Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

close to Ramona by the name of Barona Oaks drew them south. They would drive down, race, and drive home. And young John was getting pretty good at this motocross thing. "We raced a few times there and then the following season we dedicated ourselves to running the whole season there, n Hopkins recalls. "That was probably 1990, 1991 [the 500cc World Champion in 1990 and 1991 was Wayne Rainey]. I raced there full time, but toward the end of the season I broke my leg. The whole time I was laid up and on the couch, I kept talking about how I was going to go and win that championship the next year. I'd come pretty close the year I broke my leg. The following season I went out and won the championship. n The leg injury was one of the first in a long list of broken bones for Hopkins, though most of those came from his early motocross career. Long list? Okay, try this on for size: Left ankle (broken three times), right ankle (broken five times), right leg (tibia and fibia broken twice), left leg (femur broken once, tibia and fibia broken twice) and collarbone (broken once). "That's pretty much it," Hopkins says - in all seriousness. nOh, and I've had some minor wrist breaks - fractures and stuff." Although in Grand Prix racing they say that you're only as good as your last high-side, Hopkins has proved that injuries don't factor in much as far as limiting his speed. He doesn't scare easily. But back to those early days. It didn't take long for the family to realize that they needed to be closer to Barona Oaks, so they moved to Ramona. "Every time we went to Barona Oaks, we drove through town and then we started looking for homes down here," Hopkins said. "We found a really good house and never looked back. We moved to the quiet town of Ramona." Hopkins' motocross career was beginning to take off as he started to race in National events such as the World Mini Grand Prix in Las Vegas, Ponca City, Loretta Lynn's, etc. But all that started to change one day at, ironically, Ponca City - a motocross mecca. "They were having a YSR50 National and were having a little exhibition race where you could go out on your PW-50 and ride on the go-kart track," Hopkins said. "My parents entered me in that and sure enough, I raced about four or five times and won by 10 to 15 seconds. What was really weird about it was the Haydens were there, riding YSR50s. Nicky and Tommy were on YSR50s and I raced against Roger Lee in the PW-50 class. That's what got me into road racing." From there, it was a move to a YSR50, Yamaha's mini road racer, and suddenly the family found themselves spending more time at go-kart tracks such as Amago and the Streets of Willow Springs. "The first time I ever rode it [the YSR-50] was in the rain, but I didn't crash, n Hopkins said. "From there, I just started riding it and riding it. We found out about some organizations that were racing them down here, but I was still totally dedicated to my motocross. Any time I got the chance, I went out and raced the YSR. I started getting little sponsors here and there and it started turning into more of a hobby. The first time I got a ride on a 125 was at the Streets of Willow. I was about 11 years old that's when I completely changed my mind about my road raCing. That's when I wanted to pursue that." Hasta La vista, motocross. In 1999, Hopkins was given the opportunity to race an Aprilia RS250 in the Aprilia Cup Challenge (Above) John Hopkins - 18 years old and a Grand Prix racer. The Californian puts the Red Bull Yamaha VZR500 through its paces at the recent IRTA test in Estoril, Portugal. (Right) Though he no longer races motocross, Hopkins still rides the hell out of a motocross bike. The former NMA star whips his RM125 off a jump at the EI Cajon Motocross Park. Series. In May of '99, he competed at Road Atlanta and won first time out, eventually taking the title by virtue of his three race wins and second place in the four-race series. In the meantime, EMGO Valvoline Suzuki team owner John Ulrich started entering Hopkins in selected AMA events. In his first National at New Hampshire International Speedway, Hopkins finished fifth in 750cc Supersport and 10th in 600cc Supersport. Not a bad debut. In 2000, Hopkins was a full-on member of the Valvoline team, and he ended the season as the 750cc Supersport Champion, barely beating Australian Damon Buckmaster. He backed that up in 2001 by winning the AMA Formula Xtreme title after a dogfight with - again - Buckmaster. "It was a good year, n Hopkins says of 2001. "That's definitely helped my confidence going into this year. Everything went well. The first round, I got taken out by Roger Lee [Hayden] - that was the first time I ever went over the bars on a road race bike, so that was a memorable experience. After that, I just had to keep making up ground all through the year. It seemed like Damon was just inching away, but I started getting a couple of wins and I started catching up. It all came down to the final race [at Virginia International Raceway]. It was pretty hectic. What made it really bad was that halfway through the race, the steering-head bolts backed out and it added about an inch of slack in the steering head. Every time I hit the front brakes, the front end would just be jolting me. I was riding behind Aaron Gobert, and then the next thing you know, Grant [Lopez] and Josh [Hayes] were by me. I was fifth, fourth ... I tried everything I could and I thought the whole front end was going to fall apart on me. It was for the championship, so I just put my head down and worked with it - got it to the end, and that made me really happy." While racing on the Valvoline team, Hopkins was also fortunate enough to get the opportunity to come in contact with Red Bull Yamaha team manager Peter Clifford. The Brit wanted a young charger to bring to Grand Prix racing and Ulrich recom- cue I _ n __ S • MARCH 13,2002 29

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