John Hopkins

Read about racer John Hopkins, including career highlights, pictures and news about John Hopkins right here at Motorcycle USA.

John Hopkins was a MotoGP rookie in 2002 - the youngster from California joined the elite racers of the world after cutting his teeth for three seasons in the AMA. In those three seasons he managed to earn two championships, the 750 Super Sport Title in 2000 and the Formula Xtreme Title in 2001.

Now a seasoned veteran of Grand Prix, Hopkins helped to develop the GSV-R for Suzuki, hoping that his hard work will someday payoff. A new sponsor in 2006 had the Suzuki MotoGP squad feeling optimistic but after a solid if frustrating season in 2006, where he tied with Toni Elias at 116 points but lost ninth-place overall by virtue of the fact that Elias managed a win, the writing was on the wall that change was coming his way.

We had a feeling that zero in career podiums would change at some point in 2007, because Hopper was just too talented and bound for some good luck. Turns out we were right, because he got his long-awaited first career GP podium at Shanghai. Hopper then backed it up with three more rostrum visits in '07 and an overall fourth-place finish in the points.

In 2008 Hopper's long-time Suzuki connection disappeared, forcing the American to relocate to Kawasaki. The American posted four top-10 finishes, including a fifth-place result in Portugal, before fracturing his ankle at Assen. He eventually finished 16th overall in the championship, and was left without a ride in MotoGP when Kawasaki announced it was pulling out of GP racing because of the global financial crisis.
 
In 2009 Hopkins secured a mid-season ride with Stiggy Racing Honda in the World Superbike series. It would be a difficult year for him, however, as multiple injuries – including a horrific crash at Nurburgring that left him unconscious for 10 minutes – culminated in another bad season. The following year Hopkins returned to racing in the United States AMA SuperBike series where he experienced mediocre results with M4 Monster Suzuki. In 2011 he competed in British Superbike and went on to lose the championship by just 0.006 seconds in the final round after winning five races and 11 podiums.
 
In 2012 Hopkins campaigned the World Superbike Championship, piloting a Suzuki GSX-R1000 for FIXI Crescent Suzuki. He missed the first round of competition at Phillip Island after breaking his hand during practice, but was able to get back in the game for Round 2 at Imola. His 13-DNF result at the Italian circuit was a harbinger of the season to come, which was plagued with all manner of technical failures and crashes. Hopkins only broke into the top-10 once during the entire season, with a ninth-place finish in Race 1 at Moscow Raceway. During preparations for the final round at Magny-Cours, the American decided not to race at all due to pain from a lingering hip injury which he incurred mid-season. After the 2012 championship wrapped, Hopkins announced that he would sit out 2013 entirely in order to rehabilitate and to consider the next steps in his career.