A Midwest Truck Tour Veteran Picks Up The Win At Veteran’s Raceway Park

Photo © 2013 Bruce Nuttleman // UltimateLapPhoto.com

Jerry Wood makes it two for two in 2013

by Kari Shear-Carlson
Unlike many short track events around the Midwest, the rain held off for the Scag Power Equipment Midwest Truck Tour Tomah 50 at Veteran’s Raceway Park on Friday night. While it was only a 10-truck field one couldn’t have asked for more excitement. Jerry Wood took home his second win in as many races so far this year.

Andy Jones led lap one but he didn’t get very far when Jack Litzheim spun on lap two. Camden Murphy and Jones lined up side-by-side for the restart, but that wasn’t all that was going on at the start of the 50 lap event.

They say racing is a family sport. Well there were two sets of brother’s racing in Friday’s event. This may not seem like a big deal but when those two sets of brothers are also related to the other set of brothers it gets your head spinning. Jerry Wood along with both of his sons, Joe and Chad Wood, and his younger brother John, which of course is Joe and Chad’s uncle, made up forty percent of the field. Confused yet?

The four of them must have been having the time of their lives as they battled against one another for the third through sixth spots when the field went green after Litzheim’s spin. Chad went to the inside of Jerry to try to take third while John and Joe were battling right behind them for fifth and sixth.

John ended up slightly brushing the wall during the heated battles as Jerry had taken over the third spot from Chad and started putting the pressure on Murphy for second.

Andy Jones settled in to a comfortable lead at this point. Although settled in is probably not the best choice of words when it comes to racing. Regardless he was able to watch the action in his rearview mirror.

In fact he probably could’ve popped a bag of popcorn and kicked his feet up as his lead was unchallenged because of the fierce battle between Murphy and Jerry Wood. They battled side-by-side for the second spot pushing each other to the limit lap after lap.

Finally at the half-way point of the race Wood was able to get by and Murphy slipped back to third with Chad Wood sneaking to the inside of him to try to take the spot. By this point Jones had about a 15 truck-length lead over the field.

Natalie Decker spun in turn four but kept it going so the field stayed green. With 18 to go John Wood and Jacob VanWazer made contact bringing out the yellow. Both had to restart in the rear of the field.

This allowed Jerry Wood and Jones to line up side-by-side for the restart. As the green flag dropped Jerry Wood jumped the start so they had to do it all over again. The second time was a charm with a great restart. Wood edged Jones with 17 to go and took the top spot.

Camden Murphy and Chad Wood were still fighting for that third spot but soon it was for the second spot as Jones got a flat tire coming out of turn four ending his hopes for a victory.

With 14 laps to go it was a family affair. Jerry Wood was in the lead followed by sons, Chad and Joe, but Camden Murphy wanted to break up the party. Jerry was able to gain a commanding lead over the rest of the family and the rest of the battles started to heat up.

Third through sixth was a heated discussion as Murphy, Joe Wood, Jacob VanWazer, and Natalie Decker raced door-handle to door-handle for positions.

In the end the leader of the family pack, Jerry Wood, took home the checkers followed by Chad Wood, Camden Murphy, Joe Wood and Jacob VanWazer.

The next event for the Scag Power Equipment Midwest Truck Tour is Saturday, June 15th at Marshfield Motor Speedway.

Be sure to follow the Midwest Truck Tour on Facebook (/midwesttour) and Twitter (@midwesttour).

To learn more about the Midwest Truck Tour, log on to arcamidwesttour.com. For questions call the Midwest Truck Tour office at (262) 729-4111 or contact Tim Olson at (612) 327-5831 or Steve Einhaus (630) 212-6022. E-mail: Tim Olson at tim@arcamidwesttour.comor or Steve Einhaus at steve@arcamidwesttour.com.