My friend Ray Hofman.
#1
02-21-2014, 01:09 PM
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: Scottsdale, AZ
Posts: 7
Rep Power: 0 
My friend Ray Hofman.
Gentlemen,
I first met Ray Hoffman seven years ago prior to Rally II in California. While staging a Rally to the Rally from my home in Scottsdale, Arizona I had a number of members park their trailers at my house. The largest rig to pull-up was a massive semi loaded with multiple GT’s and out climbed a mountain of a man in his early 30s wearing a button down Ford GT shirt, Levi’s, and a big smile. He shook my hand and came inside for a ****tail. Even in this gathering of Ford GT owners who were all accomplished, knowledgeable, gentlemanly, and a pleasure to be around, Ray Hofman stood out as something special. We didn’t speak very often during the first couple years and our first in-depth conversation occurred after his yellow Ford GT had won Road and Track magazines Zero to 200 MPH and back to Zero shootout. Ray did not drive his car during that event. He was in the process of building a super high horsepower twin turbocharged engine to compete at the Mile and indicated to me that he didn’t intend to drive his car there either. It was my opinion that he should reconsider and drive. Ray was young, sharp, and obviously physically talented. Even if a professional driver was slightly better, I argued that the glory goes to the driver, not the owner. Drive your own car!! I am not saying that I convinced him to be his own driver or that he wouldn’t have driven his own car were it not for my urging. Knowing Ray as I know him today I believe he would’ve ended up driving at the Mile anyway.
And drive he did. Run by run, Jason Heffner and crew turned up the boost and Ray posted a best run of 249.7 mph. Our yellow GT’s were parked next to each other outside of his rig and Ray and his team were working feverishly between runs to make sure everything was right. On my final run in #34 I finally eclipsed 220 mph late on the last day and after gathering up my time slip I drove straight back to my trailer to load my car. As soon as I got out of the driver’s seat I looked up to see Ray and his entire crew bailing out of a pickup truck and rushing over to congratulate me. Ray picked me up in a bear hug that almost broke my back and he seemed to be more joyous than I was! He made me feel like I just won the Indianapolis 500. Typical Ray Hofman. Here was the fastest man with the most impressive rig and the most powerful car at the Texas Mile, but he possessed not an ounce of pretension, arrogance, or conceit. The unpleasant aspects of human character didn’t seem to exist in Ray’s DNA. His determination and focus were extreme, yet he was quiet, unfailingly polite, humble, and friendly.
Some months later Ray had his Learjet stop in Scottsdale to pick me up on the way to California where John Mihovetz and other members of his crew assembled for the Florida Exotics Event where he would attempt to set a new world record in the Standing Mile. I was brewing up Makers Mark Manhattans in the back when I asked Ray, “Why don’t you fly your own jet?” He replied that he didn’t have the time or the inclination to learn how to fly. He added, “It doesn’t look that fun.” I told him I thought it was a lot of fun and then half jokingly asked if I could take the controls of his Learjet. To my surprise he told his co-pilot to abandon his seat and upfront I went.
Ray won that Florida event impressively with an official speed of over 266 mph. David Bannister was there with me and during a practice run before the event we were both standing about 90 feet to the side of the finish line when Ray went by at 269.9 mph. It made the hair stand up on the back of our necks.
Some weeks after that event Ray went up with me in my Glasair III to try a different type of flying. We did loops and rolls and spins, aerobatics and cloud busting. Ray loved it and talked to me for the first time about how long it would take for him to become a pilot. He attacked the process with the same intensity he tackled everything else, purchasing 4 airplanes including a P-51D Mustang and a Navy T-34 before he finished earning his license. Because he was not yet licensed he asked me to come to Midland to fly his T-34 in the Wings Over Texas Airshow where we both had a great time. A couple months later Ray Hofman earned his pilot’s license but it would take several more months of intense training before he was signed off to fly his World War II fighters. With less than one year of experience and only about 350 total hours he was signed off to solo in his P-51. A remarkable accomplishment in less time than any other pilot I’m aware of in my 35 years of flying.
In my travels back and forth to Texas A&M to visit my son Charley I stopped off in Midland often and Ray and I would do as many as three hard-core flights a day to practice unusual attitudes, emergency maneuvers, and aerobatics in my plane or in one of his. Ray was an extremely quick study and one day he flew so hard that he made himself sick, landed to dispose of his “aloha bag” and we went right back up to continue practicing. Flying with Ray Hofman was always a joy as where the ****tails and conversation back in the CAF hanger afterwards.
