(Bill W) September 9, 2013 – This weekend, Jerrod Hull and the Rockwell American #12 team will be on some familiar ground in Illinois as the Herb Barlow Memorial at Jacksonville Speedway awaits Friday night, and the Tom Knowles Memorial at Spoon River Speedway near Canton will be Saturday. Last weekend, in MOWA action, the Sikeston, Missouri native recorded a pair of top tens at the 34 Raceway in West Burlington, Iowa.
Jerrod was 12th quick in Friday’s prelim in West Burlington. “We qualified decent on Friday for the field of cars that was there,” he says. “We went out early, and the track actually got a little faster.”
He would win his heat from the pole. “The car felt really good in the heat, but as we took the checkered, we lost a lot of rear-end grease,” says Jerrod. “We got back to the trailer, and the side of the rear-end was cracked and leaking oil everywhere. Having to change that after the third heat race, we weren’t able to get back out for the Dash.”
Jerrod would start the feature outside of row four by default. “I fell way back to 17th from the start,” he says. “We worked our way back up through there, and we were able to run tenth. It was my fault for running in the wrong place the first couple laps. I wasn’t able to get back in the groove for a while. After the night we had, it wasn’t bad. We gained some points on AJ (Bruns).”
For the second night in a row, fluids would surface in the heat. “We qualified pretty well (8th) and that put us outside of the front row of the heat race,” says Jerrod. “About halfway through, oil started leaking on my visor and I didn’t know what was going on. I ran out of tear-offs with a lap and a half to go, and (Danny) Lasoski got around me. Fortunately, we were able to hold onto second.”
A quick fix was attempted before the Dash, but the problem persisted. “We changed the valve cover gasket for the Dash,” says Jerrod. “I made a lap and a half before it was doing it again. We ended up changing the whole valve cover for the feature, and that solved it.”
Starting eighth, Jerrod would maintain most of the way and finish ninth. “We just really weren’t that nice,” he says. “We ran eighth for a long time. Chris Urish got us there with a couple laps to go, and we finished ninth. We didn’t tear anything up, but it was kind of a hectic night with everything going on.”
The team will be ready for Jacksonville and Spoon River this weekend. “We’re putting a new car together,” says Jerrod. “We want to finish the season strong, and this weekend we’re going to a couple of my favorite tracks. We’re excited to get there.”
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.
- Admin Account on Sep 10, 2013
- Article Date: 9/10/2013 by Bill Wright