Remembering Dave
BUFFALO TWP — No. 300 finally came for Dave Hoffman.
The longtime Lernerville Speedway Late Model driver and Renfrew resident died last October at age 64. He participated in dirt track racing for more than 40 years and was stuck on 299 feature wins for the last few years.
“He just missed it at Marion Center a few years back,” his daughter, Saundi Hoffman said. “I was flagging that race and he couldn't have lost by more than two feet. He came that close.
“I had the flag ready to give to him.”
She wound up waving that commemorative 300th victory checkered flag last Friday during Nostalgia Night at Lernerville. Her brother, Bobby, drove Alex Ferree's No. 10 Late Model around the track for a lap, Saundi Hoffman waving the checkered flag as he crossed the finish line.
“Dave may have already gotten to 300, anyway,” Hoffman's longtime friend and fellow racer, Ed Ferree said. “His wife, Mary, said a couple of wins may not have been properly recorded back in the day.”
No matter.
Dave Hoffman was a winner, period.
His 19 Late Model feature wins are tied for ninth on Lernerville's all-time list. Hoffman won four track championships in Late Models there: 1975-77 and in 1991. He is one of only eight drivers in the track's 46-year history — joining Alex Ferree, John Flinner and Lynn Geisler in Late Models, Kevin Schaeffer, Ed Lynch Jr. and Lou Blaney in Sprints, Joe Kelley in stocks — in winning three successive points titles.
Not bad for a guy who rolled and totaled the first car he ever raced on a dirt track.
“That was our first date,” Hoffman's wife, Mary, recalled. “He took me to watch him race. He rolled the car and it caught on fire. Afterward, he told me racing was what he planned on doing and I could take it or leave it. I took it.”
The couple was married 47 years.
“He was just good at it and I loved it,” Mary Hoffman said.
Hoffman never owned a race car. His daughter estimates he drove for 25 to 30 car owners during his career.
“He was a hot shoe,” fellow racer Dave Meloy said. “He won a lot of features, yet he was one of the cleanest drivers who ever ran here. You could race alongside Dave all day and he would never touch you.”
Jim Magill, who also raced during Hoffman's era, added that “Dave always got more out of a car than was actually there ... and he was good at getting through lapped traffic.”
During most of Hoffman's racing career, “the good cars started in the back and he'd always make his way through,” Magill added.
Local race historian Don Gamble recalled a night when Hoffman was supposed to be on the pole, but was mistakenly slotted in the middle of the pack.
“It was my mistake on the inversion,” said Gamble, serving as Lernerville's pit steward at the time. “I messed up. I admitted to it, but couldn't change it because the order of cars was already posted on the board.
“Dave was fuming. His crew was fuming. They were yelling like mad ... Then he went out and won the feature.”
Gamble described Hoffman as a “good driver, good-natured guy who was easy to get along with. I don't recall ever seeing him smash up a car. That's why so many car owners liked when he drove for them.”
Bobby Hoffman raced for 12 years and never won a feature. He said he always wanted to get into racing because that's what his father did.“I wanted to race before I even knew what a race car was,” he said. “Dad was as good as there was in my eyes. He was smooth and fast.”Dave Hoffman worked for Ed Ferree's family business for 15 years. He was always quick with advice for Ed's son, Alex — who happened to win the Dave Hoffman Memorial feature last Friday at Lernerville.“Long after he stopped racing regularly himself, Dave was at Lernerville every single Friday watching those races,” Ed Ferree said. “Come Monday morning, he'd be in the shop with Alex, critiquing his race, telling him what he did wrong and how to fix it. We talked racing all the time.“One of the big things Dave would tell him was sometimes you have to slow down to go fast. It's easy to over-drive a race car into the turns. Dave always cautioned him and other drivers about that.”Ed Ferree's fondest menmory of Hoffman?“He drove with his brain, not his foot,” he said. “Dave was always calculating his next move on the track.”During Hoffman's prime years, he raced as often as five nights a week. While his wife attended those races, she didn't often watch his car go around the track.She counted the laps instead.“I'd have my head down during his race and I knew what his car sounded like,” she said. “I counted laps. I knew when the white flag was going to wave and that's when I looked up.”While Hoffman had not climbed behind the wheel of a race car for a few years, he never officially retired from the sport.He still possessed his race suit and racing gear.“Until the day he died, if an offer came along for him to drive somebody's car, he would have done it,” Saundi said.
(top 15 through Aug. 16)SprintsBrandon Spithaler 342, Brandon Matus 336, Carl Bowser 325, Eric Williams 316, Scott Priester 292, Jack Sodeman Jr. 282, Brent Matus 281, Daryl Stimeling 230, Bob McMillin 215, Jim McMillin 214, Dan Kuriger 205, Bill Kiley 139, Charlie Cornelius 132, Jim Shuster 127, Gary Rankin 114Late ModelsAlex Ferree 367, Jared Miley 342, John Garvin Jr. 329, Ken Schaltenbrand 257, Lynn Geisler/Mike Pegher Jr. 245, John Mollick 239, Chuck Sarver 230, Todd Bachman 223, Michael Norris 212, Chris Rhodes 173, Russell King 165, Garrett Krummert 164, Dave Hess Jr. 147, Dan Angelicchio 138ModifiedsMat Williamson 407, Brian Swartzlander 354, Dave Murdick 343, Jeremiah Shingledecker 338, Brad Rapp 311, Rex King 298, Steve Feder 264, Rex King Jr. 263, Mike Turner 250, Carl Murdick 188, Eric Gabany 161, Bob Warren 157, Tom Winkle 142, Dave Reges 106, Rick Regalski 99Sportsman StocksAJ Flick 452, Corey McPherson 446, Mike Miller 399, Joe Kelley 379, Jim Fosnaught 350, Brett McDonald 345, Rob Shook 312, Mark Sanders 301, Bob Egley 285, Paul Schreckengost 273, Joey Zambotti 256, Wayne Carbo 222, Scott Byers 214, Joe Anthony/Jake Simmons 212, Pat Hanley 185
