LEEDS — Stringing together one racing operation every Saturday night at a local track is challenging enough.

Compare the car counts of today to 25, 10, even five years ago and the difference is staggering. Scary, if you’re a speedway promoter or race fan.

Not everyone, thankfully, has been scared off by the stagnant dollar and the skyrocketing costs of competition. In fact, one car isn’t even enough for some drivers.

Well, one driver.

Three championship series divisions headline the action at Oxford Plains Speedway each weekend. Jimmy Childs is the only driver actively putting his right foot down in two of them.

“I don’t really know what I want to do,” Childs said. “I keep going back and forth.”

Childs, 31, knows that steering both a sleek late model and a sneaky-fast mini stock on a sweltering, dog-day night might not be the ticket to long-term success.

A two-time Mini Stock champion who only accelerated to the top class two summers ago, Childs pulled the Late Model out of cold storage in an attempt to qualify for the TD Bank 250 in July. He was in a qualifying position in his heat race until contact from another driver briefly turned him sideways and sent him back in the field.

He has decided to keep the late model running for the final month of the season, in part because he hopes to break out of what he considers the biggest slump of his career.

“I’m lost. We’ve had nothing but problems,” Childs said. “We won on opening day (in the mini stock) and it’s the only one I’ve got.”

Childs has dropped to ninth in Mini Stock points.

Some perspective: In his last seven years running the division full-time, Childs has never finished lower than fourth in the standings.

“I think I’d have to win every race and all the other guys would have to have problems every week or get disqualified at least once for me to have any chance,” Childs said.

Three years ago, Childs became the first four-cylinder driver in more than 30 years to win back-to-back OPS titles. He’s fewer than 10 feature wins away from the all-time division record set by Cliff Libby in the mid-1970s.

“The nice thing about it is, I don’t know if I’d say I’m a target, but when people start to race in that division I’m the guy they want to beat,” Childs said. “I like being that guy.

“All in all, I can’t complain. Two championships, I feel like I should have more. I don’t set goals anymore, because the last couple of years I’ve gone in saying, ‘I think I can take this championship.’ And when I do that, it doesn’t seem to go well.”

Childs’ name is synonymous with OPS. More than a dozen members of his extended family have been to victory lane at Oxford, accounting for more than 200 wins.

Those bragging rights are on the line in both of Jimmy’s weekly racing pursuits. In his mini stock, he frequently competes against his father, Bill. Older brother Billy is one of the top drivers in the late model division.

“The reason I’m able to do any of this is mostly my father,” Childs said. “They’re both his cars. He hauls them back and forth and works on them. He is probably one of Oxford Plains Speedway’s biggest fans as far as supporting drivers over there and being as committed to it as he is.”

Support for the two-headed racing operation is provided by Cooley’s Commercial Tire and Brown’s Construction. Childs’ cousin, Perley Garland, is crew chief on both cars.

Scott Brewer of the Wolf Den was Childs’ tire sponsor for 250 weekend.

“Those are all tires I can use the rest of the year,” Childs said, “so I guess not qualifying for that race wasn’t all bad.”

Childs’ racing interests actually are divided three ways. His daughter, Jordyn, made her Friday night go kart debut at Oxford this summer.

It’s no surprise that one more month of toeing the line might mark the end of double duty.

“We’ve had motor problems in the mini stock. Once we get the good motor back, I’ll probably try to get it handling good enough to finish the season and then concentrate on the late model next year,” Childs said.

“There are people I look up to in that division as the guys I want to beat. That will be a new challenge.”

[email protected]