NHRA funny car driver Al Hoffman passes

RIP Big Al, seems its a good day to be upright anymore...

 

Oh man, that's terrible news. When I used to really keep up with NHRA back in the Nineties, he was a favorite of mine and my father. They'd show him working on the car and then he'd be suiting up to drive it. All while other drivers were sitting in their trailers or at an autograph table. It was obvious that he didn't have the financial backing of a Super Team, but he seemed to show with hard work and driver skill, a real racer could still win the big events like the old days. Guess it's time to make a phone call to my father now. RIP AL

 

Al was a true hero a**** us .. Always seems to be on FIRE but never said no about the fun of racing .. My prayer go out to Helen and Wayne ..RIP you will be missed by all.

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Man..............I'm so sorry to hear this news!
As I get older it seems like we are dropping like fly's
God Speed to Mr Al Hoffman and all our prayers to the family

 

I am truthfully saying Hoffman was my all time favorite, a no bones kinda guy that spoke what was on his mind. I seen him in the pits once and extended my hand for being a true spokesperson for a bad *** sport. He gave me a little smirk as he shook my hand, he didn't say thanks or anything at all to be honest. But the look in his eye he gave me was all that needed to be said, I actually think he may have bitten his tongue that day...lol

 

Tough, tough man. He'd made a great 'heavy' inda movie's. A bigger race budget would have help his cause battling Force. Straight-up is what he projected. No Corporate preety-boy yes man. A man's man. RIP Mr. Hoffman!

 

A Racers Racer indeed.

 

I used to run into him all the time back when Webster car show was still held at the Westside flea market here in FL.. Of course he lived just up the road from there.

He wasn't one to mince words that's for sure!

 

buckeye_01

Al hoffman Was Very Friendly And More down to earth then you or anyone else may think. I knew him personaly and Our shop did a lot of work for him. He had many hobbys/ projects he toyed around with.And stopped by our shop many times just to BS if he was in town.And our hearts and prayers go out to His family. And he will be missed by many.

 

Al Hofmann drove hard and looked like he'd been driven hard. The best way I can think of to describe him is that he had a "racer's face" and drag racing got a little more boring when he retired. There was nothing "cookie cutter" about him. He was in good company a**** others like Eddie Hill, Don Garlits, John Force and anybody with the last name of Kalitta.

 

A real drag racer. Always ran good. one of the last guys to get a tractor trailer. Him and that red headed woman always dirty from working on the car. I loved it when he teamed up with old man Dunn.[ another legend] God bless him and his family

 

rip al, my thoughts and prayers to the family

to many fellow racers this year

 

I remember meeting Al for the first time in Brainard, MN. One hell of a nice guy if you asked me. And a good drag racer too. Always seemed to be a hard worker. I too remember seeing him and that red head working out of the back of a enclosed car trailer and a dually pickup. Didn't seem to have much but always did well. RIP

 

Geezer, that "red headed" woman was Helen. She was tougher than Al most of the time. She could throw a clutch out of the car as good as any man and make you blush if she was yelling Australian at you.

A few items of note on the team from 94-97.
Two women worked on the car. Really two women.
Was like the united nations and outcats pit people anonymous all rolled into one. Even had a cylinder head guy named Chang.
We had at most with a booger (one extra hanger on-er) 10 people in our pit. Usually 8-9. Half of the force camp.
anywhere from 1/10th to 1/5th the budget.
We had to win rounds to get paid.

We raced hard and we worked hard.

I will always treasure the times and the people. We had a ball.

Later on I tell an Al story.

 

Hummm .. I love those Al stoties

 

We were in Dallas 95. Running short of time after having a few issues (read driver legging it to the end for the win previous round...which was good).

Our boy Al decides he will slam one of the heads on to help out. Not a real hard job but he was working on the car which was a real no no when we had enough people. But NHRA was starting to run the finals on TV at the time and were pushing all of the teams to stay on shedule so they could do the deal live and on time.

