(Bill W) May 29, 2014 – Jerrod Hull and the Rockwell American #12 team was chasing their setup much of Memorial Day weekend. Over the course of three events, they finally hit it at Quincy Raceways in Quincy, Illinois on Sunday night, and brought home their second MOWA win of the year. The team will get some well-earned time off this weekend before getting back to action in June.
The three-race weekend start Friday night at Jacksonville Speedway in Jacksonville, Illinois. “We were tight from the get-go and fighting the car starting in hot laps,” says Jerrod. “We started in the third row (in the heat) and ran third when a car dropped out. We just weren’t very good. We spun out in the Dash and finished sixth. We just couldn’t get the car turned.”
The Sikeston, Missouri driver would start sixth in the feature. “We just ran in that spot,” says Jerrod. “I couldn’t get by anyone. I thought we may have had a problem with the steering gear. The pump was brand new. We were just trying to get that figured out.”
It was on to the I-55 Raceway in Pevely, Missouri on Saturday. “Saturday before Pevely, we changed the steering gear pump, the arms, everything,” says Jerrod. “The car felt a lot better there. We started fourth in the heat, and we were able to get up front. Paul May snuck around us there on the last lap. We ended up starting fifth in the Dash and running third.”
Jerrod was able to record a top four finish on Pevely’s high banks. “We started out pretty good,” he says. “We were up to second, but then we started backing up. We were probably back to sixth or seventh at one point. The car was tight. The red flag came out and we were able to make some changes. We were able to get back up to fourth by the end. We learned a lot and the car was feeling pretty good by then.”
Sunday’s show at Quincy started outside row one of the heat race. “We were out front there, and there were a couple of lapped cars,” says Jerrod of his heat run. “One of them got me going clear up the track, and I about ran into the other one. Jim Moughan got around us and we ended up running second in the heat race. It turned out to be a blessing, because that put us sixth in points and put us on the pole of the Dash.”
Jerrod would win the Dash, and put the car on the pole for the main event. He would lead every lap, but it was a bumpy ride. “The car was really nice,” he says. “We were able to get out front there, but the cushion was really big. I lost the mud cover, and packed the right rear full of mud. It was vibrating something terrible. I can’t remember packing one like that. But afterwards, Scott (Bonar) said he couldn’t tell by watching it.”
Perseverance over the course of the weekend paid off. “That was a good way to end the weekend,” says Jerrod. “We worked on the car from hot laps at Jacksonville to the end of the night at Quincy, and kept making it better. Getting the win at the end, was better than not being good on Friday and Saturday and scratching your head for a week or two trying to figure out what’s wrong.”
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.
Attached: Jerrod in Victory Lane at Quincy (Mark Funderburk Photo)
- Admin Account on May 30, 2014
- Article Date: 5/30/2014 by Bill Wright