Tom Hoffman Ready to Bump Into the Beams At Summernationals In Indy

For years, Tom Hoffman turned heads while racing in Open Comp with the National Mustang Racers Association and National Muscle Car Association.

In the colossally competitive class, the racer from Dexter, Michigan studied how to be successful in his 1968 Mustang, and never stopped learning because he knew his fellow racers were every bit as eager to win as he was.

That road was rewarding in many ways, and when the National Mustang Racers Association and National Muscle Car Association ceased operations at the end of 2024, Hoffman turned his focus to freshening his car’s appearance and finding another home for racing.

In January of 2025, he took his car to Mike Szalay of Mike’s Collision in New Boston, Michigan, for a new paint job. It was a solid move considering Szalay’s skills.

“The back of the car was full of Bondo from when I bought it years ago, and every few years, we would take it to someone to fill in the cracks, so it was time to do something better for it, and I reached out to Mike for help,” said Hoffman. “Mike took the car down to metal, and he replaced the two rear quarter panels, where the Bondo was, with new metal from National Parts Depot.”

While his car was getting a makeover, Hoffman hopped into his wife Cindy’s Mustang in March of 2025 for the Spring Break Ford Nationals at South Georgia Motorsports Park. Unfortunately, his weekend did not go as planned, as he could not get the car dialed in for Open Comp, and, he injured his knee. He later learned that he had a torn meniscus in that knee, and needs a complete replacement of the other knee. His surgery is scheduled for October of 2026.

A bright spot after that bad news was watching work progress on his car at Mike’s Collision.  Szalay gave it a lighter shade of blue than it previously had, and he added wider white and red stripes. Additionally, he replaced the glass windshield and rear window with Optic Armor, and installed rubber and factory trim around them so that they appear closer to stock. Szalay completed the masterpiece by June of 2026.

“Because my knees were shot, I could not race my own car, and I told Mike that so that he did not have to rush,” said Hoffman, who still took his wife’s more mild-mannered Mustang to race in Open Comp at Darana Dragway in Michigan a few times. “I had seen other cars Mike painted, including Chris Holbrook’s stuff, and I think the paint job he did on my car is absolutely beautiful, and I am really happy with how it turned out. It is funny because when I told my friends before the paint job that I was considering drastically changing the look of the car, they got mad at me and told me not to.”

When his car was ready, Hoffman installed his Windsor engine bored and stroked to 427 cubic-inches by Holbrook Racing Engines. It features a Dart cast-iron block, Callies crank and rods, Wiseco pistons and AFR 220 heads. A Turbo 400 by Sean’s Transmission is in place to help plant the power. He then went to a test session, and an Open Comp race, at Darana Dragway in Michigan in early July of 2026.

“I had been running a JW converter that was too loose and stalled at 6500, so before that test session, I put in a tighter JW converter that stalls at 5500, and the car drives better than it ever has,” said Hoffman, who receives help from crew chief Rick Riccardi. “I had been struggling with reaction times with the previous converter, and now my lights are much better, and I got down to the semifinal at that race.”

Hoffman, a maintenance electrician for the University of Michigan who flies banners for longtime sponsor Cribley Drilling Company and new sponsor Velocity CNC, is now preparing to hit the highway for the Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series Summernationals, this weekend, Aug. 7-9, 2026, at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park in Indiana. The track’s general manager, Rollie Miller, and his team added Hoffman’s class, Open Comp, to the lineup, along with Small Tire Pro Stock, Street Warrior 10.10 and 8.60 Eliminator. The winner in each class will earn an NHRA Speed For All Wally trophy.

“I would like to thank Rollie Miller for having Open Comp at this upcoming event,” said Hoffman, who recently switched from slicks to drag radials and has run mid-9s in the quarter-mile and low 6s in the eighth-mile. “I look forward to seeing a lot of the NMCA and NMRA people I used to race with.”

(Photos courtesy of Tom Hoffman)