Al Hofmann was one of my all-time favorites. He was one tough, gritty competitor for sure. First time I remember seeing him was at Capitol Raceway in 1981 at the King of Kings with his China Syndrome Challenger. Back in those days through the Gemini cars, he was probably better known for riding out fires. He started to come on as a serious threat to win with the BDS cars.
I think it was the 91 Keystones he had a fire with the BDS Probe, and it didn't burn the body, but blistered it pretty bad. The next pass, the whole right quarter panel blew off the car, and they spent the rest of the day & night fixing the body. Guys from Leong's team were helping him & Helen repair the body with some salvageable pieces left, fiberglass resin, and a couple of halogen lights to cure the resin.
It sure would be nice to see him back mixing it up again.