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Traditional Sprint Car FanSite |
See You At The Races!!! |
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Master Has Left Us by Norm Bogan |
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This past
week, the announcement was made that Bruce Bromme Sr. had passed away.
While he has suffered from health problems for the past couple of years
and his eyesight was failing, he still made many of the SCRA shows, with his son
Bruce Jr., who is the chief wrench on the four time champion, Chaffin
Motorsports Sprinter. Bruce’s
mind was still brilliant until the end, as folks would often bring old photos
for him to identify the cars or drivers from times past.
He would pull the photo closely up in front of his eyes and study it and
then would exclaim, “ it’s not my car, but the tail tank is mine.” Bruce
Bromme was surely an icon in open wheel racing for the past sixty years and was
a master craftsman in building racing machines.
As a youngster, he traveled with his dad, Lou and learned the trade, then
honed his skills for so many years and only retired, after he had passed on
these talents to his son, Bruce Jr., who has achieved much success in his own
right. It was a
pleasure to have known Bruce Bromme and to have him share some of his
experiences with those of us, who got to have an audience with him.
In 1997, he was inducted into the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame.
He will be missed by many, for his talent to take a flat piece of
aluminum and using somewhat crude tools, shape it into a nose piece or a tail
tank for a sprinter. In addition to
his many years as a car builder and owner in competition, he also assisted on
many restoration projects. After
visiting Bruce and his wife Marge about three years ago, I wrote the following
story, “A Stroll Down Memory Lane”. It
gives, some insight into the man, we honor now.
My condolences to the Bromme family and for Bruce, after all these years
of racing, he reached the checkered flag.
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