The following is from the Pomona Half Mile…
Gene Romero, one of the most colorful and successful flat track motorcycle racers whose popularity introduced the sport to a wider audience of sports fans in the 1970s, has been named Grand Marshal for the AMA Pro Flat Track Finals, set for October 11 at the LA Fairplex in Pomona.
“It’s an honor and I’m flattered,” said Romero, who was inducted in the Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 1998. “I’m looking forward to seeing all my friends there.”
“We chose Gene Romero as Grand Marshal because he is a legend who has bled for the sport for 40 years,” said Chris Morgan, co-promoter of the AMA Pro Flat Track Finals. “He has been a great friend, and the legacy he has left as a rider, promoter and an ambassador for the sport makes him exactly the type of person who deserves this honor.”
Romero was the youngest Grand National titleholder in the sport’s history when, at 22 years old, he won the 1970 championship and the fans’ most popular rider honors, just seven years after his first amateur race at Ascot Park in Southern California. He was so dominant that he sealed the championship by winning Sacramento Mile with two races remaining on the schedule.
As a factory rider for Triumph, Romero won motorcycle racing’s most prestigious event, the 1975 Daytona 200, one of his 12 AMA Grand National victories, after qualifying on the high banks and infield road course at more than four miles an hour faster than the second-fastest bike in the race.
Following his 1981 retirement after 16 years as a professional rider, Romero managed Honda’s dirt track racing program until 1985. In 1990, Romero created the West Coast Flat Track Series, which over the years has given novice and semi-pro riders a place to race at more than 30 venues stretching from Southern California to the Pacific Northwest.
When the AMA Pro Flat Track Grand National Series returns to Pomona for the season’s finale, three riders will be contending for the championship Romero won more than 40 years ago. Michigan rider Jared Mees turned the tables on point leader Bryan Smith at the Calistoga Half Mile on Sept. 27 with a second place finish that that turned a nine point deficit into a thirteen point advantage after Smith was disqualified for oiling down the race track. Pennsylvania rider Jake Johnson also is in the hunt.
Ticket and race information is available at www.flattrackfinals.com
