Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128339
ohn Hopkins begins the second half of his th ird MotoGP season hoping to forget the first half. Nonroad race related injuries - he broke both ankles in the San Diego Supercross C rossover Challenge kep t him from ea rly season testing on what had become a vastly improved Suzuki GSV-R990. Hopkins and teammate Kenny Roberts Jr. were encouraged by the factory's sudden inte rest in their input. The resu lt is a package with improved handling and less reliance on electronics. There's work yet to be done with the engine, but it's getting better and moving forward , the opposite of the disastrous 2003 season . With the new machine came new tires , Bridgestones after Suzuki fell out with Michelin. The tires are good, but inconsistent and constantly changing and improving. For the most part Ho pkins has kept up, but his gimpy ankles and a later thumb injury at le Mans, com bined with a one-race suspension for aggressive riding, put him farther back. The suspension had little support in the paddock . He was docked a race for running into Carlos Checa at the Motegi Grand Prix. No one believed it was intentional and many remarked that far worse happens in any given corner of a 125cc race . 34 SEPTEMBER 1,2004 • CYCLE N EWS Just befo re the summer break this year, Hopkins recorded his best results , an eighth at the British GP and a ninth while moving forward at the German GP. Finally, his ankles have fully heeled . He's been able to begin running again. His thumb is no longer an issue. The bike is getting better every race. Bridgestone produced a tire good enough for Camel Honda's Makoto Tamada to win the Rio GP. We caught up with Hopkins at his home in Ramona, California. Just back from a restful vacation in Hawaii, he was clearly relishing the chance to get back to racing. Though only 21 years o ld, he's in his third year of racing at the world 's highest level. The final seven races may be something of an audition for 2005. His manager assures one and all that he will be back in MotoGP next year. Given his youth, Suzuki may co ntinue to nurture him. If not , there are other options. Q A Yo ur year started wit h a n injury. lt was at the San Diego Supercross. It was the Crossover Challenge where other people from other spo rts go and race . I'd done it a couple of years back. The last year I missed out on it, so I wa nted to do really well at this one . I flew back from a test in Malaysia, 40th Anniversary got in late that night before the round . I didn't get much sleep the night I got home . I tried to get as much sleep on the plane as possible. Then I basically wen t down there and went out for the first practice. I was going through every jump. Nothing was too difficult. It was just this triple. I was actually just going to double into it. I'd just conquered everything else on the track . jumping everythi ng I needed to jump. I was just going to doub le into that for the first time . The problem was I just miscalculated it. One inch farther or backward s it would have been fine, because how I hit it was just footpeg to dirt. So the front wheel went straight down and the swingarm went the other way except for it soaking up the landing. It was just a straight impact on the ankles. I didn't crash, but rolled down and fell ove r. Did yo u know immedi ately w hat damage yo u had do ne! A In my left ankle, I did. I got up and was walking JIo'around. I sat down, and then I felt something moving around in the left ankle, so I decided to sit down. I ended up starting the bike and getting it back up to the garage, but the n from there I had to be carried . I basically went into the Asterisk [medical center) and ended up getting X-rays on both of them . They ended up being Q