RIP GENE ROMERO
Charismatic US racer flew the flag for Triumph on the other side of the Atlantic
We salute the US racer who was always a Triumph man at heart
ONE OF AMERICA’S greatest racers, Gene Romero, has died aged 71. A tigerish yet consistent performer equally proficient on dirt or tarmac, Romero was US Grand National Champion in 1970 riding for the Triumph factory team, and won both the 1974 Ontario Classic and the 1975 Daytona 200 after joining Yamaha. Although he enjoyed success with the Japanese make, he always said he was a Triumph man at heart.
Featured in the acclaimed 1971 film On Any Sunday, good-looking Romero was well groomed and possessed witty repartee as well as outstanding talent. A supremely professional racer, he had a business-like approach to sponsorship (his sponsors included stuntman Evel Knievel) and was meticulous on machine preparation. Gene was born in Martinez, California in 1947 to a Mexican immigrant father and a mother of German heritage, but grew up in San Luis Obispo, 200 miles north of LA. Starting young in dirt racing on a Triumph Tiger Cub, he also raced karts and midget cars. Before he was out of his teens, he had achieved Expert status for 1966, racing a 650cc Triumph built by Pat Owens of Meriden distributor Johnson Motors in TT events, a Love Brothers-tuned 500cc Triumph on flat tracks and briefly a Harley-davidson V-twin. His nickname ‘Burrito’ originated from veteran Neil Keen’s teasing of the rising star.
In 1967 Romero made his Daytona 200 debut with the Johnson Motors team, taking eighth place in a Triumphdominated race, and took the first of his 12 Grand National wins at the Lincoln, Nebraska TT in 1968. In 1970, when 750cc ohv engines became legal in US road racing,
Triumph fielded freshly-built racers powered by the three-cylinder Trident unit. Daytona qualifying was on the oval track, without the infield section included in the race. On a triple laboriously fettled by Owens, Romero topped the field with a sensational lap at 157.342mph. In the race, taking to the grass on an infield turn probably cost Romero and Triumph the win, which went to Dick Mann’s ailing Honda CB750 Four by 10 seconds.
While clearly versatile, Romero was at his best on mile and halfmile dirt ovals. Preferring Triumph’s more agile twin to a triple for these events, he clinched the 1970 Number One plate using the newly-homologated T120RT engine with a Sonny Routt 750cc big-bore kit. Expertly tuned by CR Axtell, it was installed in one of Ray Hensley’s first Trackmaster dirt frames. After winning the crucial points-heavy Sacramento Mile, Romero sealed his title with another win on Ascot’s half-mile.
In the 1971 championship, he was runner-up to Dick Mann. Second to the BSA rider at Daytona, Romero won on the San Jose and Oklahoma City half-mile ovals as well as the Nazareth one and an eighth-mile track. Triumph was in decline, and after taking Meriden’s last National win on the San Jose Mile in 1973, he accepted an invitation to test with Yamaha, in strict secrecy at first. As an official team member with Kenny Roberts and Don Castro from 1974, he raced the Xs650-based 750cc twin flat-tracker as well as fearsome Tz750cc two-stroke fours. In April 1974 he notched up a One Hour world record at 150.42mph on Daytona’s banked oval and was in America’s victorious Transatlantic Trophy squad in 1975.
After retiring from competitive racing, he managed Honda’s US flat-track campaign from 1982-85, winning two AMA championships. Turning to promotion, he ran the West Coast Flat Track series. Gene Romero visited the UK for the Beezumph Rally in 2008 and the Stafford Show in 2016.
‘HE ALWAYS SAID HE WAS A TRIUMPH MAN AT HEART’