By Bill W
October 13, 2014 – Jerrod Hull topped off another championship season with the Midwest Open Wheel Association Saturday at the Jacksonville Speedway with a win. It was Jerrod’s fourth title with MOWA and a series’ best sixteenth career feature win. The Rockwell American #12 team’s win came at Jacksonville’s “Ron Milton Race of Champions”. The Sikeston, Missouri driver will next be in action at the Short Track Nationals at the I-30 Speedway near Little Rock, Arkansas, October 22-25.
The two-race weekend for MOWA began at the Lincoln Speedway in Illinois on Friday. Jerrod won his heat from the pole. “We were able to get out front early, and we were able to win it,” he says. “That worked out really well. We were sixth in overall points, and that’s where we started the Dash. We were able to run fourth in that.”
The fourth place Dash finish put Jerrod outside row two for the feature. “We could see the track laying rubber already in the B main,” he says. “We were kind of prepared for that. We were able to get to third right away. From there, it was just about staying in the rubber on the bottom and not missing it. The only hope we had is for the leaders (Christopher Bell and Brad Loyet) to miss it or crash each other.”
Neither happened, and he settled for the show position at the checkers. “We were happy with the third, considering it had taken that rubber,” says Jerrod. “The car has been running really well. We were excited to get to Jacksonville.”
Jerrod was fortunate enough to draw the front row for his heat at Jacksonville on Saturday as well. He would go on to win it. “The car felt really good in the heat,” he says. “We started fourth in the Dash, and ran second. We wanted to win it badly, because it paid $800. Jimmy (Hurley) did a good job and won it though.”
The team assessed the racy ¼-mile bullring before the main event. “We pretty much knew we were going to run the top,” says Jerrod. “They reworked the track, which was great. The bottom was good the first few laps. Jimmy was running down there.”
Jerrod would head to a treacherous cushion to gain momentum. “I moved to the top,” he says. “I thought the bottom might slick off a little bit. On a restart, he ran the bottom and we were able to get a run on the top and do a slidejob.”
Now in the lead, he would be pressured by Brad Loyet. “Lapped traffic was really tough there for a minute,” says Jerrod. “Loyet was able to close up on us. I don’t know what he did, but he got into the back of us and we spun out and kept it going. Unfortunately, he got upside down.”
In the end, Jerrod conquered the tricky racetrack and picked up his fifth MOWA win of the year. “It was just an exciting race altogether,” he says. “The cushion in three was pretty rough. I told (crew chief) Scott (Bonar) after the Dash that I didn’t want to have to run that way for 25 laps. It was hard to judge it. If you entered a certain way, it would turn the front end towards the fence. You almost had to slide and miss it in three and hit the cushion in the middle of three and four. It made some great racing for not only the sprints, but the midgets. I think the fans got their money’s worth.”
The team was proud of their fourth MOWA championship as well. “It felt good the whole weekend not to be so worried about points,” says Jerrod. “Sometimes you get wrapped up in the point race and you are sitting in third and fourth and you’re content. At Jacksonville, the cushion was treacherous and we could have crashed easy. It was nice to go for the win and not worry about that stuff.”
Jerrod will have this weekend off before heading for “Hammer Hill”. “We’re going to Little Rock and drive for Jimmy Davies,” he says. “We’re excited about that. Terry (McCarl) has been running really well in that car lately.”
Jerrod and the #12 team would like to thank: Rockwell American, Midland Performance, Super Shox, Sebastian Sand Blasting & Powder Coating, Inc., Chuck’s Small Engines, Don Hamilton, HRP, Lighthouse Christian Center, Logo Daddy, Hoosier Tire, Simpson, Weld, Automotive Machine, Maxim and Heartland Trailer Manufacturing.