A fire on Tuesday, March 15, quickly engulfed the two-bay, 30′-by-30′ garage of the Dennis family. Jeredd Dennis and his father, Carter Dennis, used the Tuscarora, New York, shop. The building erupted in flames just 20 minutes after the elder Dennis left.
“A neighbor alerted my dad about the fire,” Jeredd said. “He and our neighbor first sprayed water from a garden hose on the garage. Then, my dad pulled the overhead door open. He had a rope in the back of his pickup, and he held his breath as he fought through the thick smoke and felt for a place to hook the rope to his hobby stock.”
Despite the transmission being in park, Carter dragged the car out of the garage. Carter recently retired from racing and sold the hobby stock to Paul Dgien. Dgien’s daughter, Meadow, will race it this year at Woodhull Raceway in New York. Dgien’s son, Kaiden, will also steer a hobby stock prepared by the Dennis family.
“I was lucky that my hobby stock was stored in the trailer, and another hobby stock was in the garage at my house,” said Jeredd. “We still lost a lot — three engines, three transmissions, Ford nine-inch rear ends, tires, a Hobart welder and a plasma cutter, a Woodward Fab tubing bender and a sheet metal brake, and years of accumulated spare parts.”
Jeredd and Carter both have championships at Woodhull Raceway. Carter won it in 2017; Jeredd in 2019 and 2021. However, they enjoy assisting their fellow racers with their racing passion.
“I love helping people who want to be racers, and who are new to the hobby stock division,” Jeredd said. “When I began racing, my dad let me take over his car. A few years later, I built him a car to come back and race with me. Now, new racers will be driving both those cars. The plan was that I’d be racing [while] helping them along with my dad.”
The Dennis family does not know when they’ll rebuild.
“There are just two walls standing now,” said Jeredd. “The investigators said the fire started in an electric socket. The questions are if, when, and how we rebuild. We have to figure out the insurance situation.”
While the Dennis family looked to determine their next step, the local racing community showed up to support them. Late model driver Jason Knowles donated a container to help with the cleanup. Paul Dgien, who owns KMD Trucking and Excavating, offered equipment to assist. Others stopped by and handed Jeredd cash to “help with buying tires.”
“I’ve never been one to ask for help,” Jeredd said. “The new season opens on April 16, and that’s coming up soon.”
Jeredd asks anyone who wishes to help to message him on Facebook. You can find his profile here.
Mike Adaskaveg has written hundreds of stories since the website’s inception. This year marks his 54th year of covering auto racing. Adaskaveg got his start working for track photographer Lloyd Burnham at Connecticut’s Stafford Motor Speedway in 1970. Since then, he’s been a columnist, writer, and photographer, in racing and in mainstream media, for several outlets, including the Journal Inquirer, Boston Herald, Stock Car Racing, and Speedway Illustrated. Among Adaskaveg’s many awards are the 1992 Eastern Motorsport Press Association (EMPA) Ace Lane Photographer of the Year and the 2019 National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) George Cunningham Writer of the Year.
