BILL STEPHENS SAID IT BEST IN A MAGAZINE ARTICLE BACK WHEN AL RETIRED FROM DRAG RACING. SOME WON MORE, SOME WERE QUICKER, MANY WERE PRETTIER, BUT NONE WERE TOUGHER. THANKS FOR THIS TRIBUTE VIDEO FROM TIMMAH~~~ ITS AWESOME~~~
Music
Al, Always loved you man. Am so happy that we had a chance to spend some time together last summer. You will be missed by all but will always be in everyone's heart. Heaven will never be the same.
Your Friend, Chuck Etchells Signed: March 23, 2008~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Al, I've missed you in recent years trying to psyche me out. Sorry to see you red light so soon. My advice for your family is to never give up, never back down and never lose faith. Say hello to Eric for me and save some ice cream for me. R.I.P. John Force Submitted On: Mar 24, 2008
Movies
Television
Books
AL HOFMANN,LAST OF THE 'TOUGH GUY' RACERS, DIES AT 60.written by Bill Stevens Al Hofmann, the belligerent archrival of the NHRA's Funny Car king, John Force, died suddenly on Thursday of a massive heart attack at his Eustis, Fla., home at age 60.
Hofmann won a total of 15 NHRA national events, but his lasting claim to fame will be his unforgettable head-to-head dustups with Force, whom the 14-time POWERade champion once called "the toughest SOB I've ever raced against."
[+] EnlargeKen Levine/Getty Images
Al Hofmann, posing at the Winternationals at Pomona Raceway in 1992, won 15 career NHRA races and finished in the top 10 in points seven times.
Hofmann grew up on the East Coast and like many drag racers of his generation, began his career in homebuilt hot rods and secondhand race cars. In 1979, he purchased a used Chevy Vega fuel coupe from another racer who had built a newer machine. Hofmann immediately took the car to his friend Sid Waterman, another up-and-coming drag racer at the time who would eventually establish a successful high performance fuel pump company.
Waterman remembers, "Al didn't know the first thing about running that car. When he first got into it, he started looking for the ignition key to start it. I told him he needed to completely disassemble the car and learn what every piece on it was. And he did it."
With his wife at the time, Helen, Hofmann promoted a string of nitro Funny Cars and gained the reputation of a scowling, ill-tempered roughneck who could find a way to muscle any race car down any racetrack. He seemed to relish the image and when Force ascended to the highest ranks of the category, Hofmann never missed an opportunity to remind the popular superstar he was gunning for him.
In 1997 at the Gatornationals in Gainesville, Fla., Hofmann suffered a near-fatal accident at the top end of Gainesville Raceway when seconds after defeating Mark Oswald in the final round, Hofmann's engine exploded, sending the Funny Car into the guardrail at close to 300 mph. Hofmann sustained a compound fracture of the right arm, broken ribs, and second degree burns. He was airlifted to Gainesville Medical Center for treatment while his team received the winner's trophy in his absence. It was the first and only time in NHRA history that an event winner failed to appear at the postrace winner's circle ceremonies.
Hofmann retired from racing in 2002 and with his second wife, Susie, operated a classic and custom car restoration shop back in his home state of Florida. In an interview last year, Hofmann admitted he missed the excitement of his tumultuous racing career but that "I'm glad I walked away when I did. When all that money came into the sport, a lot of the fun went out."
Bill Stephens covers NHRA for ESPN.com.
HOFMANN'S LARGER-THAN-LIFE PERSONALITY SUITED HIM JUST FINE
written by Bill Stevens:
For over 15 years, I've had the privilege of covering NHRA POWERade drag racing on both television and in print. When the sport loses one of its most indelible and enduring personalities, such as Al Hofmann, one can't help but flash back to the numerous images of these larger-than-life racing stars that have been permanently drawn onto our memory files.
[+] EnlargeJamie Squire/Getty Images
Al Hofmann rumbled to victory past John Force in the Funny Car final at Pomona in 1996.
