(Bill W) June 1, 2015 – Heading in, Jerrod Hull and the Heartland Trailer Manufacturing #12 team was looking forward to an event with the FVP National Sprint League at St. Francois County Raceway near Farmington, Missouri. For 17 laps, it looked like the Sikeston, Missouri driver may pull off the win. Unfortunately, contact with a spun car slowed things a bit and he would settle for a solid second place showing with the best drivers in the Midwest.
Jerrod was excited about last Thursday’s event. “We were really looking forward to two of the NSL shows bigtime, and that was Jacksonville and Farmington,” he says. “Jacksonville was rained out, and we were hoping we had a good shot at winning at Farmington, and we did.”
The 41-car field was evenly mixed with NSL and local talent. Jerrod would time in third quick. “We were tickled to death with that,” he says. “The motor we run is a 12-head motor that’s over twenty years old. It thinks it’s a 270 All Pro or something.”
The heat didn’t go as planned, however, he would manage a fourth place finish. “We were able to get up to fifth,” says Jerrod. “We were a little tight, and I pinched the car in the middle of the corner and I ended up spinning out. I hated it for Ryan Kempin. He got into us and that knocked him out. It bent our front axle and knocked the nose wing down, but we were able to restart. We were able to get up to fourth. I was really happy about that considering the shape of the car. Not making the feature through the heat was going to kill us.”
The redraw went well, as Jerrod would draw the two and start outside of Brad Loyet for the 30-lapper. “Loyet had some wheelies going down the backstretch, and we were able to get around him,” says Jerrod. “The car felt great. I was able to run the top and bottom and I felt really comfortable.”
With seven laps in the books, karma hit for Jerrod a bit as the same car he collected in the heat, collected him in the feature. “We were lapping a couple of cars and Ryan spun out,” he says. “We ended up banging into him with the right rear, which ended up breaking the Jacob’s ladder and bending the wheel. It was a hard enough hit that it bent my seat over against the shifter lever. I could hardly get it out of gear after the race.”
Despite the issues with the car, clean air helped him stay in front the next ten laps. “Out in clear traffic, I could still run the cushion pretty well,” says Jerrod. “I was cheating a little bit through the corners, because I was a little tight and couldn’t get around the cushion like I had been. Open traffic wasn’t a problem, but when we got to lapped traffic, I was even tighter.”
That’s when Danny Lasoski pounced. “I jumped the cushion once, and then I saw Lasoski,” says Jerrod. “We were getting tighter. We were in heavy lapped traffic. I went to the bottom and he got around me. From there, I was tickled just to hold on for second. I knew there were some good cars coming. With the caliber of cars there, it was awesome.”
Looking back, it’s hard for Jerrod to be disappointed. “We thought we had a shot at winning, and that’s all you can ask for,” he says. “As hard as that hit was, I thought the right rear tire might go down or something…so we were really happy. I was excited for the rest of the weekend, but nothing but rain! We’ve had two runs with this new Maxim and it’s been perfect…just a little driver error I guess!”
The MOWA series, which lost races to Mother Nature at Lincoln Speedway and Spoon River Speedway last weekend, hopes to be back in action Thursday at Jacksonville Speedway.
Jerrod and the #12 team would like to thank: Midland Performance, Super Shox, Sebastian Sand Blasting & Powder Coating, Inc., Chuck’s Small Engines, Don Hamilton, HRP, Lighthouse Christian Center, Rockstar Graphics, King Racing Products, DMI, KSE Performance Products, Hoosier Tire, Simpson, Weld, Automotive Machine, Maxim and Heartland Trailer Manufacturing.
Photo: Jerrod battles on the outside of Danny Lasoski at Farmington (Rob Kocak Photo)
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