If you aren't careful and you drag the head across the studs you can take out the o-rings in the old style Brad heads. Well you guessed it, it was shifted out of the groove. You will never know it until...well read on.

Fire the car for warm up. All good. Tommy whacks the throttle three times as usual car jumps like usual off the ground. Scare people and make men cry. All is good...well almost.

Tow it up and set for the run. All good. Car stages...great at the hit...1000' out we see fire. Atomic Al back to old self. Keeps leg in it to the end.

We get the car back. Torched the head and the block pushed the gasket out the back. Take it apart and the o-ring is ****ed out of the groove and thus the path for destruction was set. Time for motor change again. (side bolt Sally story for later)

Us: Hey Al why didn't you shut it off? You were on fire!
Al: I was beating him. I saw the fire in the window so I just put my foot over the fire window and kept driving it to the end. (there were two little fire windows in the fire wall so you could see you were on fire, like you wouldn't know anyway).

Our boy Al. You just had to just agree with him. Put your foot over it you can't see it so it must be ok and drive it like you stole it.

The man had balls and he could wheel the **** out of it on fire or not.

BTW that video posted was the final at the Winters in 96 not first round. Look real close at the front end on the left lower front. There was a top end mishap with the traffic cop who couldn't direct snails and we had a crash into our opponent in the first round. Had to repair the damage. Our boy Robb had that handled like ****er. (Our version of McGuyver)
(another story on how we almost lost our driver to the PoPo for damn near going after the traffic cop)

Little known factoid: Who was on the cover of the first four and they walked away videos? Well who the hell else had that much footage and success at walking away?

If you ever see Tony Pedregon ask him about the Town Car from Hofmann's team that damn near killed him in the parking lot at the restaurant in Brainerd. LOL. **** damn near forgot about that one. For future reference sidewalks are for p***ing and getting in line first at the maitre'd stand.

God speed pal. Again it was my extreme pleasure and honor to have had the opportunity! You may be gone but you will never be forgotten.

Next up the flying rental cars...

 

Remember the good times.

Godspeed Al.

 

FuelFC, you make me wish I was a a part of that circus.........you do your old boss proud! Thanks for the tales.

 

FuelFC,thanks for the memories. Al Hoffman,always seemed to be the "real racer",that made it big, not the "corporate racers" of today. He certainly knew how to "drive it out the big end" R.I.P. AL.

 

Fuel FC: keep the stories coming, the're awesome

 

I have to talk to you. I never worked for the guy but you must have been either special or gooped up on goop to deal with him on a day to day basis. LOL!

I got along with Al and found him to be somewhat intense at times but he was always fair if you were reasonable.
He was a great guy and for one reason or another always had time for me. I spoke with him a couple of weeks ago regarding a question on the ol'63 ch***is.

One thing that I did notice over the years, he did have a wonderful sense of humor. I always enjoyed busting his balls just to make him laugh. And, he did! Probably was a gr***hopper and a pissant deal but I didn't care.

K****n
Oh, I forgot. I'm a New ****in' Guy that has been reading this board for two years now.
Hi Brian! Just found out that your building a new three stall garage. Good for you. Come on over and take a look at mine if ya need any ideas.

 

FuelFC, thanks for sharing! I always enjoyed his "get it done" at***ude.
I was always impressed that he managed to do so much with so
little.I found some quiet time to reflect at Big Daddy's place this
weekend during the Billetproof show. Condolences to his family and
friends. R.I.P. AL.

 

FuelFC--Thanx for taking the time to share some of your stories. It's all to rare to get an insider's view like that. I think a lot of folks think of Al Hofmann as one of those low buck guys that managed to win a few races here and there. But after reading some of the articles about him I was reminded that he was the second F/C driver over 300mph, won 15 of his 32 final round appearances and won three Big Bud Shootouts. Finished a lot of years in the Top Ten standings, too. Al accomplished a lot more than many better funded teams have over the years.

