John Hopkins (motorcyclist)
John "Hopper" Hopkins (born May 22, 1983) is a former motorcycle road racer based in the United States. During 2017 he raced in the British Superbike Championship aboard a Ducati 1199 Panigale for Moto Rapido Racing, but suffered injuries from a crash at the season-finale race meeting in October, meaning he could not participate during 2018. He has not made a full recovery, which has so far precluded hopes of a comeback, but he has become involved in rider coaching.
| John Hopkins | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Nationality | American | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Current team | Moto Rapido Ducati | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bike number | 21 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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From 2020, Hopkins became a rider-coach for American Racing team helping Joe Roberts and Marcos Ramirez in Moto2.
In a 2007 interview, he was questioned about being regarded as Anglo-American, with the interviewer commenting: "A lot of people don't understand your being British. As I understand it, your entire family moved over here from England, and you were raised here as a British family in America".
After riding a Ducati in the British Superbike Championship during the 2015 season, in 2016 he raced a Yamaha YZF-R1 for Tommy Hill's THM team partnered by Stuart Easton.
Hopkins raced previously in MotoGP, the AMA Superbike Championship, and the Superbike World Championship. He first raced in MotoGP during 2002 for the Red Bull Yamaha WCM team on a two-stroke 500 cc bike, and joined the factory Suzuki squad a year later for a five-year spell. He raced for the Kawasaki MotoGP team in 2008, but they dropped him for 2009 due to the global economic crisis and the company's uncompetitive showings. He has subsequently raced in both the World and British Superbike championships, finishing second in the 2011 British Superbike Championship season although injuries and alcohol problems have affected his results.
He was born to parents from Acton.