From
www.hopperracing.com:
JOHN HOPKINS - COMING OF AGE IN GP RACING
From his earliest road-racing days, John Hopkins was earmarked as a kid with a big future. In 2003, his first year with the Suzuki team, he took another step forward in a promising career.
Although, as with his teammate, good results were hard to find in a difficult race-development year, John earned the undying loyalty of his pit crew. With Hopper in the saddle, no matter what the circumstances, they knew he would always give his utmost.
Joining Suzuki in 2003 was like coming home. His meteoric career in US road-racing had been on big-capacity Suzuki four-strokes; now he was back on the fastest of them all. His best result of the year - another seventh - was also the team's best of the season.
Still aged 20 at the first race of the 2004 season, Hopkins has amassed two years of varied GP experience. His first season was on a 500cc two-stroke and Dunlop Tires … learning the tracks at the same time as fighting the more powerful new four-strokes. He made a big impression, scoring not only consistently but well, with a best of seventh place.
For his second year with Suzuki and his third in the top class, John has his sights set on the highest prize. "I always dreamed of winning the World Championship. That's my goal"
Hopkins believes you keep on learning, "right up until the last race of your career." But he has already crammed an intensive road-racing education into the last five years, building on a lifetime of motorcycling experience.
Born in Ramona in southern California, John counts himself as more than just part British and races with a Union Jack flag on his helmet and his motorcycle's fairing. His parents were both from Acton in West London, emigrating shortly before he was born. He still has many family connections in England.
His father was a keen motorcyclist and former Isle of Man TT road-racer. When John was barely walking, he was taking rides on the tank of his father's machines. He grew up riding dirt bikes in the desert every weekend, and first raced at the age of five, in a motocross event.
When John was only 12, he was a seasoned dirt-track racer, and Hopkins Senior had also given him a first taste of road-racing. Then his father passed away, and it seemed that side of John's life was over. But his fascination with the sport was not to be denied, and he went back to road-racing … only to be thwarted by a string of mechanical problems.
That might have been the end of road-racing, for in frustration he had switched back to his original discipline, motocross. Then US Team Valvoline EMGO Suzuki team owner John Ulrich (who discovered 1993 World Champion Kevin Schwantz for Suzuki) invited him to test a Suzuki GSX-R600 racer. Hopkins's promise was immediately obvious, and he was signed up for the 1999 season.
From that point he was on an express train to the top. He won the Aprilia RS250 Cup in 1999 as well as progressing from 600cc four-strokes to 750cc and then 1000cc, giving the physically small teenager a valuable lesson for his future on powerful 990cc MotoGP machines. He learned it well, winning the AMA Formula Xtreme title on the big Suzuki GSX-R1000 in 2001.
Hopkins manager, Douglas Gonda arranged for to join the Red Bull Yamaha GP team for 2002, racing a two-stroke in a new environment, against the faster new MotoGP prototype four-strokes. He not only consistently finished in the points - but also demonstrated the powerful determination that has become a trademark.
For 2003 the departure of Red Bull as a sponsor in MotoGP resulted in Hopkins looking for and finding a new team. Gonda went to work and negotiated a deal for Hopkins to join the factory Suzuki squad. Hopkins matched his best result while also making a huge contribution to development of the radical new GSV-R. Sadly, when the technical solutions he helped to find made it to the track for pre-season tests, Hopkins was recovering from a double ankle fracture sustained in a Supercross race in California. "
"Suzuki have done a lot to the bike, and I know there's more coming; and I already work well with my crew. They've all given me my chance, and I'm really thankful. I'll be in there fighting," he said.
ENDS
Random thought about him
:
He is my favorite rider. (Can you tell??) He is the first person in his family to be born in America, all of his fmaily is from England. He is one of the great future (and current) talents on the grid. He's been racing since he was a young boy and many people compare him to Kevin Schwantz. They both ride Suzukis and they both give it their all.
Many people agree that he is much better then the bike he rides. If he was opn competitive machinery then he would be on the top and winning races. He represents America and England well on the grid and is proud to show his red, white, and blue. (Both UK and USA)
If you watch the movie Faster they go in depth to his biography.
Write up is on the process.
