By Bill W
April 25, 2016 – Jerrod Hull picked up his first win of the season last Friday night with the MOWA series at Jacksonville Speedway in Illinois. The Sikeston, Missouri driver had to work for this one in a good night of racing on the ¼-mile bullring. Jerrod will take this weekend off to help his son Jett with his racing.
Friday started off well with quick time. “We drew a good number and we were in the second group,” says Jerrod. “We were able to put down a good lap. We ended up quick time, which was amazing. I had some time to look at the cars that were going out late, and there were some cars that were really getting around there well.”
After a flip of the coin meant heat races were lined straight up by time, Jerrod would fire from the pole of the first heat. “Ian Madsen was outside the front row,” he says. “For whatever reason, my motor is stumbling on the starts. That’s just on the first start. I don’t know what it is. It has temperature in it, but it’s stumbling. Ian got a good jump there and got off to a lead. He was fast and I couldn’t do anything with him. We ran second.”
The feature draw would show an invert of six based on heat finishes. So running second in his heat, was actually advantageous, and Jerrod would start the main event outside row one. “The draw worked out pretty slick for us Friday,” he says. “We stumbled on the start again and fell into second right off the bat. Bryan Clauson got around us pretty quick there and that put us in third. I moved the wing back a little and we were working the bottom of one and two and the top of three and four.”
He would reel in the leaders. “We were working the bottom of three and four a little too and we were able to pass AJ (Bruns) for second,” says Jerrod. “Bryan was in some heavy lapped traffic and we were able to catch him. I was on the bottom of turn four beside him and I saw him hit a lapped car. He ended up getting upside down.”
With a handful of laps to run, Jerrod was able to hold onto the lead. “There was a big cushion and it was kind of tough to run,” he says. We were able to finish it off with two or three laps to go. I could hear Ian Madsen trying to go low on us. I got a little nervous, but we were able to hang on and get the win.”
It’s always good to get a win early in the season. “It was a lot of fun,” says Jerrod. “It’s good to get that first win of the season early, and to get it in the third race of the year was nice for us.”