Valentino Rossi will be racing this weekend at Mugello without his longtime crew chief, Jeremy Burgess. Burgess had to fly back to Australia for a family emergency, and will not make it back to Italy for the 8th round of the 2011 MotoGP season.
Burgess’ wife, Claudine, was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. Burgess will be flying back to Australia to spend time with Claudine and his two daughters.
"First of all I'd like to wish good luck to Jeremy, who won't be able to join us this weekend due to very important personal reasons," Rossi said. "We'll miss him very much in the garage, but we look forward to seeing him at Sachsenring.”
Burgess has been Rossi’s crew chief for all 7 of the Doctor’s MotoGP titles. Burgess was also in the garage for Micky Dohan’s 5 GP Championships.
"We're very sorry not to have Jeremy with us at Mugello for our home race, where we'll have many fans in the grandstands,” said Team Manager Vitto Guareschi. “We're with him in spirit, and we're awaiting his prompt return.”
Fabiano Sterlacchini will be stepping in for Burgess this weekend. Sterlacchini usually stands behind Loris Capirossi, but since Capirossi is out this weekend with an injury, Sterlacchini is free to help Rossi.
"We've revised the working structure in the box with the addition of Fabiano Sterlacchini, a very experienced Ducati engineer who normally looks after Loris Capirossi, who is unfortunately injured,” Guareschi continued. “We thank Paolo Campinoti and the Pramac Team for making Fabiano available to us so that we can fully support Valentino for this very important race.”
