Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

M N " with Gene '" ~ ... N Cl N c: ..., ~ ROlllero CN : Do you lik e recognition? Yo u seem to enjo y signi ng au tograp hs an d things li ke that. GR : If it wasn ' t for th e fans I w ouldn't b e in business. I di g th e people ; I'll just sign au tograph s until I ca n ' t sign them no more. As far as I'm c o nc erned, fans co m e first. They p ay th e bills. Phil R ead h ad a rubber stamp an d I th ought that was comp le tely ab su rd. Anybod y who would b rin g a rubber st amp to sign au tograp h s is crazy. T ha t 's ter rib le. Last East er th e Triumph an d BSA . teams went to Englan d t o race in th e Anglo-American exhibition series. It was a chanc e for o ur dirt-track ers to ge t road race . ex perienc e, which is important, for the most points were to be earned o n asphalt in 19 71: CN: You wouldn' t England ? GR: You're right. race over in CN : Why not? GR: 1 didn't even want to go . 1 h ad to o much work to do ov er here. I had to get my bi kes ready fo r th e Champ ionship trail. I have an important job o f lo cating parts fo r the guys to put together. I don'twant them to b e overworked . either, and an ything I can do to help them, I'll d o it . Bo y, it was just the wrong time for m e. CN: But y ou did go o ver there ? GR: Yeah. CN: But y o u d idn't race? GR: No, I didn't ride. CN: Why not? G R: 1 had all to lose and n othing to gain . If I would h ave gotten off over there and broken niy leg or something I would have been out a lot o f money . F or what? And the p romoters really didn't want to fo rk o u t an y bi g money for me t o ride so I just said , ' H ey, far out, I'll just go over th ere and cruise '. And 1 met a bunch of groovey people. I don't think there are any people who disrespect me for n ot r id in g. CN: A lot of pe ople did. GR: Well , everybody to their own op inio n. That's what makes this baby tum ' round.. CN: Aren't y ou afraid , of making enemies? You have made a lot of enemi es. GR: There 'are a lot o f b ackstabbers in this world. CN: Have you stabbed any backs? GR: Not that I know o f. [A long pause] A lot of people say things ab o u t me in more of a jealousy thing. CN: Y ou th ink so ? GR: I don't kn ow. What are th e things you heard? CN: Uh, well, mostly rumors, through -the- grap evine stuf f. BIah-blah-blah. GR: Well , uihat.t CN: Like th e England thing. Several people said y ou didn 't ride because yo u were afraid of getting b eat. GR: I'm not afraid of getting b eat 'cause they ain't gonna get a cherry . That's putting it quit e mildly. If they could understand what I had goin g for me and what I had to lose - I h ad all to lose and nothing to gain is what it boiled down to - 1 worked so long to become Grand National Champion and 1 want to collect the fruits o f it. If I'd have gon e o u t an d co mp le tely destro yed mys elf - broke an arm or a leg - I'd h ave been out. That wo uld h ave b een utterly ridiculo us. A nd if you do feel that w ay, and you d o ride , th en y ou feel ~ea!I'X !>a~, $0 I just told ~r ery body , and th at was It .' Simple as th at . ;£ w Z w oJ U >- U CN: Is that why y o u didn't ride the Ascot Challenge thing? [At th e As cot TT late last July , Romero, sitting o u t his last rac e before his sup ensi o n was over, " challenged" all co mers at the next half mile, putting up $ 200 t o anyone who beat him. Of course, the promoter put him up to it and it is a shame Gene consen te d , to suc h Roller Derby h ype, as we shall see.] GR: No, a t the As cot challenge thing I bl ew the engi ne that 1 w as goi ng to run, at Corona th e day before a t practice. CN : But you have other bikes... GR: Oh y eah, I had o th er bikes. I had tw o other bikes. One was sp ecially built fo r Corona an d it couldn't com p ete at Ascot. It was b uilt for the Natio nal race. The o ther was a b ack-up b ik e that wasn't set for As cot. I have to have a bike that's set up the right way. The back-up bike wasn 