John Hopkins

MotoGP

John "Hopper" Hopkins (born May 22, 1983) is an American MotoGP racer currently racing for the Kawasaki MotoGP team. He first raced in MotoGP in 2002 for the Red Bull Yamaha WCM team on a two-stroke 500cc bike, and joined the factory Suzuki squad a year later, for a five-year spell.

He was born in Ramona, California to English parents.

His race number is 21.

Hopkins began riding Motocross bikes as a child and won his first race on a MiniBike on 1986, switching to road racing full time in 1999.

Hopkins proposed to his girlfriend Ashleigh in the summer of 2007 on her 21st birthday. They married in Las Vegas in December 2007.

The 2002 season saw Hopkins join the WCM RedBull Yamaha team alongside multiple race winner Garry McCoy. The team was using Yamaha YZR500 motorcycles on lease from Yamaha. Overall the Yamaha YZR500 was considered to be uncompetitive that year, due to a change in the regulations allowing 990cc four-stroke motorcycles to race against 500cc two-stroke motorcycles. Although the two-strokes held (on average) a 10 kg weight advantage over the four-strokes, they had between 30 and 50 less hp depending on the engine configuration used for the racetrack. Hopkins finished the season ranked 15th, with 58 points, which put him 25 points clear of his teammate McCoy.

In 2003 Hopkins joined the Suzuki factory racing team. This year he would ride a 990cc V4 four-stroke. In 2003 John was teamed with 2000 500cc world champion Kenny Roberts, Jr.. Although he was racing a four-stroke this year, the results didn't seem to come as one would have expected. There are many theories for this, including the Suzuki's lack of horsepower and its tendency to wear out tires faster than other bikes. This year also saw Hopkins involved in a turn 1 crash at the Japanese Grand Prix at Motegi, he was accused of causing this crash, and was suspended for one race. This suspension resulted in a DNS (did not start) at the Malaysian Grand Prix. Also noteworthy for the 2003 season was the crash in Italy where Kenny Roberts, Jr.'s GSV-R Suzuki suffered an engine management failure and the bike launched into Hopkins, putting both GSV-R's out of the race. At the end of the season, Hopkins finished in 17th place with 29 points. This finish put him 2 places and 7 points ahead of his teammate Kenny Roberts, Jr.

The technology and technical advancement of the GSV-R was further developed in 2004. Most of the refinements took place in the engine management package, making the bike easier to ride. Towards the end of the year, the GSV-R was showing clear improvements, allowing Hopkins to move up the standings. Unfortunately it also saw several mechanical failures, which effectively undid the hard work to develop the motorcycle. Having qualified on the front row at Motegi, he was eliminated in a first-corner crash. Of note is that John was crashed into by Loris Capirossi, one of the same riders he himself had hit at the very same turn 1 at Motegi in 2003. Overall he finished 16th.

John continued with Suzuki in 2005, as the team showed promising signs after the arrival of Paul Denning as team boss following Denning's success with Suzuki's British Superbike team. John briefly lead at Donington, but his best result was a 5th place at Motegi, and he was 14th overall. Qualifying results were often better than race results, largely due to Bridgestone tyres being better suited to short runs.

Remains at Suzuki, now backed by Rizla, where he is joined by new team-mate Chris Vermeulen. Enjoys his best season yet. Hopkins finished the 2006 season in 10th place overall with 116 points. Hopkins has had one pole position this season, at Assen. His best finishes were in China and in Catalunya, where he finished fourth.

Continuing with Rizla Suzuki, Hopkins set near-lap-record times aboard the new 800cc motorcycle, and was labeled the dark horse by Colin Edwards. On 15 February 2007 he fractured his wrist after falling while testing at the Jerez circuit in Spain, but returned for the start of the season.

Hopkins completed his long-overdue first MotoGP podium finish at the Shanghai circuit in China, finishing in 3rd place - 3.6 seconds behind Valentino Rossi but 7.6 seconds ahead of 2006 event winner Dani Pedrosa. He finished as 4th overall in the 2007 season, two places ahead of Vermeulen and one behind Rossi.


For 2008 he joins Kawasaki. Explaining the decision, Rizla Suzuki boss Paul Denning suggested that "There are reasons for that other than performance"

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