Remember When by Don Gamble

Dave Hoffman the “Butler Bullitt”

In 1965, a sixteen year old gear head from Renfrew, Pennsylvania decided to be a race car driver. When Dave Hoffman and his car owner Bob Rodgers started racing the number 169 coupe, no one could have realized how successful Dave's career would be in the years that followed. Dave's racing career started in the modifieds or coupes. He raced Mac McKindree’s #2 coupe in 1966 and drove for Glenn Hinkle and Rege O'Rourke in '67. His racing during the 1967 season also included driving the Ron and Bert Stanley #42 Late Model. 1968 was a pivotal point in Dave's career when he decided to concentrate on racing the late models instead of the coupes. His car owners over the next four decades looked like the "Who's Who in local racing". Ron Stanley, Bill Protzman, John Reno, Jim Minton, Gary Henry, Dave Hallet, Tub Tessean, Bob Brockett, Tom Glass, Skip Bertges, Gator Harris, Mel Stella, Art Osmer and Charlie Fend.

In 1964, Dave married a very special lady. Mary Osche probably had no idea what the future would involve after she became Mrs. Dave Hoffman. Dave and Mary have two children, Saundi and Bobby and two grandsons Travis and Dalton. Evette, Bobby's wife, joined the Hoffman clan on May 19th. 1988. Dave's first job was working on his neighbor's farm and he is currently working as a welder-fabricator for Pulva Corp.  He has 299 career feature wins. He said "winning was the best part of the job", and he thinks tearing up the race car is the toughest part of racing. Dave has raced at Lernerville every year since the track opened, some years it was sporadic and some years he was the champion. It did not matter to the other drivers how often Dave raced at Lernerville. They always knew that they were in for a run for the money. Dave was the track champion at Lernerville 1975 and 1976 driving for Tub Tessean from Austintown Ohio. In 1977 he won while driving for Wally Brockett. He did it again in 1991 with Gator Harris as his car owner for the 1991 Track Championship. In addition to his championships at Lernerville, Dave also won the Championship at Raceway 7 in 1978, Schmuckers 1979, North Hills 1981, plus the Pittsburgh Circle Track Club Championships in 1986, 1988 and 1989.

Dave is a racer's racer and really loves the sport. He told us if he couldn't go racing, he would go camping. He said his kids used to drive him crazy but he could not get along without his family. His most memorable moment in racing was winning his first 100 lap race. The victory came in 1972 at Mercer Raceway while driving for Jon Renno and Jim Minton. His most embarrassing moment was while driving for Skip Bertges. Dave was at Pittsburgh's Pennsylvania Motor Speedway; he was leading the heat race and pulled off one lap before the race was over.

It was interesting to note that when we asked him who his heroes were he said, "my son Bobby, my dad and Richard Petty". This gives you some insight into the closeness of the Hoffman family. As an observer, I feel that the reason this family is the way they are, is Mary Hoffman, Dave's wife. Mary is a very special lady who has endured some tough times not only as a racer's wife, but she had some serious medical problems.

Dave's fantasy was to keep racing and get Bobby started on a driving career. These goals were forthcoming and Dave is another good reason why we “remember when”. He is very appreciative and wanted to thank the car owners, sponsors, friends, and family for all the great times. It was a wonderful but fast forty years.