Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Red Bull Yamaha's John Hopkins Hopkins will venture overseas this year, but he won't have to go alone, as his glrlfrfend Desiree Crossman will join him In his debut season of MotoGP racing. mended Hopkins for the job. He ended up getting a few test rides on one of the team's YZR500s, and he showed well. He didn't crash (well, just once) and he showed both patience and the ability to learn. And just like that, he's now a contracted rider for the team, ready to make his Grand Prix debut after an off season of learning. Quick learning. Prior to the recent IRTA tests in Spain and Portugal, Hopkins' seat time on a 500cc Grand Prix bike amounted to nine days. "I was happy with the lap times," Hopkins said of an off-season test in Malaysia. "I got to know my teammate Garry Mc~oy a lot better and we started to become buddies. I learned the track, because after two to three laps coming out of every comer there were big black lines from Garry - that told me where I needed to be. I was learning the track on the first day, and on the second day I started to pick it up and he would go in front of me and let me follow him - show me the lines and stuff. He'd pull away, slow down and let me get up there behind him again. He helped me out a whole bunch and I got a whole new perspective on racing lines and braking points. I couldn't ask for a better teammate. He's going to be a big help." It didn't take Hopkins long to find out that there are a lot of things you can change on a Grand Prix motorcycle. And sometimes you end up like a blind man in a maze - a tad lost. "In Malaysia, I found out the crew I'm going to be working with, so on the second and third day we started messing with a whole bunch of things," Hopkins said. "We found ourselves completely off. There are so many things to change, it's just unbelievable. We were going downhill, so we just went back to the baseline setting. I think the team is pretty happy with the information I've given them so far. I'm riding better and just trying to get them better information." Hopkins' talent didn't go unnoticed in AMA racing during his tenure here. The top teams went after him at the end of last season with checkbooks open. What swayed him toward the Red Bull team was partially the three-year deal they put on the table - but mostly, however, it was the chance to chase the dream of being a Grand Prix racer. "I got pretty good offers to stay here - Kawasaki, Honda and Yamaha," Hopkins said. "I felt I'd grown a whole bunch racing here the last couple of years here on the bike, and I think I'm ready to go over there now and ride. It's something I always wanted to do, and the opportunity to have a three-year deal - that was the big thing in changing my mind about going over there. I definitely could have made more money if I'd stayed here, but that was the least of my worries: I just wanted to get over there and ride. I wanted to take the deal and take it all on." 30 MARCH 13,2002' cue •• n • _ And take it all on he will. The plate, as they say, is quite full. In addition to learning the ways of a world that is foreign to him, Hopkins will also face the task of learning new racetracks, a new motorcycle - and new tires. Gone are the familiar Michelins on which he won his AMA titles. Now he's a Dunlop man. "It was a big change," Hopkins said of the tire switch. "All in all, I actually liked it a little better. They are completely different tires. The Michelins grip a little more, but when they do slide, it's hard to keep it at a consistent slide because it keeps wanting to grab and kick you off. I found the Dunlops to be more of a rider's tire. They're really consistent. When you go out and do hard laps on the Mkhelins, they drop off a little bit, then they drop off a little more. With the Dunlops, they are unbelievable for the first three or four laps; then they start sliding around a lot more - but they stay the same after that. They don't drop off any more. I think that will be really good, and I think there are only three teams using them, so we will get a lot of support from them. We'll all get really good tires. I was sketchy when I first went over to Malaysia because I didn't know what the tires would be like, but that definitely changed my outlook on the whole thing." Hopkins is smart enough to realize that he's not just going to drop out of the sky in the GP series and start winning. He knows it will take time. Patience will be a virtue. He will need it, and so will the team. "I definitely expect some top-15 places throughout the year at some of the tracks I know better," Hopkins said. "I would hope I'd be at least 15th in the final standings. That would make me happy. I have a lot to learn - a lot of tracks. I'll be going out on Friday and learning the tracks." Strange tracks, strange food - strangers... "Other than McCoy, I don't know anybody there," Hopkins said prior to what would be his first meeting with the best of the rest at the first IRTA test in Spain. "One thing I've noticed is that everybody is a competitor and they don't seem to talk. It's definitely not as social as the AMA series. The riders over there are definitely on their own, doing their own thing, and they're not too worried about making friends with the other riders. I guess they get swarmed if they're not in the motorhomes, so you hardly ever see them. The only time you see them is right before practice, and they go straight to the garage and then they're straight on the track s and then back to their motorhomes as fast as they can." Hopkins joins Grand Prix racing in a season of change, with the four-strokes coming back to the series. He will have a trusty two-stroke YZR500, but his team will likely make the switch in 2003 - the second year of Hopkins' three-year deal. That will see Hopkins back on four-strokes. That could also be a good thing for his future. "There's a possibility that we will get to test it (Yamaha's M 1 four-stroke) this season - to get it ready for 2003," Hopkins said. "I think it will be a big advantage for me to get back on the fourstroke. I got to look at it up close when [Max] Biaggi and [Carlos] Checa were testing it after us in Malaysia. I think I'll like it, and I can't wait to get a chance to ride one." In the meantime, Hopkins heads to Camp MotoGP armed mostly with youth and enthusiasm on his side. And a boatload of talent. He'll be a stranger in a strange land, but he will have the support of his team, which, fortunately for him, is made up of English-speaking management and crew. He'll also have his girlfriend with him, Desiree Crossman. And he goes with the full blessings of his widowed mother, Linda. As for the naysayers, those who say that he won't cut it in GP racing, that he should stay in AMA racing longer before venturing to the World Championship, Hopkins smiles and says: "Just wait and watch. Wait and see. " I:JIII

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