KASSON, Minn. -- The 2004 racing season officially came to an end on Friday, October 29th 2004 when the annual Dodge County Speedway / Fitzpatrick Promotions Awards Banquet was held at Digger’s Banquet Hall in Kasson, MN.

The top 10 drivers in the final point standings for all 4 divisions were honored, with the top 5 drivers in each division taking home hard-earned trophies for their year-long accomplishments.

Mike Sorensen was crowned as the USRA Modified track champion, while Kelly Anderson picked up honors as the WISSOTA Super Stock track champ. Harland Morehart and Nick Kramer shared honors in the WISSOTA Midwest Modified division and Dan Gullikson, along with Steve Eischens also shared honors in the Street Stock division.

Sorensen topped the highly competitive Modified division for the first time under the USRA sanctioning, with Bruce Angst, Darwin Karau, Matt Stark and Jesse Frericks rounding out the top five point getters. Anderson raced to his first ever Super Stock track title with Dustin Nelson, Tim Borgeson, Brandon Jensen and Chris Klinger coming home second through fifth in the final tally. Kramer was crowned as the Dodge County Midwest Modified track champion, his first track title, while Morehart was the official WISSOTA-sanctioned points winner at the speedway. Nolan Bachman, Joe Wernecke and Bobby Saterdahlen were also in the top five. Gullikson claimed his third straight Street Stock points championship at the southern Minnesota track, while Eischens was titled as the Dodge County track champion in ’04. Chuck Nerland came home third with Troy Voth and Tom McEldowney fourth and fifth respectively.

Hard Charger and Rookie of the Year Awards were also handed out in each of the 4 divisions, along with several other ‘special’ awards at the night’s end. The tracks’ annual Rookie of the Year Awards were handed out to Jesse Frericks in the Modified division, along with Doug Herrick in the Super Stocks, Brad Van Zeilen in the Streeters and Tom Paulson in the Midwest Modifieds.

Hard Chargers were also honored tonight and those annual awards went to Brad Waits in the Modifieds, Kevin Hager in the Super Stocks, David Gustafson in the Streeters and Ron Houdek in the Midwest Mods.

Chris Stepan was honored as the ‘Announcer of the Year’ by Jeff and Donna Fitzpatrick for all of his knowledge and assistance that he has lent to them over the past 4 seasons. Stepan started in the announcer’s tower back in 2000 when the Fitzpatrick’s took over as promoters and has been with the speedway ever since, with the exception of a brief absence at the start of the ’04 season.

Mike Roth was given the “Best Asset of the Year” award for all of his help with the newly designed speedway website, along with everything else he has done to assist the speedway in 2004. Roth has been around the Dodge County Speedway for some time and had become much more involved with the track in 2004.

Paul Fitzpatrick was then honored with the ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ for his years of service in the auto racing industry. Paul is the father of track promoter Jeff Fitzpatrick and has been involved in auto racing for many, many years.

The awards portion of the evening concluded with the sad news that Fitzpatrick Promotions had decided not to re-bid the speedway for the coming seasons and will step down from the reigns of the Dodge County Speedway, effective immediately. The Fitzpatricks decided that 4 years of promoting in Kasson were enough and decided to let someone else have a try at it in 2005 and beyond. The speedway came up for bid at the end of the 2004 season and Jeff and Donna decided that without an overhaul of their current contract, they would not be interested in staying on as the track’s promoters.

Jeff and Donna would like to express their heartfelt thank you to all of the employees of the speedway, the drivers that have supported them for the past 4 seasons, the sponsors that have been on board this entire time and especially the fans who flooded the speedway every Sunday afternoon. The Fitzpatrick’s have had a successful tenure as the promoter’s of the Dodge County Speedway and will be missed by many.