Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/1119655
CN III ARCHIVES BY LARRY LAWRENCE O ne of my most memorable evenings of racing was spent hanging out with Gene Romero. It was the Indy Mile and the 1998 AMA's Dirt Track Grand Championships. I was doing PR for the event featuring the lead- ing up-and-coming amateur flat track racers, and Gene was the honored guest of the event. If you've ever been to one of these amateur events you know with all the classes they tend to drag on, but hanging with Gene made watching kids racing until 1 a.m. bearable, enjoyable even. Gene, American Motorcyclist Senior Editor Grant Parsons, and I were watching the racing from the grandstands. Gene was entertaining us with stories of his racing exploits over the years, and we were soaking in every minute. We loved being the pri- vate two-person audience to one of racing's all-time great racon- teurs, and Gene was definitely in his element. In between stories, Gene would give us his expert opinion on what needed to be done with track prep. "It's almost where it needs to be right now," Gene said looking over the dirt on Indy's famous mile oval. "All they need to do is P128 WE'LL MISS YOU, BURRITTO spritz it. Just a light mist, and it'll be perfect." For years after, whenever Grant and I ran into each other at an event, all we had to do to crack each other up was repeat Gene's line, "Just spritz it!" That was Gene Romero. He was the kind of guy you remem- bered with a smile. Over the years, I'd occasionally call up Gene for a quick chat. We'd talk about whatever issue was going on in the world of motorcycle racing at the time, and inevitably Gene would have the answer to the world's problem, and I would usually get a bonus of another epic Gene story I hadn't heard before. I first met Gene when he was managing Honda's dirt track program, which was based out of my hometown of Indianapolis. He was freshly retired from racing at that point so he could give Bubba Shobert and Ricky Graham great pointers in dialing in Honda's new RS750 racing machine. As a young race reporter for Cycle News, I quickly learned I could always get a good quote from Gene, and Gene was always accommodating, even to a new reporter who was getting his first Gene Romero left a lasting mark on motorcycle racing throughout his 71 years. opportunity to cover national races at that time. I once sat next to famed auto racing reporter Robin Miller on a plane coming back from Charlotte, and he told me some great stories about he and Gene promoting some indoor flat track races, one particular at the old Cincinnati Gardens arena where practically no fans showed up, and they lost their shirts. Robin said that race made him realize he didn't have the stomach (or the funds) to be a race promoter. Those misfires, however, didn't phase Gene, he kept right on promoting racing events for the rest of his life. Robin also told me a funny story about Gene conveyed to him by Dave Despain. Dave was an aspir- ing flat-tracker in the early '70s, and they were running a flat track in Sedalia, Missouri, but the track