this season hasn't finished yet but it's close enough to start to reel in some of those rumours for 14 like is Stoner making a comeback???
this season hasn't finished yet but it's close enough to start to reel in some of those rumours for 14 like is Stoner making a comeback???
"Casey Stoner to launch new motorcycle racing career in Moto3 at Laguna Seca round of MotoGP in 2014".
You heard it here first........
"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." John Ono Lennon.
"If you have never stared off into the distance then your life is a shame." Counting Crows
"The girls were in tight dresses, just like sweets in cellophane" Joe Jackson
Well, finally getting an American in Moto2 .......but I'm not expecting too much from Herrin to be honest. He's a good rider, but I doubt that will be good enough in Moto2. They probably should have gone after Cameron Beaubier.
Disclaimer: I don't actually know what I'm talking about and everything I say should be taken as words of wisdom from a armchair general/mechanic/engineer/racer.
so with Rossi and Burgess going separate ways whose burgess going to work for and who'll be Rossi's bitch one wonders?
I would urge Burgess to retire...Unless Suzuki can offer him a good enough deal. But even then, without a seriously talented rider he should prolly turn it down.
As for Rossi's garage, I imagine there is already someone with a signed contract for next year.
I'm not suggesting anything here, merely wondering. Was Burgess as instrumental in the Yamaha being competitive once Rossi got on it all those years ago, as has always been said? I always thought so, what with the thing being so uncompetitive and then not. But could it also have been that Rossi just got on it and did what Stoner did with the Ducati? The bike is better now, since even the tech 3 bikes can be punted along at the pointy end of the field from time to time. But we've never seen Jeorge ride anything else, and I don't recall seeing anyone other than Rossi or him win on the thing.
All just musings, and questions without answer of course. As you were.
Drew if you follow Burgess's CV you will see how success happens around him, it has to be more than a co-incidence.
The harder you work the luckier you getLooking to extend his racing career, in February 1980, Burgess decided to visit Europe to observe the Grand Prix racing scene. But he quickly figured out that he wasn't as young or as well financed as he would need to make it.
Staying with a friend in Surbiton, Surrey, who worked for Suzuki UK, at Burgess's request his friend put his name forward for a mechanic's job with Texaco Heron Team Suzuki at Beddington Lane in Croydon, South London. He already knew team racer Graeme Crosby (who he had raced against); mechanics Mick Smith and crew chief George Vukmanovich (who worked as a mechanic on the Australian circuit in 1978); and had met Randy Mamola in New Zealand in 1976.
Employed as a mechanic on Mamola's GP team, in July 1980, Mamola won the Belgian GP. Burgess remained with Mamola and Vukmanovich at Suzuki until 1983, when he moved to Honda with whom he was to stay for the next 21 years.
Honda: 1983-2003
Moving to Honda, Burgess became chief mechanic to British rider Ron Haslam. In 1985, Burgess was transferred by Honda to Freddie Spencer's support team working for crew chief Erv Kanemoto and preparing Spencer's 500cc machinery. 1985 was Spencer's remarkable "double" year when he won the 250cc and 500cc World Titles, the first time Burgess had prepared a World Championship-winning motorcycle.
The following year, 1986, Burgess was promoted to crew chief of fellow Australian Wayne Gardner, who won the title the following year (1987). In 1989, Burgess became crew chief to Mick Doohan, who went on to win Premier World Championships in five successive years between 1994 and 1998.
After Doohan retired in 1999 due to injuries, Burgess was thinking about quitting; he had witnessed too many major crashes and allegedly didn't want to be a part of it any more. But when Valentino Rossi was given the opportunity to race with Honda, he said the only way Honda would get him was if Burgess was his engineer. Burgess became crew chief to Rossi in what was Rossi's debut year riding in the premier (500cc) class, and helped mastermind Rossi’s seven world titles (five in successive years from 2001 to 2005) in 500cc/MotoGP.
Yamaha: 2004-2010
In 2004, Rossi moved from Honda to rival manufacturer Yamaha accompanied by Burgess and other crew members. Despite different machinery and only a few weeks Yamaha experience, by April 2004, the Rossi-Burgess partnership had transformed Yamaha's previously mediocre success into a victory at their first title race, the South African GP at Welkom.
Ducati: 2011-12
In post-season 2010, Rossi signed a two year contract with Ducati for the 2011 and 2012 seasons and once again convinced Burgess to be part of his team. Burgess also transferred most of his crew, mainly Australians and New Zealanders
The Yamaha can't have been that bad, it just needed final set-up.
Since that time, until the day Rossi slung his leg over the Ducati, he and Burgess carried the legend of being the best development team in the business. The two years with Ducati raised some questionmarks over this. I doubt that we'll ever learn the truth.
But, as I said on the 2013 thread, Aprilia are in need of some experience since their man jumped ship to Ducati and they have announced a full-on MGP effort for 2015. Could be Burgess might end up there.
As I recall, Burgess and Rossi wanted to go the Big Bang direction, but Yamaha factory hierarchy refused, seeing alteration to the proposed spec as losing face. (Not as bad as losing races, though, is it ?)
But team manager Furusawa saw the value in going down the Big Bang road and convinced the management it was essential, so they flew into it and knocked it up in double-quick time, the results were soon evident.
As you've pointed out Jelly, getting Ducati to respond to ANY rider request is unlikely at best. And since the much-trumpeted Audi takeover, what's changed ?
Absolutely SFA...
warm up on sommett sport now
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