John Hopkins

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John Hopkins

John Hopkins was destined to have a motorcycle-racing career when, barely out of nappies and before his third birthday, he found himself, off-road riding with his father.

With three older sisters John was the only boy in the Hopkins family, so it was no surprise that much of his spare time was spent around motorcycles and on riding trips with his bike-riding parents.  Even less of a surprise was that he followed his father into a racing career and that, just four months after his 18th birthday and fresh out of high school, he is now a Grand Prix Rider.

Hopkins has fulfilled his life's dream by signing a contract to race for the factory Red Bull Yamaha team.

"My dad raced, he even did the Junior TT at the Isle of Man, and when I was a kid I was always around dirt bikes, going out to the desert so that pretty much got me into motorcycling." 

Hopkins was just four years old when his parents entered him for his first race on a PeeWee 50.

"I had seen the little guys riding mini-bikes at a local track and I thought, I can do that' ". 

From mini-bikes Hopkins made the natural progression to motocross spending most of his junior racing years in that category.

Then at the age of nine Hopkins was offered the opportunity to make his road-racing debut in a junior club meeting aboard a YZR 50. It was at a time when the 500 GP world championship was in the grasp of legendary American riders Wayne Rainey and Kevin Schwantz.

"As soon as I started racing the YZR 50 I watched all the GPs on TV and I think I've still got a video of most those races back when Schwantz and Rainey were racing.  I was really into it and I didn't really take much notice of the AMA circuit, I just watched the 500s and 250s. Wayne Rainey and Kevin Schwantz were big heroes of mine and a little later Mick Doohan also made a big impression on me." 

The world championship winning deeds of his American heroes only served to focus Hopkins on his own goal of one day racing a factory grand prix bike.

But there were teenage decisions to be made. For it became clear that Hopkins had to decide between motocross and road racing for he could not afford the time and money to do both and for a while it looked motocross would win out.

That was until a chance meeting with noted American journalist and team owner John Ulrich while Hopkins was racing at a club meeting.  A chance meeting that impacted on the future direction of his racing career.

By the time he was 15 Hopkins found himself racing against Ulrich's son in 125 and 250cc club races and from that friendship with the Ulrich family came the turning point.

"Things on the 250 weren't going so well, I had bike troubles and not enough money to race all the time. I was at a point where I was going to go back to motocross and concentrate on that when John Ulrich said let's go for a test ride on a Supersport 600."

That led to a dramatic escalation in the racing activities of John Hopkins under the guidance of John Ulrich.

Hopkins won the Aprilia Challenge Championship winning three out of four rounds and six races in the process. He was signed to join the Valvoline EMGO Suzuki team quickly establishing his presence in Supersport racing aboard both a GSXR600 and GSXR750.  

Hopkins was 16 when in his AMA Championship debut finished tenth in the 600 Supersport and fifth in the 750 Supersport races at Loudon in New Hampshire.

That created a platform for the 2000 season when he won three races with six podium finishes on his way to claiming the AMA 750ccc Supersport Championship to say nothing of his success in the Formula USA Unlimited Superbike Championship with seven wins out of 12 races.

And for 2001 Hopkins has continued his AMA sucess, racing in Supersport 600 and winning the USA Formula Xtreme Championship. 

More significantly it was during this period that the raw talent possessed by Hopkins and his connection with John Ulrich was to really pay off.

The link was the long-term friendship between Ulrich and Peter Clifford, Director of Red Bull Yamaha Grand Prix Race Team.

Both were internationally recognised road racing journalists who had become involved in team management, Ulrich in the US and Clifford on the global stage of GP racing.

"John is the guy who can justifiably claim to have discovered Kevin Schwantz.  Although Kevin never actually raced for John he spotted his talent and recommended Kevin to Yoshimura,"

Three test sessions with Red Bull Yamaha over a period of a year, Brno (2000 and 2001) and most recently at Estoril (September 2001) has landed Hopkins with the job of a lifetime.  A job he is prepared to put his college education on hold for after graduating from high school earlier this year(2001).

"It was a big decision not to go to college and just concentrate on racing but the opportunity to do the world championship on a factory Yamaha is one not to miss. I'm pretty lucky, some guys would kill just to do a one lap on one of these bikes." 

Having achieved his childhood dream of one-day being a factory grand prix rider Hopkins is now dedicated to his next goal. 

"I just want to try and be the best, the grand prix world champion, that's always been my dream ever since I first started road racing." 

"It's definitely a big step from what I've be doing in the US so in the beginning I'll concentrate on learning the tracks which will be a big challenge  and obviously try and pick up as much as I can from the other riders." 

"From the test sessions I've done on the Red Bull Yamaha I feel at home on a grand prix bike. The power is impressive but they seem a lot more controllable than the big four strokes I have been riding in America and I ridden two strokes a lot when I was competing in the Aprilia Cup and racing 125's." 

As Hopkins prepares for his 2002 world championship campaign with Red Bull Yamaha he recognises that none of this would have been possible without the support and dedication of his parents.

"They have given me 110% support all the time although my Mum sometimes gets a little scared when I'm out there on the track but I know I always have her support, she  knows this is what I want to do." 

"And my dad had been through racing himself so he had an idea of how to go about achieving your goals in racing."

After living much of his childhood in the LA area Hopkins now resides at Ramona near San Diego. When he is not racing he keeps the adrenalin flowing by indulging himself in his favourite pastimes of surfing, downhill mountain biking, snow boarding and his first love of off-road motorcycling.

"I tried the team sports thing in high school, soccer and baseball, but I motorcycle racing."