REMEMBERING GENE ROMERO, 1947-2019
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competent whether on asphalt or the sometimes
more demanding mile dirt tracks.
But for all his success, and there was a lot of it,
what endeared him to the fans both sides of the
Atlantic when he represented America against the
best that England, and sometimes the world had
to offer, was his open, warm and smiling personal-
ity. He loved his fans and took time to acknowl-
edge them, as much as they loved him.
I filmed Gene at the Ontario race, and when we
were putting together the edited version, Gene
recorded a phrase for me that stuck with that
audience for a long time. He described: "Racing
a motorcycle at 180 miles an hour is like driving
down a freeway at 90 miles an hour and suddenly
turning into your driveway. Things tend to happen
in slow motion until you miss your braking mark,
and then all hell breaks loose out there." CN
Romero at the San Jose Mile in 1970.