The Nicest Guy in Professional Dirt Track Racing, and a Helluva Colleague

1995-2026

Motorcycling, as the vast majority of us know, is a literal joy to behold — a thrilling and often lifelong practice that captures us and sustains us through life and its many challenges.

But as we also know, riding brings a level of risk to our lives, and on occasion, unfortunately, motorcycling reminds us of that.

The evening of Saturday, June 27^th in Lima, Ohio, was one of those times, for during an American Flat Track heat race at the Allen County Fairgrounds, one of our own – AMA Assistant Track Racing Manager Dan Bromley – paid the ultimate price, passing away after being involved in a crash on the track’s back straightaway.

Dan was just 30 years old, and leaves behind a wife and young family, a mother, a father and a brother. 

Dan Bromley was the epitome of the classy competitor; talented, absolutely, with a couple of American Flat Track National Championship number-one plates to his credit (he won the 2018 AFT Singles title and the 2025 AdventureTrackers champion) and won the 2011 AMA Flat Track Horizon Award. He rode all sorts of classes in the AFT professional ranks, and was always a threat to win, whether on a single or one of the larger and faster twin-cylinder bikes.

But it was Dan’s character and soft-spoken, friendly personality that made him a standout champion. Ask anyone who knew him or raced with (or against) him; they’ll tell you straight away he was a joy to be around, to pit next to, to race against, or just have a beer with after the race.

I first met Dan while working for American Flat Track during the 2018 AFT season, and I can tell you his positive gravitational pull was hard to escape. Walking the paddock, you couldn’t resist stopping into his EZ-up for a chat, and if then-girlfriend-and-now-wife Connar was there helping out as she always was, you’d end up with a cold drink and be asked to have a chair. They were just unbelievably nice people to be around, and totally unlike the grim-faced and sometimes humorless racer-types you often hear about.

And this I’m sure is precisely why he was hired recently by the AMA to assist Track Racing Manager Ken Saillant in our Racing department. Not only was Dan respected by riders for his knowledge of racing generally and his undeniable skill on a motorcycle, but his mellow and positive demeanor was instantly valued when rules were enforced and discussions got heated, which is part of the deal where serious racing is happening.

That’s what’s needed in those situations: calm expertise and a large dollop of patience. Which is exactly what Dan Bromley provided.

As a father of a 30-year old son myself, I cannot even imagine the pain Dan’s mother, father, brother, wife, kids and extended family must be feeling. We can only keep them in our prayers and help them physically and emotionally as much as we can in the coming months and years.

It’s brutal for everyone who knew him. But as Dan would undoubtedly advise were he here to counsel us, “I’ll miss you all. But please, go out and continue to enjoy our sport, and carry on the traditions we established. I’ll be watching and praying for you all.”

That’d be typical Dan. Positive and powerful.

Rest in peace, big guy. 

By: AMA Editorial Director Mitch Boehm

Boehm has 40-plus years of motorcycle-industry and motojournalism experience, including staff positions at Motorcyclist and Cycle World, as well as a 15-year stint as editor-in-chief at Motorcyclist magazine from 1993 to 2008. He worked as an R&D expert for American Honda in the early 1990s, arranged, co-wrote and edited AMA Hall of Famer Malcolm Smith’s acclaimed autobiography Malcolm! The Autobiography, was America Flat Track’s communications director in 2018-19, and was previously editor-in-chief at Thunder Press magazine.