We also shared a passion for Africa and hunting. Ray had not been on Safari in Africa yet and wasn’t sure how to set one up. So Ray and I traveled twice to the Safari Club International convention where I introduced him to the guides and safari companies that I was familiar with. While talking to a Namibian professional hunter named Jofie Lamprecht who had guided Charley and I on Safari five years previous, into the booth walked Chuck Yeager who hunted with Jofie’s dad. I had met Chuck Yeager years before during my airshow career and Ray got a real kick out of his conversation with aviation’s most famous living legend. Ray has been on Safari multiple times since then with his wife Jana.
Between his freshman and sophomore years at Texas A&M my son Charley was looking for an interesting summer internship. Ray put Charley in touch with Texas Governor Rick Perry but when an internship with the Governor’s office failed come through, Ray suggested that Charley intern for his company, Peak Completion Technology. Ray had my son live at his home all summer where Charley became Janna and his fifth son. He worked my little boy 12 hours a day, seven days a week, both out in the field on drilling rigs and in his shop grinding and assembling heavy equipment. We lost Charley’s mama when he was 12 months old and he is an only child. That summer, for the first time in his life, Charley got to experience what it was like to live in a home with a mom and 4 younger brothers. He relished it. Ray’s sons hero worshiped their new older sibling and Charley had a blast with them every day when he came home with his face stained black with soot and oil and bone tired from 12 hours of hard manual labor. Ray mentored, disciplined, encouraged, educated, and loved my son like his own. I would fly out about once a month and stay for a couple days to visit. Again, typical Ray Hofman.
We shared a passion for many things, flying, Ford GT’s, Africa, business, travel, and fine ****tails. But #1 was always our sons and family. I have hundreds of interesting Ray Hofman photos but there is one in particular that defines him in my eyes. I took it before one of his runs at the Mile. Ray was all business and his face bore the expression of a gunfighter before a shootout. Just before leaving his rig to head to the starting line his youngest son ran up to the window of his yellow GT and in an instant Ray’s face lit up in a huge smile. He loves his wife and boys so much.
Ray Hofman leaves behind his beautiful wife Janna, his four sons Dylan, Justin, Byron and Jayden, parents, relatives, and a lot of very good friends. He also leaves a huge void in the lives of us who knew him well and loved him. Ray isn’t just a friend to me, he is like a brother. A really smart, ridiculously successful, amazingly talented, kind and considerate younger brother. I’ve never met anyone else quite like him, can’t imagine that I ever will again, and I am devastated with his loss. Aviation has been mankind’s dream since men have existed, but it is a horribly unforgiving mistress.
Over a century ago, before departing to lead the Rough Riders in the Spanish American war, Theodore Roosevelt said, "Only those are fit to live who do not fear to die, and none are fit to die who have shrunk from the joy of life. Both life and death are parts of the same great adventure." The late African hunter and gun writer Jeff Cooper put it another way, "Danger is the spice of life. It is unavoidable in most of man's greatest adventures."
Men like Ray are drawn to life's most intense experiences. He couldn’t just own a Ford GT, he built an all conquering 2000 hp GT and raced it. He couldn’t just go to Africa and look at the wildlife, he waded into thick cover behind the barrel of a heavy rifle on dangerous game hunts. He couldn’t just get a pilot’s license and fly, he bought and flew 2500 hp, extremely complicated 60-year-old World War II fighters and he knew there was serious risk involved. Pursuits like these are invariably preceded by a time of reflection. You can see this in the eyes of a Formula 1 driver before the start of a race, in the complete transformation of a fighter pilot’s demeanor from boyish prankster to dead serious and somber as he approaches his aircraft to fly into combat, and in the single minded focus of a cowboy as he mounts up to ride an angry bull. Some men willingly take these risks because they know that the most exhilarating summits, those heights never seen or experienced by ordinary men, cannot be conquered without exposing one's self to the lowest of lows, and even death, when things go wrong. And sometimes, they are going to go wrong.
Is what I'm about to do, worth the risk I'm about to take? Look around, everything is so bright and beautiful. I've never felt more alive. Is this possibly my last morning? I don't think so, I'm ready. Strap in, fire up, focus, and launch me into a realm far beyond the ordinary. Ray lived precisely the way he wanted to live, present, aware, full of love, and wide full open. He lived more in 38 years than an average man could had he a hundred lifetimes.
God bless you Ray, I love you brother, and until I see you again on the other side, here's to you. One hell of a man who experienced life as very few others ever have, or ever will. Godspeed.
