By Bill W
April 25, 2012 – Jerrod Hull is just wanting a clean night of racing early on in 2013. After suffering a flat tire in the opening event for the MOWA series, he rolled into the Vermilion County Speedway in Danville, Illinois on Sunday night. The evening saw a strong 33-car field assembled. Unfortunately, a Dash incident affected the rest of the night, which checkered with a twelfth place finish.
Things started well enough for the Sikeston, Missouri native as he won his second heat in as many tries. “The night started out as well as it could have,” says Jerrod. “We drew the one, and we were able to win the heat from the pole. The car felt really good out there. It was really nice.”
Jerrod lined up inside row four for the Dash. “I felt really comfortable to start the Dash,” he says. “We were battling, and we pulled under Shane (Stewart) at one point. Kody Kinser spun into the infield. We did another lap and there still wasn’t a caution.”
That’s when disaster struck. “Out of the corner of my eye, coming out of turn four, I saw Lucas (Wolfe),” says Jerrod. “I was worried, and then I lost him behind my wing. I couldn’t see him. I got on the brakes, and sure enough here he came. He was spinning, and he was going to try to keep going. We pretty much ended up going front end to front end, and I got upside down.”
The damage to the Rockwell American #12 was extensive. “It broke the front axle and the shocks,” says Jerrod. “It came down and bent the torque tube and the Jacob’s ladder. It took the wings too. For not a very hard hit, it did a lot of damage.”
Time was short, and Jerrod was set to start outside of row three of the main event. “We didn’t have a whole lot of time to get ready for the feature,” he says. “We even left the wings on…they were bent up pretty good. The torque ball was bound up and the Jacob’s ladder was bent up. We put a new front end on it with all new shocks.”
Jerrod gave it his best and had a solid top ten run going despite some handling issues. “We went out there with it,” he says. “I lost a couple of positions on the start, but then we raced with Danny Smith and Randy Hannagan for quite a while. We just weren’t very nice, but I felt pretty good about running with those guys at that point.”
A late caution slowed things and Jerrod’s top ten hopes were thwarted on the restart. “We had a late restart there and we were sitting eighth,” he says. “Sheldon Haudenschild had a rough start in front of us and cut down the track right in front of me into the infield. I pitched it sideways, and I lost four positions.”
Jerrod summed up his night. “It was just a rough night after the Dash. We’ll just have to go on to the next one.”
The team will look for action this weekend, possibly at Jacksonville Speedway in preparation for a MOWA event at Spoon River Speedway south of Canton, Illinois on Saturday, May 4.
Jerrod and the #12 team would like to thank: Rockwell American, Midland Performance, Super Shox, Sebastian Sand Blasting & Powder Coating, Inc., Sherwin Williams, Chuck’s Small Engines, Don Hamilton, HRP, Lighthouse Christian Center, Logo Daddy, Hoosier Tire, Simpson, Weld, Automotive Machine, Maxim and Heartland Trailer Manufacturing.