Hofmann had a knack for creating lasting images. The Internet is already spilling over with heartfelt tributes and melancholy anecdotes shared by drag racing fans who either witnessed the gritty heroics of Al on one of the countless quarter-miles upon which he performed, or experienced firsthand Al's "hoodlum with a heart" persona.
Al was more broad than he was tall. The physique of a forklift capped with that ever-familiar swirling dollop of hair, combed into a defiant pompadour straight from a '50s hot-rod movie. He was as rugged as the moly steel that formed the skeleton of his race cars, but a mischievous scoundrel on the inside -- a wisecracking punk whose bark churned out just a few more horsepower than his bite. But Al played the role of night club bouncer in the Funny Car ranks with perfect aplomb, and truth be told, I never saw anyone mess with him.
Al Hofmann and John Force. John Force and Al Hofmann. The main event at any NHRA national event, and whenever the PA announcer sounded the alarm that the two combatants were towing into the staging lanes, the crowd along the fence would squeeze in just a little tighter. If the unexpected is the sweet spot of professional drag racing, "Big Al" and "Brute Force" nailed it. The rule was simple. You rooted for Force every time. Except when he was racing Hofmann. Then, it was choose your sides.
I was at the top end in Pomona in 1996 when Al got past John for the Winternationals championship. The "bad guy" beat the "good guy" -- a concept that popular culture has never been very fond of. But that day, after seeing 25,000 deliriously jazzed drag racing fans, you'd have never known it.
"I've been waiting a while to give Force a little piece of his own medicine," Al crowed into the microphone. "And this year, I've got a lot more for him."
Force went on to win his sixth world championship in '96, and that became a familiar footnote in the Force/Hofmann story line. Al never won a world championship, never got the headlines or the acclaim -- let alone the multimillion-dollar sponsorships that winning championships will get you. And of all the people in the sport who had bulked up on fame and fortune in obscene quantities, it was Force who recognized that he was indebted to Hofmann on some level for the love and loyalty that the fans lavished upon him.
"Wearing the white hat doesn't mean anything," Force would say, "if nobody is wearing the black hat."
Black was Al's official team color. Black button-down shirt with sleeves rolled up, black Levis, a pair of black Simpsons on his feet, and when primary sponsorship money dried up soon before Al pulled the plug on team ownership, his Funny Car bodies were blacker than anyone's. And everyone on Al's crew was constantly covered in the color, not their wardrobe, but the smears of grease they usually wore in contrast to the blue-chip operations sprawled nearby with brand-new everythings and catered hospitality areas as big as a Home Depot.
While those big-ticket teams were bustling in their pits with a mob of crew members in freshly laundered uniforms preening their cars and eating through their budgets with little regard, the Hofmann team -- Al, then-wife Helen and a handful of helpers -- was doing it differently.
She worked the wrenches, their ragtag team was pouring in the sweat equity and Al was usually stretched out in the transporter lounge, either asleep on the couch or not far from it. I once asked Helen why Al didn't work on the car himself, and with a straight face and matter-of-fact tone, she replied, "If he touches this car, I'll kill him."
[+] EnlargeKen Levine/Getty Images
Al Hofmann, posing at the Winternationals at Pomona Raceway in 1992, won 15 career NHRA races and finished in the top 10 in points seven times.
Point made.
The 1997 Gatornationals final nearly did the job for Helen when Al's car threw the rods out, burst into a scorching fire, crushed itself against the Gainesville guard rail, and split open like a ripe cantaloupe an instant after he beat Mark Oswald for the victory. Burns, fractures, bruises everywhere. Al hadn't been at the hospital more than a minute when the phone at the admitting desk rang. It was John Force.
"Whatever he needs, whatever Helen needs, whatever they want, make sure they get it," Force implored. Sometimes the good guys help the bad guys.
Two weeks later, at the next race in Houston, Al was there with a new car, a heavy plaster cast on his badly fractured arm, and every intention of racing that weekend.
"I've got to rework the brake handle so I can stop the car," he told me as his team put their heads together.
"Are you sure you should be back in the car so soon?" I asked him.
"Soon?" he shot back. "Hell, it's been two weeks."
