VOL. 51 ISSUE 8 FEBRUARY 25, 2014 P81
So why doesn't Burgess stay
on and work with another young
rider, such as Pol Espargaro, the
Moto2 World Champion tipped to
have a huge future?
Again, Burgess answers the
question in a way you know it's a
subject he's been pondering.
"Once I was a father figure to
a young rider, now I'm more like
a grandfather figure," he says.
"Look, after 34 years I'm very
comfortable with where I am and
what I've achieved. The journey
[with a rookie MotoGP rider] can
be long, maybe five to seven
years."
What obligations does
Burgess have to Yamaha,
who have him on ice this
season?
"I've received no indi-
cation that either Yamaha
Europe or Yamaha Japan
want me to do anything,"
he says. "You never know.
I may get the call to plug
a hole as the season un-
folds, but any role offered
would have to be some-
thing both Yamaha and I
agree upon."
So how does it feel in
the early days of retire-
ment?
"This time of the year
feels like every other since
I first starting doing this
job. Nothing happens until
the first week of February [pre-
season testing]," he says. "The
only difference is that moment
of dread that we all get when we
know we have to head off again
to work, is absent. Actually, I
used to enjoy the huge amount of
air travel. I found all those years
up the front of the plane reading
books for hour after hour quite
calming.
"I'll miss being around the
technology of MotoGP, but I'm
not sure if I'm even going to
watch it live on television. I'll
probably tune into qualifying and
then watch the race afterwards at
my leisure. Actually, I am a little
apprehensive about winter as I
haven't lived through one since
1979. I've always been in the
northern and then southern sum-
mers."
So how does a MotoGP work-
aholic fill in his early days of re-
tirement?
"There are plenty of little jobs
around the place [he lives on a
small rural property] that I never
got around to finishing, but I start
every day with a long dawn walk,"
he says. "Every Friday I play a
round of golf – just for fun as I
haven't played for over 10 years.
On Saturday I play tennis for a
few hours and on Sunday I rest.
"Oh, I'm planning to spend
more time at my local motorcy-
cle club and people have been
pestering me to get a road mo-
torcycle. Then there's the classic
cars. The Mk II Jaguar is pretty
much finished, but the Triumph
TR4 needs going over now. It's
also great just spending more
time with the kids [his daughters
are teenagers now] and Claudine
[his wife]."
Burgess drains his beer and
prepares to head off home in his
early '90s Land Cruiser that he
describes as "the last of the real
4WDs."
Unlike that last drive out of Eu-
rope, today JB's got simpler is-
sues on his mind. Chief among
them is where he's going to fit
the new bushfire hose reel to
his shed and how he's going to
plumb up the hydrant. CN
Burgess surveys his property.
The likeable Aussie says he's
got plenty of projects at his
home in Australia to keep
him busy.
