Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

~ w Z W ...J U >- U By D avid Swift Aha, go tcha. You hav en't even started re adin g this article a nd alrea d y y ou don't like Gene Romero. You re ally cheered when he fell at th e crucial Ascot Eight-Mile National and were o u tr ag ed when he ast o nished every o ne by winning the next tw o Nationals, putting him dangerously close to keeping the Number One p late. T o top it off, he returned from a crash at the Ontario 25 0 t o ac t ually lead the thing. Sh eesh. What's with th is guy ? Wh Y did we get stu ck wit h som e big-headed kid wh o, becaus e of so me o ccasional m Ons of lu ck, go t to repr esent th e staid AMA and su ch b elo ved h ero es as Bart Mark el and Dick Mann ? S om e Grand National Cham pion, tha t Gen e R om ero. He 's too loud, too flamb o yant , too sex y, too f ast f or his own good. Harumph .... Before Romero left for th e AMA Competition C ongress , he reve aled he was going to try to ge t a tte ntio n on the floor by wearing less-than-acceptable clothes and behaving a bit loudly . After the Congress, when this co nversa tio n took place, there was no mentio n of that. In st ead , he said that he und er st a nds more abo ut fl oor procedure and the like. Then he brought up the AMA Executive Director: CN: What d oub ts d o yo urself when it c om es GR: I re ally don't have hooked u p is a doubt big o f one. CN: Was the suspension justified, then ? GR : I do n' t know. It was a bad deal fo r me. I always wonder h ow things would have come out' if it h adn't happened. But it 's o ver with . I don't believe in sniveling. A t th e Pocono .Nat io nal R oad Ra ce last August, Gene was o ffere d a st o ck car ride in a n upcoming e ven t. Two m onths later , with a bit o f b acking from Cycl e World Magazine, h e qualified 22nd out of 70 drivers, at 136 mph, o n seven cylinders. Top qualifier was 10 mph faster. The race was called af t er 100 miles when Gene was ru nning 16th. The weekend a ft er th e Ontario National, Gene went to Phoenix to work in the pits with USAC 'S Gary Bettenh ausen. R omero d id little more tearoffs and mind th an fet ch Bettenhausen's h elmet afte r the race, but h e was rubbing th e sh oulders h e wanted t o rub. He wants t o get o ff bikes and race ca rs: CN : If yo u wa n t to race ca rs wh y d id you go t o all th at tr ouble t o go ba ck East fo r th e Competition Congress? GR : Well, I w as electe d a nd when you are electe d t o d o a j ob, you d o it . It's good tha t I can b e a m outhpiece b ack th er e so I go t all en th used a nd d id it. Beside s, th at doesn't mean I'm not goi ng to ra ce next year. As far as everyth ing lo oks I'll be racing bikes next ye ar. CN : And you 'll b e driving in 19 73 . accord in g t o plans ? GR: Y eah . Toda y 1 went o u t t o Ontario and talked t o Monty R oberts ab o u t a car thing.. .[Later , R omero confi rmed tha t mor e mee tin gs resulted in a ride fo r him a t th e Mill er 5 0 0 at Ontario next March .] CN : Just a matter of time ? GR: Yeah , time. And knowing the right people at th e right time and r ight p lace. Boy , for m e , every thing is t iming. 1 don't kn ow wh y it is, but I alw ays end up being in the right place at the right time or the wrong pl a ce at th e righ t time. And nothin' in ' between. [Laughter] Either I'm on o r I'm o ff, sim ple as that. CN: Give us an ex ample. GR : Well , lik e a t Pocono, a promoter came up t o me a nd said , 'Hey, you want to race a car?' and I said, 'Yeah, sure.' I though t he was kiddin g. He b ecame serious ; I h app en ed t o be G rand National Champion, which he wanted, and h e h eard I wan ted to drive a ca r . It just happ en ed. CN : You say y our business is y o ur ra cing. The purpose of a business is to make money . Do .y o u race just t o make money? GR: Well, not too many guys can go to work and e njo y it. There's a lot of thi ngs I reall y don' t want to do. It might look like, 'Boy , he's re all y cra zy' but I think I got my act t ogether when it c om es t o racing. Right n ow w e're doing so me testing for next y ear. We h ave some ideas that are go ing to w ork well - we have o u rselv es conv inced that th ey ar e goi n g to ~ ork. It 's like, just b eing better than everyone and traveling and meeting new people