Hoffman Gets Back To WoO LM Victory Lane In Georgia

NORMAN PARK, Ga. – Entering Friday’s World of Outlaws Real American Beer Late Model Series event at Needmore Speedway, Nick Hoffman had experienced the best month he could have imagined that didn’t include a win on tour.

Hoffman had earned eight top fives in a row, including a World 100 podium at Ohio’s Eldora Speedway and a COMP Cams Super Dirt Series victory. It was an incredible stretch.

And after more than two months of close calls, Hoffman finally broke through at Needmore for his fifth World of Outlaws win of the year and first since Deer Creek Speedway on July 4.

“In modifieds and late models, I’m just not very good on red clay,” Hoffman said following his maiden series triumph in the southeast. “But when I looked at it today, I was like, ‘it’s shaped like something I would like,’ [being] very circular where I can carry momentum.

“I used a lot of my notes from what I learned last week at Eldora.”

Those notes guided Hoffman to a runner-up in his heat race, earning him an invitation to the feature redraw, where he earned the Bilstein Pole Award. He shared the front row with Tim McCreadie, and it was ‘T-Mac’ who won the battle of the No. 9 cars to grab the early lead.

Hoffman didn’t let McCreadie go far, though, and was about to make it side-by-side out front until Matthew Taylor slowed at the top of turn four to bring out the caution. The reset played right into McCreadie’s favor, as he nailed the restart and maintained control of the race.

But like he did before, Hoffman started gaining ground as the run went on, and was quickly back on McCreadie’s bumper on lap 17 of the 40-lap contest.

Hoffman got to McCreadie’s inside exiting turn four, nosed out in front by the start-finish line to lead the lap, and cleared him at the other end of the track to get out front for the first time.

The next mission for Hoffman was to weave his way through traffic, which he did without any trouble until the final caution of the night on lap 26 for a spinning Kyle Bryant.

That put clean air back on Hoffman’s nose, and he took advantage by running the final circuits unopposed on his way to the checkered flag.

“That outside lane could fire off a little bit better, and he was able to get out front in the Heat Race and the feature,” Hoffman said. “Just paced [McCreadie] and made him charge a little harder than he wanted to, and kind of kept my tires underneath me where I was able to charge in the middle stages of that race.

“I just felt like I was a little snugger than he was, where I could get down the racetrack and he was kind of relying on a little bit of that moisture, and it just worked out for us.”

Series points leader Bobby Pierce was uncharacteristically off in heat race competition, finishing third to miss the Redraw for the first time in six races.

He made his way up to second in the feature, but didn’t have enough to extend his four-race win streak.

“I was just glad to get to second after starting seventh,” Pierce said. “I was pretty [down] in the dumps after the heat race there; you never want to start pole of your heat and drop back to third and fall out of the redraw spot. That was our chance to win the race gone there, but we got to second, so we’ll take it.”

The final spot on the podium went to Brian Shirley, who finished third to extend his top-five streak to five as he continues to chase his first win since the Prairie Dirt Classic.

“We’re getting close,” Shirley said. “We’ve been working. We’re not there 100 percent, but we’re definitely getting closer. We’re going to keep working hard.”

Tanner English brought the No. 96 home fourth for his first top five since his Highland Speedway win, while Cody Overton was the highest finishing Georgia driver in fifth.

With a drive from 23rd to 13th, Dustin Sorenson earned FOX Factory Hard Charger Award honors.

The World of Outlaws late model season continues Saturday night with the Billy Clanton Classic at Senoia Raceway.

The finish:

Feature (40 laps): 1. 9-Nick Hoffman [1]; 2. 32-Bobby Pierce [7]; 3. 3S-Brian Shirley [4]; 4. 96-Tanner English [6]; 5. 2-Cody Overton [10]; 6. 5-Mark Whitener [3]; 7. 28-Dennis Erb Jr. [8]; 8. 19R-Ryan Gustin [17]; 9. 74X-Ethan Dotson [5]; 10. 76-Brandon Overton [18]; 11. 9M-Tim McCreadie [2]; 12. 40B-Kyle Bronson [11]; 13. 19-Dustin Sorensen [23]; 14. 10-Joseph Joiner [9]; 15. 17SR-Brody Smith [16]; 16. 49-Jake Timm [15]; 17. 22*-Drake Troutman [19]; 18. B1-Brent Larson [14]; 19. 17SS-Brenden Smith [13]; 20. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain [12]; 21. 48-Hunter Kohn [22]; 22. 79-Kyle Bryant [20]; 23. 111-Steven Roberts [21]; 24. 38T-Matthew Taylor [24]; 25. 44D-Dalton Cook [25].