Posted by UMARA on 11/9/2004, 12:44 pm
Board Administrator

UMARA Honors 2004 Champs (Morris, IL) The United Midget Auto Racing Association honored its 2004 Division champions Saturday night at the beautiful Jennifer’s Garden in Morris, Illinois. David Gough of Machesney Park, IL was honored for the second time in his career as the UMARA National midget champion. The 1998 champ, driving for car owner Glen Winstrup, dominated the clubs top division with 9 feature wins and 3 heat race wins for the season. There were only two UMARA feature events that Gough didn’t win during the season, one of them he was racing his USAC Silver Crown car in Charlotte, N.C. and the other he finished second to David Ward. Making Gough’s accomplishments even more impressive is the fact that his car owner sold their car in mid-season and brought out their second car to finish the season. Because Gough changed cars and car numbers in the middle of the season the car owners championship went to Rich Corson and Steve Savage. Gough was also honored with the 2004 UMARA Hard Charger Award. Patrick Wilda was awarded the Bob Higman sponsored Rookie of the Year award Bobby Guess was honored as the Most Improved National division driver for the 2004 season. In the UMARA Sportsman midget division Scott Shilkuski of Spring Valley, Illinois, driving for C.G. and Bonnie Fifield took home his second championship in that division. Shilkuski, also the 1999 Sportsman midget champ, finished the 2004 season with 5 feature wins, 3 heat race wins 13 top-five feature finishes and 14 top-10 feature finishes and was fast qualifier twice. David Budres was awarded the 2004 UMARA Sportsman midget Rookie of the Year while Dan Drogemuller was voted the most improved driver for that division. In the Sportsman sprint car division the ageless Bob Kenning won his first championship. Kennings championship came with consistency through out the season as he had no feature wins but was able to top veteran, and teammate, Frank Reiss for the season title. Others awarded Saturday night included David Ward with the Perseverance Award, Jim Anderson the Hard Luck Award, Glen Ohlendorf was awarded the Bob Lockard Mechanical Excellence Award and Farron Connor the Sportsman of the Year. The UMARA would like to thank all of the fans, race teams, sponsors and media for their support and a successful 2004 season and we look forward to an even better 2005 racing season. Visit www.umara.com for possible meetings, rules updates and the 2005 schedule in the coming weeks.