Chip
I first met Ray Hoffman seven years ago prior to Rally II in California. While staging a Rally to the Rally from my home in Scottsdale, Arizona I had a number of members park their trailers at my house. The largest rig to pull-up was a massive semi loaded with multiple GT’s and out climbed a mountain of a man in his early 30s wearing a button down Ford GT shirt, Levi’s, and a big smile. He shook my hand and came inside for a ****tail. Even in this gathering of Ford GT owners who were all accomplished, knowledgeable, gentlemanly, and a pleasure to be around, Ray Hofman stood out as something special. We didn’t speak very often during the first couple years and our first in-depth conversation occurred after his yellow Ford GT had won Road and Track magazines Zero to 200 MPH and back to Zero shootout. Ray did not drive his car during that event. He was in the process of building a super high horsepower twin turbocharged engine to compete at the Mile and indicated to me that he didn’t intend to drive his car there either. It was my opinion that he should reconsider and drive. Ray was young, sharp, and obviously physically talented. Even if a professional driver was slightly better, I argued that the glory goes to the driver, not the owner. Drive your own car!! I am not saying that I convinced him to be his own driver or that he wouldn’t have driven his own car were it not for my urging. Knowing Ray as I know him today I believe he would’ve ended up driving at the Mile anyway.
And drive he did. Run by run, Jason Heffner and crew turned up the boost and Ray posted a best run of 249.7 mph. Our yellow GT’s were parked next to each other outside of his rig and Ray and his team were working feverishly between runs to make sure everything was right. On my final run in #34 I finally eclipsed 220 mph late on the last day and after gathering up my time slip I drove straight back to my trailer to load my car. As soon as I got out of the driver’s seat I looked up to see Ray and his entire crew bailing out of a pickup truck and rushing over to congratulate me. Ray picked me up in a bear hug that almost broke my back and he seemed to be more joyous than I was! He made me feel like I just won the Indianapolis 500. Typical Ray Hofman. Here was the fastest man with the most impressive rig and the most powerful car at the Texas Mile, but he possessed not an ounce of pretension, arrogance, or conceit. The unpleasant aspects of human character didn’t seem to exist in Ray’s DNA. His determination and focus were extreme, yet he was quiet, unfailingly polite, humble, and friendly.
Some months later Ray had his Learjet stop in Scottsdale to pick me up on the way to California where John Mihovetz and other members of his crew assembled for the Florida Exotics Event where he would attempt to set a new world record in the Standing Mile. I was brewing up Makers Mark Manhattans in the back when I asked Ray, “Why don’t you fly your own jet?” He replied that he didn’t have the time or the inclination to learn how to fly. He added, “It doesn’t look that fun.” I told him I thought it was a lot of fun and then half jokingly asked if I could take the controls of his Learjet. To my surprise he told his co-pilot to abandon his seat and upfront I went.
Ray won that Florida event impressively with an official speed of over 266 mph. David Bannister was there with me and during a practice run before the event we were both standing about 90 feet to the side of the finish line when Ray went by at 269.9 mph. It made the hair stand up on the back of our necks.
Some weeks after that event Ray went up with me in my Glasair III to try a different type of flying. We did loops and rolls and spins, aerobatics and cloud busting. Ray loved it and talked to me for the first time about how long it would take for him to become a pilot. He attacked the process with the same intensity he tackled everything else, purchasing 4 airplanes including a P-51D Mustang and a Navy T-34 before he finished earning his license. Because he was not yet licensed he asked me to come to Midland to fly his T-34 in the Wings Over Texas Airshow where we both had a great time. A couple months later Ray Hofman earned his pilot’s license but it would take several more months of intense training before he was signed off to fly his World War II fighters. With less than one year of experience and only about 350 total hours he was signed off to solo in his P-51. A remarkable accomplishment in less time than any other pilot I’m aware of in my 35 years of flying.
In my travels back and forth to Texas A&M to visit my son Charley I stopped off in Midland often and Ray and I would do as many as three hard-core flights a day to practice unusual attitudes, emergency maneuvers, and aerobatics in my plane or in one of his. Ray was an extremely quick study and one day he flew so hard that he made himself sick, landed to dispose of his “aloha bag” and we went right back up to continue practicing. Flying with Ray Hofman was always a joy as where the ****tails and conversation back in the CAF hanger afterwards.
We also shared a passion for Africa and hunting. Ray had not been on Safari in Africa yet and wasn’t sure how to set one up. So Ray and I traveled twice to the Safari Club International convention where I introduced him to the guides and safari companies that I was familiar with. While talking to a Namibian professional hunter named Jofie Lamprecht who had guided Charley and I on Safari five years previous, into the booth walked Chuck Yeager who hunted with Jofie’s dad. I had met Chuck Yeager years before during my airshow career and Ray got a real kick out of his conversation with aviation’s most famous living legend. Ray has been on Safari multiple times since then with his wife Jana.
Between his freshman and sophomore years at Texas A&M my son Charley was looking for an interesting summer internship. Ray put Charley in touch with Texas Governor Rick Perry but when an internship with the Governor’s office failed come through, Ray suggested that Charley intern for his company, Peak Completion Technology. Ray had my son live at his home all summer where Charley became Janna and his fifth son. He worked my little boy 12 hours a day, seven days a week, both out in the field on drilling rigs and in his shop grinding and assembling heavy equipment. We lost Charley’s mama when he was 12 months old and he is an only child. That summer, for the first time in his life, Charley got to experience what it was like to live in a home with a mom and 4 younger brothers. He relished it. Ray’s sons hero worshiped their new older sibling and Charley had a blast with them every day when he came home with his face stained black with soot and oil and bone tired from 12 hours of hard manual labor. Ray mentored, disciplined, encouraged, educated, and loved my son like his own. I would fly out about once a month and stay for a couple days to visit. Again, typical Ray Hofman.
We shared a passion for many things, flying, Ford GT’s, Africa, business, travel, and fine ****tails. But #1 was always our sons and family. I have hundreds of interesting Ray Hofman photos but there is one in particular that defines him in my eyes. I took it before one of his runs at the Mile. Ray was all business and his face bore the expression of a gunfighter before a shootout. Just before leaving his rig to head to the starting line his youngest son ran up to the window of his yellow GT and in an instant Ray’s face lit up in a huge smile. He loves his wife and boys so much.
Ray Hofman leaves behind his beautiful wife Janna, his four sons Dylan, Justin, Byron and Jayden, parents, relatives, and a lot of very good friends. He also leaves a huge void in the lives of us who knew him well and loved him. Ray isn’t just a friend to me, he is like a brother. A really smart, ridiculously successful, amazingly talented, kind and considerate younger brother. I’ve never met anyone else quite like him, can’t imagine that I ever will again, and I am devastated with his loss. Aviation has been mankind’s dream since men have existed, but it is a horribly unforgiving mistress.
Over a century ago, before departing to lead the Rough Riders in the Spanish American war, Theodore Roosevelt said, "Only those are fit to live who do not fear to die, and none are fit to die who have shrunk from the joy of life. Both life and death are parts of the same great adventure." The late African hunter and gun writer Jeff Cooper put it another way, "Danger is the spice of life. It is unavoidable in most of man's greatest adventures."
Men like Ray are drawn to life's most intense experiences. He couldn’t just own a Ford GT, he built an all conquering 2000 hp GT and raced it. He couldn’t just go to Africa and look at the wildlife, he waded into thick cover behind the barrel of a heavy rifle on dangerous game hunts. He couldn’t just get a pilot’s license and fly, he bought and flew 2500 hp, extremely complicated 60-year-old World War II fighters and he knew there was serious risk involved. Pursuits like these are invariably preceded by a time of reflection. You can see this in the eyes of a Formula 1 driver before the start of a race, in the complete transformation of a fighter pilot’s demeanor from boyish prankster to dead serious and somber as he approaches his aircraft to fly into combat, and in the single minded focus of a cowboy as he mounts up to ride an angry bull. Some men willingly take these risks because they know that the most exhilarating summits, those heights never seen or experienced by ordinary men, cannot be conquered without exposing one's self to the lowest of lows, and even death, when things go wrong. And sometimes, they are going to go wrong.
Is what I'm about to do, worth the risk I'm about to take? Look around, everything is so bright and beautiful. I've never felt more alive. Is this possibly my last morning? I don't think so, I'm ready. Strap in, fire up, focus, and launch me into a realm far beyond the ordinary. Ray lived precisely the way he wanted to live, present, aware, full of love, and wide full open. He lived more in 38 years than an average man could had he a hundred lifetimes.
God bless you Ray, I love you brother, and until I see you again on the other side, here's to you. One hell of a man who experienced life as very few others ever have, or ever will. Godspeed.
Chip
#7
02-22-2014, 05:54 AM
WOW love the content & how well it was written. Never had the chance to meet Ray but after reading this I feel to know the man a little bit better.
I have to say you sir write very,very well. I have always admired individuals that can express & put on paper their thoughts.
Sorry for your loss & thank you for a great read.
RIP Ray & my condolences to his family.
I have to say you sir write very,very well. I have always admired individuals that can express & put on paper their thoughts.
Sorry for your loss & thank you for a great read.
RIP Ray & my condolences to his family.
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