Jerrod races with Danny Lasoski in Farmington (Mark Funderburk Racing Photo)
(Bill W) October 3, 2016 – Jerrod Hull and the Heartland Trailer Manufacturing #12 team seemed to be one spot out both nights at the Queen’s Royale at St. Francois County Raceway near Farmington, Missouri. The Sikeston, Missouri driver accumulated points both nights that were one spot short of starting on the feature pole with the National Sprint League. A ninth place finish Friday was the best outing for the team, and they will head to a MOWA doubleheader this Friday and Saturday night at Tri-City Speedway in Granite City, Illinois.
In Friday’s prelim, Jerrod timed in 13th quick before lining up fourth in his heat race. “We actually got rolling around there pretty decent,” he says. “We were able to move up a couple of spots, and we felt pretty good. I was happy with that, and I knew that would give us some points heading into the feature. As it turned out, we missed the invert by one, so we needed to have passed one more car.”
The invert of eight left him starting ninth on a track that wouldn’t lend to much passing. The pole would have looked a lot better. “We had a good start,” says Jerrod. “We were battling with some cars there and we had a pretty decent car. The rubber came early though, around lap five or six. You could start feeling the rubber and it locked down. It was follow the leader from there. There wasn’t much going on. We hung in there and finished ninth. We were disappointed that the track went that way, but overall, the car was pretty decent.”
The track had moisture in it on Saturday and Jerrod responded with a good time trial lap. “We drew a good number and qualified sixth,” he says. “We were really happy with that. We started fifth in the heat, and we missed it there. We knew what we did, but we ran fifth. We were just holding on. With the point deal, we knew we’d probably be locked into the invert and we did. Unfortunately, the invert was six and we missed by one again.”
Starting inside row four, the finale started well for him. “We thought we had a chance there,” says Jerrod. “We were really good early. We passed a car and we were battling with fourth and fifth. We were right there. We were battling. The caution came out about eight laps in. From that point on, we just weren’t very good.”
Jerrod faded from there. “We had the left rear glaze over and seal up,” he says. “We backed up from there. As the feature went on, it got worse and worse. I couldn’t get off the corner anywhere. It would just sit there. We put on a used left rear, but it looked new. We don’t know why it sealed over. We ran twelfth, which wasn’t a good night. It felt bad, especially after moving up early.”
The team is looking forward to this weekend. “We’ll get everything ready for Granite City,” says Jerrod. “We’ve got two nights there, so we’ll go there and hopefully get the ball rolling early. We’re looking for a couple of good finishes.”
Photo: Jerrod races with Danny Lasoski in Farmington (Mark Funderburk Racing Photo)
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