Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
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VOL. 56 ISSUE 20 MAY 21, 2019 P129 was so rough and rutted all the national numbers refused to run. "Send out those novices," barked Romero pointing at Despain. "They don't know any better." Even though he raced for other makers, Gene will forever be linked to Triumph. It was with the British brand that he won his 1970 AMA Grand National Championship. "Riding for Triumph was re- ally cool, they were wonderful," Romero said after being named Grand Marshal for the AMA Vin- tage Motorcycle Days at Mid-Ohio in 2009. "I had been on multiple brands with factory rides, but I kind of grew up around the Tri- umph thing, and I have some really fond memories of them. It's funny. The real hell-raisers were kind of thought to be on the Triumphs, and that suited me just fine. "Guys like Skip Van Leeuwen, Dick Hammer, who were kind of the real pioneers on Triumph, and Neil Keen and Evel Knievel, who actually sponsored me for a year. Knievel impressed on me the whole idea of promoting yourself and the fact that if you ask for the moon, sometimes you'll get it." That last point was one of Gene's last legacies in the sport. He wasn't afraid to ask for big money from sponsors, and some- times he landed those sponsors during a time when very few, if any, in motorcycle racers were bringing in those kinds of deals. He hustled and brought in big-time sponsors to his racing programs from outside the motorcycle industry. At one point or another, he had Ocean Pacific (swimwear), Anheuser-Busch and Valvoline as sponsors. As he said, Evel Knievel even backed his racing team one season. Gene was one of the first to show up with leathers that were custom designed featuring a spon- sor's logo emblazoned across the entire outfit. Gene came up in an era when motorcycle racers didn't make a lot of money, so he was always hustling, looking for an angle to earn a little extra cash. Used to operating that way most of his life to make a living often meant, when you talked to Gene about making an appearance, even if he was being honored, the first thing he wanted to know was how much he was going to be paid— and his fee wasn't cheap. The other thing most people don't know about Gene is that he wasn't a natural on a motorcycle. He had to work really hard at getting to the level he got to, and much of it was by sheer will and hours of practice. It took him sev- eral years to get to the point that he was consistently competitive at the national level. He didn't ride too much recreationally. If he was on a motorcycle, he was racing. His buddy David Aldana laughed when he talked about the time he talked Gene into go- ing trail riding with some of their buddies. "He couldn't ride a dirt bike worth a darn," Aldana grins. "We'd get to a steep hill, and somebody would have to get off and ride his bike to the top." Everybody, however, loved hav- ing Gene around. When he and Aldana got together, you might as well forget it, they were going to own the floor. The best part was that no one minded. They knew Gene and David's stories were the best you were ever going to hear. A lot of people in the industry I've talked to since Gene died say he's gone too soon. While that's true in a sense, if you heard about a chain-smoking motorcycle racer who came up in the lethal racing era of the 1960s, who would go on to become national champ and win one of the biggest races in the world then live to just shy of 72, it puts things in a completely different perspective. We'll miss you, Burritto. CN Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives