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good enough for years was no longer ready for prime time. Mechanics and riders struggled that day at Ontario with tire choices. "The ass end" says Romero, "was getting too slippery." Roberts, whose skills were such that he could race anywhere on anything, is even threatening to not ride at all. Agostini is on Dunlops, but the American team riders' bikes are Goodyear-shod. Different brands, different compounds, different men with their own experiences about what it feels like to have a tire break loose at speeds over 100 mph. Liveli - hoods and even lives are at stake, but, alas, a race is to be run and a choice must be made. In what Ulrich refers to as "the wear versus traction" dilemma, Roberts makes his choice and Romero makes a different one. Roberts picks a harder compound, likely reasoning that it will last 100 miles. Gene Romero is opting for the softer, stickier tire, the one he says "we've always used. I want to win this sucker." When the flag fell for the first of the two 100-mile heats, it was Don Castro in front of the pack, which suddenly was shy one world champion: Agostini had a dustup with another rider and wound up on the ground and out for the day. Roberts and others followed Castro, with Romero around eighth, but moving up quickly. Castro would also crash out of the event. Romero passed everyone, including Roberts on his way into the lead. Sheene would pass him once, but Romero retook the lead. An almost disastrous collision with another rider while pitting for fuel nearly put him on his own ass end, but he would save it and cruise to a victory. Behind him, privateer Jim Evans had put in an outstanding ride to sec - ond, with Roberts third. One down, one to go. When the second leg left the starting line, it would be Kenny Roberts out in front. Furious at his tire miscalculation in race one, the champ was now sporting the same shoes that his teammate had selected. With the softer compound, Roberts was in his good place, setting a new track record on lap one! But this leg was only one bat - tle. The war was still to be won and Romero didn't need to beat Roberts; he just needed to beat everybody else, which is exactly what he did. When the results were tallied, his 1-2 topped Roberts' 3-1. Gene Romero, who had muttered pre-race "I'm not even considered a dark horse," had won his first-ever AMA road race, taking home a little more than $10,000 in prize money and contingencies (including $1000 from L&M cigarettes for "The Most Outstanding Racer of the Day Award" voted on by the motorsports media). Puzzlingly, many of those same writers used most of their ink to explain not how Gene Romero won, but rather, why Kenny Roberts didn't. Champi - ons are supposed to be victori- ous, so when Roger DeCoster, Bob Hannah and Jeremy Mc- Grath came up short, there was always an explanation. Some- thing went wrong, right? A few months after winning the last road race national of 1974, Romero won the first road race of the 1975 season, which just happened to be the Daytona 200. It was a popular victory for the man known as "Burritto" ("two t's" he quipped to Ulrich), but it happened after Kenny Roberts broke down, Teuvo Laernsivuori crashed, Johnny Cecotto got bumped to the back of the grid and the cof - fee machine at the infield cafe broke down. The day after winning the 200, Romero visited his friend Barry Sheene, who was in the hospital. Sheene had been injured shortly before the big race, a victim of (cue dramatic minor key on pipe organ) a tire failure! Lighting up a couple of smokes, Romero ac- cepted his buddy's congratula- tions and then mused, "I wonder what kind of excuse they're going to give me for winning this one?" Lucky? Good? There's yet another axiom in play here: you make your own luck. Congratu - lations, Burritto! CN CNIIARCHIVES P138 Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives