Race Report
Despite showing plenty of promise and speed during the weekend, John Hopkins and Team M4 Monster Energy Suzuki left the 2010 AMA Pro Road Racing season opener at Daytona International Speedway disappointed. Hopkins was unable to capitalize on his MotoGP and World Superbike (WSBK) experience.
Hopkins retired from the 15-lap AMA Pro American SuperBike final with a bike issue while working lap 6 of 15 after demonstrating the pace to run up front on his GSX-R1000.
Former MotoGP ace Hopkins’ weekend was far from the manner in which he hoped his return to AMA Pro Road Racing competition would play out, but he remains confident in the ability of himself and his team to turn things around quickly.
Hopkins and the team had vastly improved the handling on the team’s GSX-R1000 for the weekend’s second race.
John Hopkins Speaks… AMA Superbike
"We had a little crash this morning but that was my fault. I was on cold tires and we were fighting the set-up and I just tried to make it work when it wasn’t really right. We had been in and out of the pits and there were only around five minutes left and I just lost the front."
"After the crash, the team changed to a different setting on the bike for the race. "We got off the line and I was feeling it out and it was going pretty good. I started to get comfortable and went like 1.6 seconds faster than we have been all week before we encountered an issue."
"If I didn’t have bad luck, I wouldn’t have had any at all this weekend," Hopkins joked. "Hey, it is what it is but everything happens for a reason and we’ll just make sure we keep doing our jobs. We’ll go to Fontana and see what we can do there. We’re determined to have success."
Team M4 Monster Energy Suzuki will be back in action at Round 2 of the 2010 AMA Pro Road Racing season at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, CA on March 26-28.