't re all y a ba ck-up b ike , ac tually. It was jus t t here t o take p ieces off as we need ' em. I alr eady wr o te a letter to answer Gavin T rip p e's co mm en t abou t th at . CN : What exactly did Gavin say ? He wrote a letter to Rus s Mar ch co m p laining... GR : H e sure d id . CN: Well, what ex ac tl y did he say? GR: He wrote a bunch of stuff I didn't app reciate. It 's all over as far as 1 know. CN : There was n o legal action ? GR: If y o u can 't ra ce, y o u ca n ' t race. It wasn't a phony de al; it was a legit thing. CN: And you did want to rid e Ascot? GR: Sure did, or I wouldn't have said it. He was the guy who put me up to it , though . CN: But y o u said yo u wouldn't ride England becau se you could have fallen off, so ... GR : But Asco t Park is where I cu t my teeth, There's a bi g di fference there. England's an unknown pl ace and the courses aren 't th at safe . And y ou 're riding against p eople wh o y o u'v e n ever ridden b efore. There are ju st too many unknown factors. There 's only two times when I race and th at's wh en I have to or I want to. With that, Gene went into a delightful st ory abou t h ow h e and Da ve Aldana an d the Palmgren broth ers found a n eat track in Greenville, Ohio, between Nationals and went racing. " No pressures," h e said with a far -aw ay smile. "Nobody hassled us. " In normal conversation, Gene talks a blue streak and is usually quite conscious of his mannerisms. But when he begins speaking of racing - th e flat-out, dirty, loud, violen t racing - h is voice slightly ch anges in tone, his eyes lose focu s on a sin gle ob jec t , and h is hands and feet begin working co n tr ols in subtle accompaniment: CN: Once you said, in effect, 'Road racing: n eat. TT : far o u t. But the m ile . Wow! T h e m ile! The mile is where it's at. ' Why ? GR : I could race th at co nsta n tly, it's so neat. Because it kind of gives you th e impression of road racing and half mile at th e same time. It's really a mental th ing. You us e y o ur h ead in all types of racing but ther e , it 's m ore o f 'Who's the foxies t cat? Wh o can ou t-fox th e o ther guy?' In mile ra cing, all the work you put into an engine goes righ t on the ground. On some half-mil es yo u co uld have a stock machine aga inst a bundle of h orsepower and still d o as well or possibly better, wher eas th e mil e ab sorbs every b it of horsepower y ou ca n possibly put o u t.. CN: Ontario : what was th a t day like fo r y ou ? GR : 1 don't know. J ust a fla t w eird d ay . CN: Did it bring y o u d own, wh at with unloading' fn -th e first h eat- and breaking At On tari o : It 's a h eavy game.... a throttle cab le while lead ing th e sec ond ? GR: Brea king a throttle ca b le didn 't bum me out as much as crash ing th e thing. The thro ttle cable, well , th at's just a p art. The reason it broke was be cause we had to reshape th e lin kag e be cause I cras h ed . I'm no t supposed to mak e any mi stakes and I ca n ' t a ff ord to m ake a ny mistakes an d wh en I d o I'm mad at myself and nobody else. If so me thing breaks, that's so m ething els e , but when it's my fault ... CN : Wh en you ge t mad do y o u tend to take it o u t on oth er people, lik e your m echan ics? • GR : No, because th ey weren't in vo lved in it. It was my fault - I hit the oil slick. It j ust h appen,,? and I fell d own. CN: Oil ? We d idn't know there was any ' oil... GR: Yeah . I just didn't crash. The b ack end let go and, th en I go t a b it of traction and it hi gh -sid ed me: CN: Of all the so-called non-road ra cers o n the National Circuit , you had by far the b est seas o n. H ow d o you lo ok for next year? GR : I guess everybody b etter get ou t of th e wa y b ecause I'm co mi n g through. I th ink I've got this road racing thing down. There are a lot of heavy cats y ou go t ta r oad ra ce again st but I think I'm on their level now. I learned a lot ou t there at On ta rio a nd I hope it wasn't a false impressio n . yo u try