REMEMBERING GENE ROMERO, 1947-2019
P110
Feature
Palmgren were all driving
our vans drafting each other
probably going 70-80 miles
per hour, and we were run-
ning alongside this long train.
Those guys got their guns
out and were shooting at the
train cars, watching the bul-
lets spark and ricochet.
Even though it was a long
train, the engineer must have
seen what they were doing.
So pretty soon we see these
lights behind us way off in
the distance. As they got
closer, we could see it was
cops. We thought maybe
there was a big accident or
something down the road,
but no, they pulled us over
and see we all have guns.
I was mad because I
thought, here I wasn't doing
anything and I was going to
get in big trouble and end up
in jail. I don't know how he
did it, but Gene somehow
convinced the cops it wasn't
us who was shooting at the
train cars and they couldn't
really prove anything, so
they let us off with speeding
tickets.
If that had happened today
with social media and all that
stuff, we all would have been
fired and been out of racing.
It was just a different time.
Racer Mark
Homchick:
I had the honor of being
called a "p--sy" by Gene
when I wouldn't start the sec-
ond heat of the '82 Laguna
national, because of gear-
box problems. Laguna, with
its lack of run-off, was one
place I was not going to risk
a gearbox failure.
(Above) Romero (center) after winning
the 1975 Daytona 200 along with third-
place finisher Johnny Cecotto (left) and
runner up Steve Baker. (Below) Romero
doing his thing in Pennsylvania in 1969.