Always liked the clean looks of the BDS cars and the GM Performance Parts car as well. Now to wait for the "flying rental car" story. Sounds like a doozy!

 

FuelFC - Thanks for opening up the door for us - great to get a peek at your world. I met you guys when you were here for a one day deal, several years ago. Al was intimidating to me - hung with him on the starting line, before a run. He just gave me the skunkeye...
But I loved him on TV - made me laugh out loud, imagining Wally cringing. He'll sure be missed! My best to Helen and the gang...
Scotty

 

R. I. P. Al

 

Best article I've read so far on the ESPN website, referring to Al Hofmann as "Funny Car's Last Tough Guy".

http://sports.espn.go.com/rpm/news/story?series=8&id=3305523

 

Ok story time. Just so you all know Al's youngest daughter Mariah is capturing all of the posts and memories about her dad from everywhere. I will forward this thread to her in a few days after it calms down.

I am saving "the flying rentals" for a day or two...have to ensure statute of limitations is up.

Teaser rental story.

Anyway we had a T-shirt printer promo guy named Rich. Well he was renamed Gay Rich by our diver. He was a big fan of Beavis and ****head and that was one of the lines so Gay Rich it was.

We messed with Rich and messed with him. I have no idea why he ever came back but he did. And if anyone ever asked if he was really gay we just shrugged and went on. Basic rules apply, never ever confirm nor deny a good rumor.

Oh the little things we did to bug him.
We greased his rental car everywhere with of course a combo of never-sieze and grease.
We put more wheel weights on one wheel then it could possibly hold.
Set it up on blocks one day locked up the trailer and left.
Took off lug nuts on front wheels left in hub cap.
Greased wiper blades.
Fart smell liquid in a ziplock placed in sun on rear deck...

We used to just plain mess with his rentals bad.

So we decided to do it up right one day like we were doing it wrong before LOL.

We had to drain the nitro out of the car due to a cracked fuel tank. Nitro was contaminated and full of **** so it had to go. I was pissed now we have 8-10 gallons of **** to get rid of and I was not putting it in my drain barrels as we usually filled them up and I needed all of the space. Remember this was Indy possible 8-10 rounds of running.

So looky over there...no over there...Gay Rich's Z-28 rental. Well let's fill it up. I am sorry but if you were...well...dumb enough to buy a used Z-28 rental in Indy shame on you and stop reading here.

I was enlisted to add some drain oil, old clutch fluid, and some old ****** fluid (like we ever used that much? LOL).

Well ok I proceeded to literally fill er up. Well we had more room and found some more 70 wt nitro drain oil to add to the ****tail.

Nice rental car...check. 95 Z-28 convert.
Full tank of ga...well full tank anyway.
Sunny day...check.
Tell Al whatever you do DO NOT ride with Gay Rich tonight...check.

End of day Rich starts car to get it cool with air on to drive Al to dinner. Kind of smoking just a whisp...so we wait. Rich waiting for Al....waiting...Al stalling....wait...Al comes out of lounge announces he is riding with PR guy come on Rich follow us...Rich had the huh look then runs to his car ahh oh ok...end of wait.

Now the pits in Indy were tight and we were parked next to Force which was way to the inside close to stands. So Rich has to drive around and all the way down the pit lane so we all get to watch from the ropes as he fogs his way off into the sunset.

That car had over 12 gallons of **** in it now and 8 plus gallons was Nitro. God Bless America she smelled great. Smokey but great none the less.

That thing bucked and stalled. Smoked and ran like **** for the rest of the weekend. He fogged an intersection out so bad people had to stop and wait for the next light.

It took a while for him to figure out the tank was magically full and oh ohh they might have messed with the car...again.

I never did find out where Rich ended up he kind of faded away over time and I am sure I/we all had something to do with it.

Gay Rich wherever you are make sure you check that car over real good! If your still out there I will get you. I still have some fart in a bag for you.

