Zach Yost

The shop of Wellsburg, W.Va., racer Corey Conley, which housed most of his Dirt Late Model operation as well as his business was deemed a total loss following a Feb. 11 fire. Neither Conley, 47, nor girlfriend Carrie Battalio, who discovered the blaze, were injured.

“Thank goodness my girlfriend Carrie just happened to roll over and look out the window and when she looked out the window she saw a fire in my race shop, called 911 and by the time I could get outside there’s nothing we could do,” Conley said Wednesday. “My shop burnt clear to the ground. It’s an all-steel building with insulated panels and the insulation and panels caught fire and everything inside the garage is just molten mess. Like my steel workbenches warped and bowed. There was a spare transmission laying on it that’s just a pile of aluminum like it’s just a total loss.”

Fortunately, Conley had one of two race cars in the garage below his home and was also able to move his motorhome out of harm’s way. But the building, where for six years he’s operated Twisted Tool Performance — a repair, upgrade and service shop for side-by-sides, four-wheelers and off-road vehicles — is his primary concern.

“I have one (race) car left that was under my house in the old garage just because we had just finished working on the motorhome,” said Conley, a 10-race winner among five tracks in 2022. “We just put all new tires on the motorhome, put a new turbo on it, and stuff like that, so to make room I had to bring one car over to the old garage. One car was still in there and my spare motor was still in there. I’m going to have to race out of the garage under the house, just the basement under the house until we can get something figured out here.

“The building was insured, but they’re telling me the contents were not,” added Conley, dejection echoing in his voice. “That’s what they’re sticking by. That’s their story, so this is going to be one hell of a fight. As a racer, I’ll be OK. I mean I’ve got a car and I’ve got the motorhome. We lost a bunch of tires and wheels. I have a bunch of stuff. I can still race, but I’ve got to get this garage back together because I’ve got to run my business. This is killing me.”

In an effort to help Conley get back on his feet — both his business and his racing — friends created a GoFundMe page with a goal of $25,000.