Tony Pedregon tribute to Al Hofmann (1 Viewer)

[FC138fan]

Unfortunately I missed Sunday's NHRA Raceday. As a guest, Tony Pedregon had recalled some great memories of the Al Hofmann / John Force rivalry of the past. He was asked "who do you remember as being a great rival of Force" or something close to that. Tony answered with a great tribute to our late great Al.

I got a wonderful email from someone who was perhaps the closest to Al in his last great years in this world, Mrs. Susie Hickey, who wanted to pass a message on to Tony Pedregon. She has no way of contacting Tony on a personal level, but she thought posting her message through the Mater would be the best way to get her feelings across to him.

Susie wrote

"Al remembers Tony speaking of him before, when Al was alive and saying respectful things of him. Al was proud that Tony thought so much of him. It was just awesome. I also want people to know that this is from my heart, and how much I appreciate it, that he is keeping Al's memory alive."

It's great to hear that my favorite NHRA driver of all time still has an influence on the younger drivers of today. Thank you Tony for bringing back some of the great memories and thanks for remembering Al is such a endearing way.

 

[merc49]

Very nice post Nick. I liked Al too.

 

[FC138fan]

This got me digging into the old Al Hofmann website to pull this one photo from the September 1995 Daily Dragster. I zoomed in on the two guys in the middle.

Now thats a rivalry!

Here is a fun screenshot from the archives, the home page in 2002.
http://i625.photobucket.com/albums/tt336/luckyleaf6/2002.jpg

 

[Kelly]

I met Al Hofmann in a Hotel Bar in Baytown (not quite, I think it was Highlands) with Skuza and his Dad at a Matco appearance when hubby #2 was a Matco rep. I was only rouglhly 2 years into the sport at that time.....and got educated QUICKLY by the other Matco reps.

Great stories and alot I wish I had experienced first hand!

 

[coyotedale]

I met Al Hofmann in a Hotel Bar in Baytown (not quite, I think it was Highlands) with Skuza and his Dad at a Matco appearance when hubby #2 was a Matco rep. I was only rouglhly 2 years into the sport at that time.....and got educated QUICKLY by the other Matco reps.

Great stories and alot I wish I had experienced first hand!

There will never be another. I've often told the story of being uprooted from SoCal only to find myself living in Conn. This would be in 1980, long removed from the regular funny car shows at OCIR, but lucky me, I met Al. He took me in, and I soon found myself in the crewcab heading out to the various match races he would be booked into. He was a different breed, but damn, it was such a cool experience as a 16 yr old kid in highschool.