and seeing different places. That's an other part of it. A lot of times you d on't feel like working and o th er ti mes you re ally get it - like you're doing three or four all-nigh ters, Then you know it's work . I Wh at it all boils down t o is the des ire to win. I think that migh t a nsw er t h e whole question. It's no t so much for th e money and it's n ot so much for the glory . It's the desire to win. Man, like ' I wo n! ' All th e o th er th ings foll ow it . GR : Bo y , I'll tell you one thing. They'll have t o take 10 guys to replace Russ March. The guy is fantastic. He 's really got it t o geth er . He's th e AMA , as fa r as I'm concerned. CN : He was behind having you suspended during th e seaso n [for not filling out medical forms properly J , wasn 't he? Why would you say something like th at if h e suspended you? Or did h e d o the right thing? GR : T he guy's go t a lot of pressure com in g fro m him on all sides, pro an d con , an d did the best job h e co uld . As far as that suspension thing goes, that's all water under the bridge as far as I'm concerned. I reall y respect the guy a n d ' the j ob he's doing. He 's gre at. CN: So, looking b ack on the suspension, there's no hard feelings? GR: What's done is done. Can't c ry over spilled m ilk. CN: T o win or t o beat everybody else ? GR: What's wincing? CN: That's what I wonder. GR: I'm fri en ds with everybody but when I put on m y helmet I' m b y mysel f. Within reason, though. You don't run people off the track or knock th em d ow n. CN: Do yo u th in k m o st people who race bikes w o uld race cars if it weren't for the money fac tor? GR: The vast m aj o rit y of them race bikes because they dig racing bikes. Period. They dig it a nd h ave a good time ' d oing it. There are some gu ys wh o want to race cars but they d on't want t o take the chance of having th at lean p eri od for a y ea r or two, o r possibly forever. If a gu y is doing well in bike racing . m akin g 20-30 ,000 dollars a year, h e doesn 't want to ta ke the ch an ce o f making 6 ,000. He 's go t a security thing built up. He knows he's go in g t o make 20 in bikes but in cars he can't start o ff at the top . But the majo ri t y o f bikers wa nt to stick with bikes , lik e have a sh op or something like th at. It d oesn't make a n y difference t o m e. I just wanna race and I wanna race a car th at go es o ver 2 0 0 m iles p er h our . CN : T he n you're p retty well pumped on drivin g? G R : Sure ! Gary Bettenha usen's' USA C mach itM and Gene's 'new cam era. J' you h ave about to cars? any. Just getting but it 's not th at ,. , CN: Are y ou p repared fo r d isappointmen ts ? Or a re y ou t o o used to having th ings yo ur own wa y wh en it co mes to competit ion ? GR: I'll ju st have to pl a y it b y ear a nd take it as it comes. Th at 's a bo u t all you can d o. It's a brand new b all game an d y ou go t t o learn th e tric ks o f th e t ra de. I' ll get burnt her e a nd th ere but o n th e _. i oth er !?a,nd its a ne~ ch al\e!'S~, . I J CN : Did you take it seriously when p eopl e said you were a has-been after you broke y our leg. [At Tulare, seve ral years ag o.] G R: I broke a leg. No big deal; it healed. I knew th ey w ere wrong and I had to prove it to them a nd I h ad t o prove it t o m yself. I d on't di g quitters. CN : If you hadn't broken your leg do y o u still th in k you w ould hav e become Grand National Champ? GR : Pos sibly ab o u t two years sooner. [Laugh ter. J CN: Yo u are connected with a lo t o f my'ths. Yo u have quite a reputation for d o in g th is, a nd that, a nd... GR: I don't even know half of them. Bo y , I bet y ou th ere a re some doozie s... CN : D o you enjoy having things sa id abo u t yo u? GR: Well, if I said 'no ' I'd be lyi ng . I d on ' t like t o b e a ru n-o f-th e-mill d ud e. I just like b ein g myself , and if it st ands o u t. .. (Mo re laugh t er.] CN : So you do like standing o ut? G R: Well, we 'r e perform er s and eac h o ne of us is a n in dividual. We're n o t the T ri u m p h te am or th e BS A team. It 's ' Gene R omero' wh o is o n th e T riumph team. CN: Would y ou like t o be a " m ovie star"? GR:: No, not'reall y , 11 c o ul d n ' t h andle it . I I. ;J · l J! : ..1 ~; , 1 ~ . .• 1

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