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Traditional Sprint Car FanSite |
See You At The Races!!! |
| In
Pursuit of The Little Red Sucker by Norm Bogan |
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Author’s note: This story was written after the 1996 season as a tribute to many times “Mechanic of the Year”, Bruce Bromme Jr. He and Ron Chaffin have just captured their sixth straight Owner’s championship. The team is still together and will again be a threat to go for number seven. The “little red sucker” is alive and well, although it is now a John-Boy chassis, it still goes fast and wins races. Over
the past fifty years, there have been a number of open wheel racers, both
sprints and champ cars emanating from the Bromme shops.
Originally, these cars were built from narrowed passenger car chassis and
hand formed aluminum bodies. Today,
carrying the family mantle rests on the shoulders of Bruce Bromme Jr. and the
shop he maintains in the central coast town of Templeton.
His grandfather and father campaigned cars on the AAA national
championship trail back in the thirties and forties and later his dad ran cars
with the CRA. Bruce Jr. was able to
join the circuit at age sixteen in 1967, helping out on the family sprinter
driven by Paul Jones. The car was
the famous "Andy Gump". Naturally,
being from a racing family, Bruce's boyhood was racing oriented, starting with
his stroller, which was a miniature racing chassis with a handle to push.
As he got older, the handle was removed and an engine installed and Bruce
now sat at the controls of a quarter midget.
Bruce Sr. and family friend Bud Thompson, laid out a race course in open
fields around the Bromme's Gardena residence and later in the street of the cul
de sac near his home. Here Bruce Jr. and Bud's young son, Dean, started their
racing careers. Bruce says he raced
at Auction City and Los Alamitos for a short while, before retiring at the age
of five. Bruce
remembers helping out in the shop at a young age. At seven, his small hands were handy for installing nuts
inside the Offenhauser engines, which powered the Bromme cars.
As he grew up, his father taught him to be a craftsman in building the
cars and engines. He mastered the
techniques of hand forming the aluminum pieces for the racecar and continues
today to practice this craft in his business, Bromme Performance Products.
He manufactures oil tanks, crossover pipes, water cans, brackets, rock
guards and other formed aluminum components, which he sells to other racers. Since
leaving high school, he has been employed within the high performance racing
component industry. He started
sweeping floors at Hallibrand Engineering, later worked for Ansen Components,
Joe Hunt Magnetos and Shaver Engines. He
spent a year working at Hughes Aircraft, where he said he had a good job and
good benefits, but he felt lost in the big company atmosphere. Andy
Gump, originally built in 1962, was getting old and new technology was on the
forefront. In 1977, the Brommes
constructed what was to be one of the most successful racing chassis in the
history of CRA. In 1980, they
offered them for sale and had a pretty good chassis business for several years,
until they merged their operation with the Gambler Chassis Company of Tennessee.
They created what was known as the California Gambler, for non-wing
applications. The Brommes used this
chassis for about four years, before switching to a chassis provided by longtime
friend, Laverne Nance. Later, they used a Maxim chassis, until they retired from
racing in 1992. The
Bromme cars had sported many different color combinations, but in the mid-
seventies, they settled on their trademark RED. Bubby Jones lamented after one of his classic battles with
Dean Thompson, about chasing that "little red sucker". After
Paul Jones retired, Bruce's childhood race foe, Dean Thompson took the wheel of
the Bromme car. After a rocky
start, Dean and the Brommes became the masters of Ascot, winning over 100
features and several championships. While
Dean enjoyed the most success with the car, there were a number of other
drivers, many on their way to the Hall of Fame, who sat at the wheel of the
Bromme car. Drivers who took a turn
in the "little red sucker" were; Bubby Jones, Billy Boat, Stan
Atherton, Mike Sweeney, John Redican, Jimmy Oskie, Jerry Meyer, Jeff Heywood,
Dan Hawley, Hank Butcher, Jimmy Sills, Bob East, Rick Ferkel, Wayne Bennet, Walt
Kennedy, Billy Wilkerson, Mark Alderson and Verne Sweeney. Doug Wolfgang wheeled Hank Higuichi's Bromme racer and Steve
Kinser raced Larry Woodward's Bromme. With
all their success at Ascot, it was only fitting that on closing night, Billy
Boat set the all time fast time for a non-wing car at 17.958 seconds. Bruce
said that one of the best lessons learned from racing, started as a very
embarrassing moment. He was chasing
his tail one night trying to get the car to work right. He walked over to Rick Ferkel to inquire about tire
combinations and Rick told him in front of other racers, that a professional
knows about his tires and what to run. Bruce
left red-faced, but realized that he must be prepared and understand his
driver's technique and track conditions and select the correct combination to be
competitive.
After
retiring the Bromme racer, Bruce moved his shop to Templeton, where he was
recruited by Bob Walker to help in his car preparation in 1993.
In 1994, Gene Manhire had Bruce maintain his racecar for the year.
Manhire's sponsor was Ron Chaffin of Madera Produce.
For 1995, Bruce and Chaffin joined forces to resurrect the "little
red sucker" and seriously try to reclaim that Bromme mystique.
They hired Lealand McSpadden and went on to win ten features and secure
the owner and driver titles. As the
season ended, Lealand announced his retirement.
Chaffin and Bruce again went shopping for a pilot and came up with
Richard Griffin. They finished
first in owner points and second in the driver standings.
The team is back together again this year and hoping for continuing
success. They race an Ellis
chassis, with help from longtime Bromme supporters, Shaver engines, Sander
Engineering and Donovan blocks. Also
aiding Bruce with the preparation duties are veteran crewmen Eric Kauffman, Gary
and Mike Tanaka. Bruce hopes to
keep this team together for several years. Now
at 45, Bruce has accumulated the credentials of success, being named Mechanic of
the Year, seven times, both with CRA and SCRA. The Bromme team won the CRA owners point championship in
1965,80,81,82 and 85. Bruce truly
enjoys what he is doing. He
traveled briefly with Joe Hunt's Indy car team and would liked to have traveled
with the World of Outlaws. He says
he is fortunate that his wife Pamela has been a race fan since 1972 and still
helps out with his business. His
heroes are his Dad, Bruce Sr., who taught him the business and is currently
being inducted into the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame, as an owner and
builder. This is an item of great
pride for Bruce Jr. His mom, Marge
is also a hero, who still cleans the injectors and air filters, a routine she
has done for so many years. She has
also accumulated a fine collection of racing memorabilia.
Driving heroes are A.J. Foyt for all his accomplishments and his neighbor
Rick Goudy, who came back from a devastating crash and fire to claim the CRA
title. He has a number of favorite
tracks including Chula Vista, Oildale, Manzanita, Knoxville, Eldora, Devil's
Bowl, Santa Maria, Skagit, Ventura for the tense action and most of all, ASCOT. Away
from racing, Bruce has played softball, bowled and golfed.
He has a burning desire to pan for gold.
He has all of the equipment and is making arrangements with Ron Chaffin
to get set up in some sierra foothill creeks near Ron's Madera home. |
