The pressure was off for Jerrod Hull and the Heartland Trailer Manufacturing #12 team last weekend. Without a points race, they took the opportunity to go to a new track, Lucas Oil Speedway near Wheatland, Missouri. The Sikeston, Missouri driver went in wanting to have fun, and that’s just what he did.
Saturday’s event with the ASCS-Warrior region marked the first time Jerrod had been to Wheatland. “It was worth it just to see the place,” he says. “We had never been there, and our goal going in was to just enjoy it and have some fun. That place is awesome! We definitely want to go back. It was first class. It’s like you’re going into a NASCAR track.”
He would draw a starting spot outside of row two for his heat race. “We were able to get a good start there and get into second,” says Jerrod. “The track was really fast. I don’t know that we had the motor for it. It was definitely fast in the heats. I don’t know that I was even lifting…maybe four or five times the whole race.”
The redraw for the main event saw Jerrod draw inside row three. “Early on, the track had gotten slick,” he says. “We took off on the bottom, and we were able to pass up to third. Unfortunately, the bottom went away a bit. We had a restart there, and Randy Martin was trying to make something happen on the bottom in front of us. We got up beside him there and made a little contact. After that, we had a long green flag and we got really loose.”
The car went away and saw Jerrod slip to sixth at the checkers. “We fell back to fourth, then fifth, then sixth…I was wanting the checkers badly before we were running tenth!” he says. “We’re not really sure what happened. We think it may have been the left rear tire. We only had an ‘H’ for the left rear, and we were kind of guessing.”
Nonetheless, a good time was had by all. “We told ourselves win or lose, we’re going to enjoy the place,” says Jerrod. “That’s what we did. We had a good time. We’ll definitely go back there.”
Jerrod and crew chief Scott Bonar will spend this week in preparation for the “Sprints Gone Wild” MOWA/NSL show on May 15 at Jacksonville Speedway in Illinois. “We have a new Maxim we’re going to put together this week,” says Jerrod. “We’re really looking forward to the MOWA/NSL race at Jacksonville on May 15. Hopefully, the new car will work as well as the rest of them have.”
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.
Attached: Jerrod competes in Wheatland (John Lee – www.HighFly-NPhotos.com)
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- administrator on May 07, 2015
- Article Date: 5/4/2015 by Bill Wright