Al again thanks.
Helen (the real boss) thank you.
Teammates before, during, and after, thanks it was one helluva ride. Proud to have been a part of it.

But like I said many times as a crew we fit in no where else and we were a team of misfits and outkasts (sp is right in this case). We took no prisoners hell you have to feed prisoners and treat em well.

We were a team. We raced as a team. We won as a team. And we lost as a team. But God help you we were always a team. Good, bad, or ugly we were always a team.

I can only hope someday each and every one of you get the opportunity to be a part of something in life that makes you smile whenever you think of it.

 

This ****s to start my day with.
I met Al at Daytona Turkey run a few years a go.
He was parked with one of his Chevelles next to my Monte.
I talked to him for alittle and he and his wife were actually real nice people.
He will be missed.

 

RIP Al. I was a big fan. Thanks for the stories FuelFC!

 

Flying Rental Car time:

No names of rental agencies or hotels will be used. And if you or someone you know buy used rental cars you are one sorry sum*****...especially if you got this one.

So we usually get our rentals from this one place specializing in virtually indestructable cars. Well most of the time.

In Atlanta/Commerce there was a hotel we used to stay at that had a frontage road with a built in jump. We tried many times to see how long, high and far we could go. We always did well.

But this time it just felt like a record run was in the car. You know the feeling. It is hitting on all eight hard and you just have a feeling like something good is there ready to happen.

We have 7 people in a very new Pontiac. Like brand new. One of the few times Mr. Warmth Al was riding with us back from the track. Sitting low ready to take off. We round the bend and I hear "well ****ing stand on it". So when the boss speaks you listen! We hit over 50 on the speedo (more than that but for legal purposes we'll just say 50) and hit the take off just proper. It was quiet. So quiet...just like you were flying quiet. We were flying. Really flying. Oh **** landing coming up. Remember 7 people in the car? Ballast! We hit all 4 right on down. Bottomed it out to the bump stops and beyond.

We had set the unofficial record for rental jumping in 95 and 96 but we cleaned up in 97 for the ***le. Suffice to say Evel Kneivel didn't go that far in the Snake river canyon jump.

A witness to the incident and his p***engers from a rival team said "I didn't think you were coming back down. I just figured you were going to keep flying. It kept going farther and higher and farther and well then it just went boom into the ground. Must have been like Orville and Wilbur felt in their deal you figure?"

That car shook like a dog ****ting gl*** afterward. Actually it was like a clown car driving after that. You know where the wheels are oblonged and all wobbly? This was on Friday and we had to drive this piece of **** for two more days. I was pretty pissed. I mean come on it was just a little jump. And this was a rental. Rentals can do anything and I never had a failure like this. Well except fly and land I guess.

We were the laughing stock of the pits coming in and going out every day with the clown car. Aw **** em we were the kings of the jump so we just endured the feeble minded jealousy.

We had Pontiac as a sponsor at the time. Al and Gary the Pontiac rep were talking in the trailer and Al comes out and says hey give me the keys to this pile of **** rental they gave you. So he tells Gary to take it for a ride around the pits to see what he thought about the quality of the cars they were putting out. LOL.

I never saw it rolling until I was on the outside watching it go away. I about pissed myself laughing. We drove it that way for two days and right back in to the rental agency. The check in guys were laughing at us. We just looked straight ahead and said no when asked it anything was wrong and yes when asked if rental was satisfactory.

Never a word. Never a charge. Never a nothing. God bless America and God bless rental cars. Especially one that can fly.

Rental car tips for the common man from highly experienced and mature racing personnel:
Use your own personal car insurance and if you think something could might happen take out the damage waiver it usually only costs 5 bucks a day!

This could come to save your *** like say when a motor goes bad just a mile or so before returning the car. You know when a rod goes out for lunch unexpectedly. How can a car not run against the computer bump for 10 minutes in low gear at 45 miles an hour? Isn't that like 5 minutes short of normal?