China Syndrome

[Cliff]

Saw photo of China Syndrome F/C at the Chaos meet. Says Wayne Hofmann on the window. Is that Al Hofmann's son?

 

[ANDY]

Saw photo of China Syndrome F/C at the Chaos meet. Says Wayne Hofmann on the window. Is that Al Hofmann's son?

Yup !! made it to the Semis First race out

 

[Pete]

Supposedly an original boy as well. Watching the Detroit Tiger vs. China Syndrome in the semis drove me back to my childhood

 

[Just Paul]

Loved it! Took this on Thursday.

 

[J. S.]

Boy, that's pretty neat. Didn't know Al had a son. Anyone know if Helen Hofmann is still around? Of course, she may not be Wayne's mom.

 

[Pete]

Boy, that's pretty neat. Didn't know Al had a son. Anyone know if Helen Hofmann is still around? Of course, she may not be Wayne's mom.

She’s not his Mom

 

[Butch]

I didn't watch more than a 1 1/2 hrs. of it but I thought the Burnouts sucked. Is there something I'm missing about that track?

 

[4onthefl4]

Never met Hofmann's son but met Al himself a couple of times. Whenever I had a service call in his neck of the woods, Umatilla, FL, I would swing by his place to see if he was outside doing something (never wanted to bother him by knocking on his door). One day I saw him in his driveway, and I got the nerve to stop and say hello. We chatted a little about things, then he got a phone call and I left him alone.
On another occasion, sometime in the 90"s right after the Gatornationals, I saw Del Worsham parked in Al's driveway with his funny car stripped to the frame on blocks. He was alone and covered with grease and oil. No, I didn't stop although now I wish I had. I'm sure he would've taken the time to chat even if he was the was a race car driver, crew and crew chief, transporter drive, etc.
The other time I met Al was at the Gatornationals when he was driving for Jim Dunn. We all know how that worked out.

 

[Rajunz]

I handed Al one of John Force's hand out cards to sign once in Houston. He loved it, laughed, then said, "Now go see if you can get him to sign one of mine" That dude was cool.

 

[Pete]

Al was like the 'black hat' dude in the old western movies...loved the guy

Racing the D1 race at Lebanon back in '06 and I was driving some fuel back to my pits and caught Al out of the corner of my eye, I looked quick and banged into a tree. He came over to see if I was ok...of course I could have lost a limb and didn't care. We chatted for a bit after the 'star struck' wore off and I went on. He was there visiting his son Wayne, who was running Top Dragster

 

[Lyle]

I didn't watch more than a 1 1/2 hrs. of it but I thought the Burnouts sucked. Is there something I'm missing about that track?

Early in the race (TNT on Wed & Thur) there was discussion that the track was "too tight" from having gotten Radial race prep the previous weekend. I didn't make any runs those days, so have no personal opinion. What I can tell you is that I can do burnouts at the same rpm today and make embarrassingly little smoke that 20 years ago would have smoked me in. The conventional wisdom is that is a combination of current tire technology and track prep.

Lyle Greenberg