hodges, Lebo, Kan., 19. (8) 88XXX Clyde Dunn Jr., Rockwall, Texas, 20. (1) 5 Jon Mitchell, Texarkana, Texas, 21. (19) C8 Timothy Culp, Prattsville, Ark., 22. (21) 47 Jack Sartain, Royse City, Texas, 23. (16) 54T Matthew Day, Farmersville, Texas, 24. (13) 65X Carlos Ahumada Jr., El Paso, Texas, 25. (25) 15W Alex Williamson, Rushford, Minn.