AUS : sportsperson_of_the _year?

= Jeremy Burgess back in town for the AFL

August 13th, 2004

Rhett Biglands is back in the Adelaide line-up for Sunday's match against
Richmond at AAMI Stadium - and at 10am Friday (August 13) the big ruckman
will get a rev-up from Adelaide's grand prix motorcycle racing guru and
staunch Crows fan Jeremy Burgess.

Burgess was the crew chief to Australians Wayne Gardner and Mick Doohan when
they won six 500cc world titles (Gardner in 1987 and Doohan in 1994-98) and
he has guided Italian superstar Valentino Rossi to the MotoGP title too the
past three years.

When Rossi switched from the dominant Honda to Yamaha's factory team this
season he insisted that Burgess go with him.

Together they have made the Yamaha a consistent winning bike, with Rossi
victorious in five of the nine rounds of the world championship so far.

Burgess is in charge of the preparation of Rossi's bike and the crew who
work on it. He is perhaps the only man from whom iconic riders Rossi, Doohan
and Gardner have taken orders.

Burgess was a rider of note himself but came to realise that his greatest
talents were in machine preparation and team management - at which he has
become a legend in the MotoGP paddock.

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If Rossi wins the world championship this year - and he is already 22 points
clear of his nearest rivals, fellow Italian Max Biaggi and Spaniard Sete
Gibernau, both on Hondas - Burgess will be a 10-time world champion crew
chief in motorcycle racing's premier category and arguably the most
successful Australian in international sport in the past 20 years.
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Burgess is enjoying a short break at home in Adelaide before the
championship resumes at the Czech Republic MotoGP on August 20-22.

The Cinzano Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix at Victoria's Phillip Island on
October 15-17 will be the penultimate round - and perhaps decider - in the
championship.

CDIHL