Car Enthusiasts Hold Show For Florida Firefighters, Officers

Jay Uzzalinno watched Tyler Sontag scoot around directing firefighters where to place a huge, rusty steel piece of the World Trade Center for perfect portrait composition.

Uzzalinno and Sontag spent the past few weeks shooting photos of Uzzalinno’s 9/11-inspired, 2010 Dodge Challenger at as many area fire stations as they could reach.

“It’s basically just to say thank you,” he said, the same day he visited Station 65 in Palm Harbor for the second time. “For doing what they do, for them to put on all that gear and jump into a fire. It’s our way of saying thank you.”

Uzzalinno, 44, of Citrus Park is on a mission to raise $5,000 for Florida firefighters and police officers at a Pig Roast and Car Show on Aug. 20. That was the easy part.

He’s been touring any and all fire stations that welcome his custom-wrapped 9/11 tribute on wheels (a design by Justin Good of Redline Design in Brandon). That was the hard part.

When Uzzalinno was hitting walls trying to reach out to the officers and firefighters he wanted so badly to support at his car show, a member of his Tampa-area car enthusiast group, the South East Mopars, put him in touch with Sontag.

Sontag, 26, of Dunedin is the point man — and cameraman — for Uzzalinno’s mission.

“I just have a lot of friends who are firefighters,” Sontag said with a shrug one hot Saturday at Station 69 in Tarpon Springs.

Sontag, who gets around in a motorized wheel chair, is often found shooting photos at the scene of fires in Dunedin. "My grandfather used to work for the ambulance company," Sontag said. "He used to take my mom riding around town and following his friends who ran the ambulances, and we started doing it."

Sontag coordinates with contacts and longtime friends at area stations to get Uzzalinno’s car some lens time among area firefighters.

“It’s dedicated to these guys, we wanna show it to ’em,” Sontag said.

He was able to connect Uzzalinno with at least a dozen fire stations, including Pasco County Fire Rescue Station 15 in Odessa, where fire rescue workers from Station 15 in Trinity stopped in to be included in the shot. Sontag, whose photography hobby has also grown into some freelance work, has been shooting portraits of Uzzalinno's car with fire trucks and firefighters. He's getting photographs made for all the stations they visit. In turn, many stations are bringing vehicles to Uzzalinno's car show.

Uzzalinno, an employee at Tampa-based, paper-shredding company Shred-It, said he grew up in New Jersey “fixin’ up cars and racing ’em” since he was 15. The tragic events of Sept. 11 hit home for him. He grew up near enough to have a connection. His uncle’s friend perished that day. His name, Pat Driscoll, is on the back of the Challenger.

“The Twin Towers was just something you always thought was going to be there,” he said.

He pledged $5,000 for the Stangs of South Florida’s sixth annual Patriot Day Run near Ft. Lauderdale on Sept. 10. The muscle car group's 100-mile event is traditionally open only to Mustangs. All proceeds support Florida Professional Firefighters and 9463 Foundation for Florida’s Fallen Officers.

"I wanna go with one of those big checks and say, 'This is from Tampa'," Uzzalinno said.

Sontag shrugged again.

“Gives me something to do," he said.

Want to go?

• When/Where: Aug. 20, 10 a.m to 3 p.m.; S&R Performance, 9509 N Trask St, Tampa
• Event features: A pig roast, fire trucks on display from area stations, a car show and contest with crowd participation, burnout contest, a paper shredding truck, food vendors, pony rides, corn hole competition, bikini contest, silent auction.
• Cost: Free for spectators; $20 entry fee for car show entries; $5 extra to participate in burnout contest.