I wrote a piece about Al in an issue of Drag Racer magazine soon thereafter, and it told of Al's bold personality and old-school toughness and unwillingness to jump aboard the emerging legion of drag racing "pretty boys" who had creases in their slacks and cell phones on their belt loops and had turned the Funny Car class into a New Age love-in. Al never saw the article, that is, until last year, when he was cleaning out his house in Florida and stumbled upon that issue of DRM. He called me at my home to thank me, some 10 years after the fact, for what I had written about him when he was still the undisputed dark side of nitro drag racing.
"I really appreciate what you wrote," he told me. "I don't know why I never saw that piece until now, but it was the nicest thing anyone has ever said about me."
"What are you doing these days?" I asked.
"Fooling around in my shop, working on my cars, doing some things for other people, but I'm retiring and want to do some traveling with [companion] Susie in my motor home," he said. "Life is short."
Had he only known then …
There's a saying that race cars don't care who's driving them, and that's especially true of nitro Funny Cars. They are untamable, unforgiving bundles of attitude that can sense fear and dish out hurt if the hands on its steering wheel don't establish the rules right up front.
Today's generation of fuel coupe racers are skilled, dedicated and accomplished pros who succeed at what they do with an equal measure of dexterity and intelligence -- outthinking rather than overpowering their potentially deadly weapons with as much finesse as arm strength.
Al Hofmann was the last of a disappearing breed of cat who made it clear who was the boss when the body came down and who wasn't about to admit to his ride, or anyone else, that tangling with him was the smart thing to do.
Al has moved on to his eternal reward, leaving behind a sullen fan club of mourning admirers who will long remember and relate the many tales that define the life and legacy of Funny Car's last tough guy. And perhaps we can all take consolation in the fact that after a rough-and-tumble journey from the threadbare drag strips of Connecticut to a supporting role in one of the most compelling rivalries in NHRA history, today, Al Hofmann is wearing the white hat.
Bill Stephens covers NHRA for ESPN.com.
Who I'd like to meet:
Al Hofmann
( November 28, 1947 - March 20, 2008)
Birthplace: Peekskill, New York
Resided In: Eustis, Florida
Age: 60
Visitation Date:
Visitation Time:
Visitation Location:
Service Date: Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Service Time: 11:00 AM
Service Location: Jeremiah's/McGregors, 501 N Highland St, Mt Dora, FL
Al Hofmann, Former NHRA national-event-winning Funny Car driver, 60, of Eustis, FL died on Thursday, March 20, 2008. Born in Peekskill, NY, he moved to Eustis in 1983 from Southbury, CT. Al is survived by Son-Wayne Hofmann and his wife Jodi of New Preston, CT; Daughters-Jackie Hofmann of Umatilla, FL, Christine Guyot of Umatilla, FL, and Mariah Hofmann of Umatilla, FL; Brother-John Hofmann of Southbury, CT; Sister-Lillian Groody of Woodbury, CT, 8 grandchildren, 2 great grandchildren; and Companion-Susan Virginia Hickey of Eustis, FL; Services will be held at Jeremiah's/ McGregors, 501 North Highland Avenue, Mount Dora, Florida on Tuesday, March 25, 2008, at 11:00 AM. In lieu of flowers memorial donations may be made to D.R.A.W. Drag Racing Association of Women, 4 Hance Drive, Charleston, Illinois 61920.
Online Guestbook available at www. hardenpauli. com Arrangements by Harden/Pauli Funeral Home, Eustis.
Talk with Bob Glidden and his son, Join them on Speed Scene Live TV Tuesday night. Legendary racer Bob Glidden and his equally famous son Bill, will be on the Speed Scene Live TV show Tuesday night from 6:00 to 7:00 Pacific time. Just go to SpeedSceneRacing. com for a free online Internet Provided TV show. Viewers are welcome to phone in on one of our free 800 area code phone lines and talk to these great racers. Any question will be allowed and we expect the sparks to fly. Bob and Bill will actually be racing at the Street Car Super Nationals in Las Vegas Nov. 20th -23rd and they will be competing in the same class! That's right, Bob may end up racing his son Bill in the 10.5 class. Join us Tuesday night on Speed Scene Live TV
