Rob Bromley Excited for Upcoming OSCAAR Hot Rod Season

After a solid 2025 campaign with a runner-up in the standings, Rob Bromley is one of several The Fyre Place & Patio Shop OSCAAR Hot Rods presented by Bromley Automotive drivers excited for this season. 

“I think it's going to be interesting to see some new faces, and some new cars which is exciting,” he commented. “Hopefully the car counts are going to be up, which always makes it a little bit more competitive. Some of the names I'm hearing, I think it's going to be a competitive year so I find that exciting and yeah, really looking forward to it. Not sure I'm going to be able to make all the races, but I'm going to try and get as many in as possible.So we'll see what happens there.”

For Bromley, his belief in the series as both a driver and a sponsor comes down to a simple thought - it throws back to the era he grew up in.

“I guess it's a sentimental thing in some ways for me,” he commented. “I like to be able to support it as much as I can. I wish I could probably do a bit more, but I just really think it's a great class and it's kind of a little bit of a passion to be able to help the series along as much as I can, so, that's why I keep involved.”

Bromley ran the full 2025 schedule, picking up a pair of wins at Sauble Speedway and Full Throttle Motor Speedway.

“We had some little higher expectations,” he admitted. “We certainly would have liked to have won the championship, but trying to have that concrete finish every week is difficult. We had a couple issues part way through the season that set us back a little bit; had a couple poor finishes and set us back a bit. But overall, I have to be pleased with where we finished. 

“I mean anytime you can finish close in the points with Tyler (Hawn), I think that's a victory. He's so solid week-in-week-out and they really have their program put together really. They're really well-organized and they don't have the failures that sometimes some of us other guys do. But I can't complain. I'm quite pleased with where we finished; certainly, I would love to have won it, but anyway, that didn't happen.”

Now as he prepares for the upcoming season, it’s no secret to see he has Sauble Speedway circled as a place to get back to, with having multiple series victories there.

“Sauble seems to fit my driving style well,” he commented. “I always look forward to going there. I also look forward to Peterborough as well, but Sauble is probably my favorite. It just seems to be my most comfortable track.”

Bromley’s involvement with the series dates back to the initial seasons, including his series debut which came at Sauble Speedway in 2020. It turned out very successful, as he was able to park the Corvair in victory lane after a dominating performance.

“That was just a whim,” Bromley recalled. “We ran for Peter (Schotanus), rented the car, and fortunate enough we were able to pull off a win, and that was pretty exciting for him, too. The last car he raced was a Corvair and his last win was in a Corvair way back in the late 60s and 70s at Sauble Beach, so that was pretty emotional for him to go back there and win it. He was pretty excited - well, we were all excited, but it just seemed like a big full circle for him.

“It was pretty neat because his wife was watching it on GForce. So after the race, A.J. (Emms) called her and Peter and was talking to her, and it was emotional. There were a few tears for him and he’s a pretty hard guy. So it made me feel pretty good too because to see him that emotional was interesting because he doesn't show emotion - well, he shows emotion, but in a different way as we all know, or some of us know, anyway.” 

Since then, he has been behind the wheel of several different body styles with the series, from a Javelin and Thunderbird to most recently the Challenger. The style chosen is something Bromley says comes down to the circumstances at the time.

“For instance, I bought the javelin from Peter Schotanus who originally built it,” Bromley recalled. “The challenger, that was one that we did completely ourselves, that was my choice and again, circumstance of having the opportunity as that body came available to me. So it's not like I'm a great big Mopar fan by any means; I'm not an anti-mopar guy either, but I mean, the circumstance came that the body came out. I think the car looks great and fits the class well, so that's kind of how that came about. 

“So the other cars, I had the Camaro and the t-bird, were basically just purchased as is; they were not in specifics for something that I really liked as a body style. In particular, those cars came available so I thought at the time it was a good deal so I bought them.”

While the cars have changed over the years, one thing has remained the same for Bromley, with Schotanus in his corner each week at the track. The relationship the pair have grown over the years has become invaluable. 

“He's kind of almost taken me on like a son, I think, because he's so protective of me, but I couldn't do it without him,” Bromley admitted. “Quite honestly, I don't have the knowledge and the skills of doing the car setup like he does, so I'm really dependent on him. We just make a good pair - like we get along so well. We're completely different personalities - he's one spectrum and I'm the other, so maybe that's why we mix so well because we can accent each other. I kind of keep him dialed down a bit, but I couldn't do it without him.

“He was today working on the cars in my shop as we're getting all prepared, trying to make a plan for the next month or two and how we're going to get things going. So I certainly couldn't do without them, but I don't know how long he's going to keep doing it. He's 82 years old and he's pretty healthy right now, so hopefully we can go another year or two and we'll go from there.”