P108
CN
III IN THE PADDOCK
BY MICHAEL SCOTT
T
he story came to me in
a roundabout way, after
several laps. It was attrib-
uted originally to a source inside
the Japanese industry, inside
Yamaha in fact.
And it knocked me sideways.
Had I been wrong, all these
years, in my insistence that
underneath the polished charm
and ready wit, Valentino Rossi is
a ruthless killer?
It goes back to the last race
of 2013, at Valencia. It was
there that the shocking news
broke—that Rossi had summar-
ily dumped his loyal crew chief
Jerry Burgess. A paddock hero
in his own right.
Burgess's portfolio includes
crew-chiefing Australian compa-
triots Wayne Gardner and serial
winner Mick Doohan to the 500
title. Not to mention working in
1983/5 champion Fast Freddie
Spencer's crew (that's how long
he'd been around).
Burgess had been with Rossi
since the 125 and 250 champ
joined the premier class in
2000. He (along with his mainly
antipodean crew) had followed
him from Honda to Yamaha, to
Ducati, and back to Yamaha.
Together they won seven titles,
survived the Ducati slump, and
were back winning the occasion-
al race. Surely as much as Rossi
could expect, as the twilight of
CHARM AND THE CHAMPION
