Hat Trick: Hoffman Wrangles Third Gator
BARBERVILLE, FL – February 19, 2017 – For the third time this week, Nick Hoffman dominated all 20 laps of the A-Main to earn a Gator trophy during the 46th Annual DIRTcar Nationals at Volusia Speedway Park on Sunday afternoon. The race was the completion of Saturday’s rain-postponed event.
Hoffman of Mooresville, NC picked the pole starting position for Sunday’s matinee via the redraw after winning his heat. From there, he jumped out to a convincing lead, but a trio of cautions, including one with three laps to go, allowed Taylor Cook of Stanley, NC to challenge for the win.
As the yellow flags helped to push the door open for Cook, Hoffman slammed it shut with a smooth run around the bottom of the track over the final three laps to earn the victory.
“Nothing’s going wrong now that we’re rolling,” Hoffman said in Victory Lane. “[The car] was really good. I just ran the bottom and made sure to hit all my marks. Taylor, hats off to him. He ran a great race. We’ll just keep it rolling and make sure nothing falls off tomorrow. We’ll try and get that big check [on Monday].”
The runner-up result was the second top-five finish of the week for Cook, whose previous best DIRTcar Nationals finish was a fourth on Thursday night.
“Last night [after qualifying], we were worried we weren’t even going to make this show let alone Monday night’s show,” Cook said. “To have a run like that is awesome. We had a really good night on Thursday. Wednesday and Friday we struggled a bit. I went backwards on some of the changes I made the other two nights. It seems pretty good now.”
Larry Burkins of St. Augustine, Fla. rounded out the podium finishers with a third-place finish, his best of the week at Volusia.
Hoffman set fast time in time trials on Saturday night with a lap of 18.359 seconds, his fourth quick time award of the week. Other heat race winners were Campbell River, BC driver Jason Beaulieu, Jason Brookover of Washington, WV, and Robbie Eilers of Highland, Ill.
Hoffman, Cook and Burkins are locked into Monday’s $5,000-to-win UMP Modified Gator Championships along with the remainder of the top-10 finishers, including Robbie Eilers, Tyler Nicely, Johnny Broking, David Stremme, Ray Bollinger, Jeff Mathews and Zeke McKenzie.
46th Annual DIRTcar Nationals at Volusia Speedway Park
DIRTcar UMP Modified Notebook – February 18-19, 2017
A-Main – (20 Laps) – 1. 2-Nick Hoffman [1]; 2. 21C-Taylor Cook [8]; 3. 54-Larry Burkins [3]; 4. 3E-Robbie Eilers [4]; 5. 25-Tyler Nicely [9]; 6. 45J-Johnny Broking [7]; 7. 35-David Stremme [5]; 8. 9. 33-Jeff Mathews [14]; 9. 77-Ray Bollinger [2]; 10. 24Z-Zeke McKenzie [6]; 11. 90-Jason Beaulieu [10]; 12. 88-Matt Crafton [12]; 13. 2×4-Chase Collins [16]; 14. 8-Kyle Strickler [34]; 15. 22T-Tony Anderson [20]; 16. 28B-Jason Brookover [15]; 17. 98-Shon Flanery [13]; 18. 40B-Kyle Bronson [21]; 19. D4-Dave Jamieson [28]; 20. 9S-Slater McCray [17]; 21. 14T-Tyler Clem [11]; 22. 6-Dylan Browning [33]; 23. 5-Johnathan Taylor [29]; 24. 18I-Jason Intoppa [19]; 25. 2J-Troy Johnson [25]; 26. Z06-Larry Mott [27]; 27. 17A-Charles O’Neal [31]; 28. 2M-David Mitchell [23]; 29. 11T-Dugan Thye [18]; 30. 96J-Matt Johnson [22]; 31. 78-Rich Pratt [24]; 32. 23-Ryan Cripe [DNS]; 33. 58-Devin Dixon [DNS].
Qualifying Group 1 – 1. 2-Nick Hoffman, 18.359; 2. 25-Tyler Nicely, 18.580; 3. 35-David Stremme, 18.744; 4. 98-Shon Flanery, 18.794; 5. 5-Jonathan Taylor, 19.023; 6. 2J-Troy Johnson, 19.368; 7. 9S-Slater McCray, 19.410; 8. 6-Dylan Browning, 19.716.
Qualifying Group 2 – 1. 90-Jason Beaulieu, 18.360; 2. 54-Larry Burkins, 18.864; 3. 33-Jeff Mathews, 18.867; 4. 24Z-Zeke McKenzie, 19.201; 5. 23-Ryan Cripe, 19.697; 6. 11T-Dugan Thye, 20.589; 7. 96J-Matt Johnson, 21.984; 8. 58-Devin Dixon, No Time.
Qualifying Group 3 – 1. 28B-Jason Brookover, 18.663; 2. 45J-Johnny Broking, 18.818; 3. 77-Ray Bollinger, 18.840; 4. 14T-Tyler Clem, 18.891; 5. Z06-Larry Mott, 19.241; 6. 18I-Jason Intoppa, 19.289; 7. 2M-David Mitchell, 19.784; 8. 17A-Charles O’Neal, 21.579.
Qualifying Group 4 – 1. 3E-Robbie Eilers, 18.664; 2. 2×4-Chase Collins, 18.728; 3. 88-Matt Crafton, 18.779; 4. 22T-Tony Anderson, 18.942; 5. 21C-Taylor Cook, 18.967; 6. 78-Rich Pratt, 19.207; 7. D4-Dave Jamieson, 19.241; 8. 8-Kyle Strickler, 19.265.
Heat 1 (8 Laps – Top 3 finishers transfer to A-Feature, Winner Redraws) – 1. 2-Nick Hoffman [4]; 2. 35-David Stremme [2]; 3. 25-Tyler Nicely [3]; 4. 98-Shon Flanery [1]; 5. 9S-Slater McCray [7]; 6. 40B-Kyle Bronson [9]; 7. 2J-Troy Johnson [6]; 8. 5-Johnathan Taylor [5]; 9. 6-Dylan Browning [8].
Heat 2 (8 Laps – Top 3 finishers transfer to A-Feature, Winner Redraws)- 1. 54-Larry Burkins [3]; 2. 24Z-Zeke McKenzie [1]; 3. 90-Jason Beaulieu [4]; 4. 33-Jeff Mathews [2]; 5. 11T-Dugan Thye [6]; 6. 96J-Matt Johnson [7]; 7. 23-Ryan Cripe [DNS]; 8. 58-Devin Dixon [DNS].
Heat 3 (8 Laps – Top 3 finishers transfer to A-Feature, Winner Redraws) – 1. 77-Ray Bollinger [2]; 2. 45J-Johnny Broking [3]; 3. 14T-Tyler Clem [1]; 4. 28B-Jason Brookover [4]; 5. 18I-Jason Intoppa [6]; 6. 2M-David Mitchell [7]; 7. Z06-Larry Mott [5]; 8. 17A-Charles O’Neal [8].
Heat 4 (8 Laps – Top 3 finishers transfer to A-Feature, Winner Redraws) – 1. 3E-Robbie Eilers [4]; 2. 21C-Taylor Cook [5]; 3. 88-Matt Crafton [2]; 4. 2×4-Chase Collins [3]; 5. 22T-Tony Anderson [1]; 6. 78-Rich Pratt [6]; 7. D4-Dave Jamieson [7]; 8. 8-Kyle Strickler [8].