go ing further and you just get ou t of c on trol. A nd th at is th e fastest ! And pretty so on y o u get in a si tu atio n where tires are sta rting to wear and y o ur gas load is getting ligh te r an d y o u can get it in deep er , an d the same th ing wi th acc eleratio n - y o u can get it on earlier an d earli er - a nd pretty so o n it starts get t ing sq uirrelly . You match th ose two together - y o u run 'er in h ot and get it o n early. , A nd you go tt a be a ta ste ou t of co n trol at b oth ends , but still have it under c o n trol. It 's ki nd of hard to d escribe... T here are all kinds of var iables, like guys in your wa y or ma ybe th e thing isn ' t car b ureti ng right , a nd like th at, an d you go t ta co mpensate so -m uc h Ontario, after I crash ed, At every thing was destr o yed and b et we en Nick (De legia nas ) a nd (Danny) Macias and all th ose guys at the track, th at thing was like a brand n ew bike (af ter th ey fixed it) . It was p erfe ct, ju st lik e I r olled out or th e firs t rac e an d 1 said 'Hey, wa tc h out, I'm coming through , I'm gonna bl ow all you ca ts o ff, I'm go nna bl ow all yo u gu ys off. And I did for a while, until the cab le broke. Th ere 's another bunch o f unsung he r oes . Y ou've go t Danny Ma cias - he 's the manager of th e road racing en d an d you've got Dick Lyttel, Terry Moriarity , Mac Kabinashi, Lloyd Bulmer, the guys in th e back shop. They're a part of my ' National Championship racing along with C.R. Ax tell, Mike Libby , and o f course, my right-hand man , N ick Del egianas. [With that, Gene picked up th e tape r ecorder microphone an d repeated " Nic k Del egianas" qu ite clearly, to make sure we mentioned his name. Delegianas is m ore o f a me chanic . F or ex ample, if y o u ask him wh ere Gene is hiding h e will make sure you don't find him.] CN : What did you learn at Ontario ? Wha t can you learn in o ne da y ? GR : Boy , y ou'd be surprised. Let's put it th is wa y ... h o w would you say it ...well, I con firmed a lot of th ou ghts ab ou t r oad rac ing that d ay . I kne w wh at CN : Do you h ave fun ra cing? you h ad to do and I just we nt and tried GR : Yep. I get a real groovey feeling 'em and I confirmed them. And man, kind of feel lik e a high line hippie, I they just flat work ed. I know what it gu ess. What I mean is, I feel fr ee an d tak es and now I feel really go od. ind epen d en t. You gotta be at a certain You go t ta h ang it o u t an d ride o n the pl ace a t a cer tain ti me but in b etw een edge, and, man , th at 's reall y neat to do. it 's up to y o u a n d wh at y ou want to d o. That's when y ou 're go in g th e fastest, It's really a ne at feeling to be drivin g when y o u' re a taste out of control. Not d own th e road with all y our equipment out of co n tr ol where y ou'r e slamm ing in the b ack and everyth ing is prepared in to walls and bumping in to p eople but and p er fect an d you're ready to when y o u're just a tad out of co n trol. compete with th e re st of th e guys. It That 's as fast as yo u can p ossib ly go, gives y o u a good feeling. It's kind of lik e reall y. When you go t every th ing under b eing a gun figh ter; y o u want to b e th e co ntro l and yo u' r e dialed in and best on e. winning rac es, that 's c ool, but you're going fastest when y ou're just a ta st e out of con trol. You j us t go...(gasp!) ..... CN : We've h eard a lot of people bring and... (gasp!).... like th at. up gunfighters when talking abou t b ik e You try to b e a part of the racing. Wha t is there to b ein g a gu nfigh ter tha t 's sim ilar t o b ein g a motor cycl e. Yo u go into a co m er an d you sh u t o ff h ere and th e ne xt tim e yo u moto rcy cle racer? .,. ~hut .~ ff there and. P,e! lY, soon Y9... ~ay, .. : ..G}~ : , !~:~ .~ .~ .e.":':'Y. lf<\1T!~ : . I y.? ,! .t.'!~~ : .y o u .t I can t go any further , and pretty soon .1. ~e., • ''' , J ' " )\'.1. ., "

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