With six heat victories and five feature top-five finishes, Rob Bromley put together a solid campaign in 2023 with the JRS Auctions OSCAAR Hot Rods en route to placing third in the year-end standings. As the driver of the No. 6 prepares for the upcoming season, he shared his thoughts with SHORT TRACK MUSINGS.

What are your thoughts as you look ahead to the 2024 season?

I’m kind of excited. Obviously I think we’re going to try and do a full OSCAAR run this year, and I’ll probably run as much as I can at Sunset (Speedway) being it’s local. I’ll do what I can there as well and if they don’t interfere, then I’ll probably a full schedule there as well. I’m looking forward to it. I’m hearing more guys talking about our class that may be joining in so I think if economy doesn’t get in the way and pinch people’s money off too much, I think that we should have some good car turn-outs in both places.

I mean, that’s what you want as a fan is to see good car counts every week.

Obviously there’s some changes going on with what’s happening with interest rates and the price of gas. Everything has gone up for a lot of people and a lot of people are running on budgets that for the regular working person, it’s difficult. I mean, without help or sponsorship, it’s difficult for these guys to run every week and that’s where I try to help a few guys out because I really enjoy the class and want to support it as much as I can.

There’s a few more business guys out there that have pitched in also and helped a few guys out like (Cory) McAllister with his guys – he’s supported a lot of guys, which is good. There’s just guys that couldn’t do it without it, but there’s a limit to all that as well, too.

You had a lot of great runs last season. I personally look back at Sauble (Speedway) with the top-three finish there as one of the big highlights, and running up front at Sunset (Speedway) late in the season there. What did it mean to you to put those strong runs together?

Well, it felt really good. Little disappointed we weren’t able to close the deal on a few of them. A couple screw-ups on my part and that’s all experience; sometimes you make the wrong choices out there. But it felt good to be running up front there and be a competitor. You have some strong guys out there – Tyler (Hawn) has been around for a long time and he’s a really tough guy to beat. So to be able to run with him a bit is pretty satisfying. We were quite pleased.

Overall, between all of our cars, we had 21 checkered flags with Rick (Spencer-Walt) winning two features in my cars. So we had a pretty good season. I’m a little disappointed that I didn’t get a feature. My goal was to get a couple feature wins and that didn’t happen, but certainly we came close a couple times. Overall, it was pretty satisfying.

So what do you feel that you need to work on as a driver and team to get that point where you’re reaching that goal of getting those wins?

I think it just comes down to maybe a little better preparation. I mean, we work pretty hard. I don’t think there’s many guys that work much harder than we do in trying to get to the cars ready. But just a few fine things that we have to improve on, and I’m not exactly sure what that is yet. Maybe a tiny bit of race set-up and obviously a bit of driver set-up, too. There’s me in making a few better choices will help improve those chances as well.

What track is your favourite to run at in the province, and why?

Sauble Beach. I probably have my best success there. We always seem to run strong there. I’ve had a win up there, some heat wins, we’ve ran second there a couple times. So I would say Sauble is my most comfortable track that we’ve had our most success at for sure.

I was going to say – what is it like getting that first win with the Corvair there now a couple years ago?

It was great. That was quite a surprise, honestly, to go up there the first time in a car in six years and win was pretty satisfying. So it kind of set the standard pretty high for us to win another one. As you know, we led most of the race there until three laps left, I made a bad choice in lane selection with lap cars and got passed, obviously. The prior year, we led most of it as well and then the car quit on me on the restart and we went first to last. So we’ve had some pretty good success there so I’d really like to close the deal up there, at least once.

What is it about the hot rods that you like and keeps bringing you back each season?

I guess that’s my generation. I grew up with that style of car, I raced that style in late model when I raced back in the 80s and early 90s, so it’s the same style chassis so I’m comfortable with that and the body designs that 70s and 80s cars is what I grew up. I kind of relate to that.

I like to say it’s also more of a gentleman-like class, but it has its moments as well where it can get aggressive and a little out of hand as you know – there’s been some battles out there. But overall, it’s a class where guys are a little more protective of their equipment I think then say the regular cars where it’s easy to change panels on.

I was going to mention it as you’re talking about it, but the cars. We’ve seen different styles come out of your shop, from the Corvair to the Javelin to the T-Bird and now the Challenger. What’s been your favourite body style to have in the series so far to date?

I’d have to say the Javalin was probably my favourite of the three. Mind you, the Corvair I really enjoyed, too. It was a car that lots of windows in it, easy to see out, not many pillars  – I found it a very easy car to drive and see out of. So I only got a chance to run that car twice, but I was quite comfortable in it.

But I would have to say the Javalin would be my favourite of the bunch. That’s where I’ve had most of my success in to date. It’s a comfortable car to drive, and I’ve had a few other guys drive it and they’ve said the same thing. I don’t know what it is about it, but there’s something that makes it an easy car to drive.

So what got your interest in racing started, even before coming back these years?

Well, I first started off – I guess I was 17 when I first ran an Endurance race back at Barrie (Speedway) way back in the day. So that would’ve been 1980. I ran 250 laps, just because I’d always been into cars and fixing cars. That’s where I got the bug – ran the 250 laps and finished third in the first time there out of 80 cars. It kind of started from there and then a couple years later, traded an ATV for a six-cylinder racecar and the rest is history. I kind of got hooked.

Who would you consider your racing hero?

I was always a Bill Elliott fan back in the day, so I’d have to say Bill Elliott was the guy that I used to cheer for the most. I was always kind of a Ford guy back in the day – not as much today as I used to be.

With all of your years of experience behind the wheel, what would be a piece of advice for someone getting started?

Good question. You should probably start in the smaller classes, like the four-cylinder bone stock class. Get comfortable, and don’t try to move up too quickly until you’ve seasoned yourself in that class and step up maybe one or two classes before you take a big step. Experience means a lot. I moved up too quickly when I first started – I was just driving over my head and got myself in trouble, and ticked off a lot of guys in the beginning. So I think that’s important to start small and work your way up as you get more comfortable.