"I had seen the little guys riding mini-bikes at a local track and I thought, I can do that'."

From mini-bikes Hopkins made the natural progression to motocross spending most of his junior racing years in that category.

Then at the age of nine Hopkins was offered the opportunity to make his road-racing debut in a junior club meeting aboard a YZR 50. It was at a time when the 500 GP world championship was in the grasp of legendary American riders Wayne Rainey and Kevin Schwantz.

"As soon as I started racing the YZR 50 I watched all the GPs on TV and I think I've still got a video of most those races back when Schwantz and Rainey were racing. I was really into it and I didn't really take much notice of the AMA circuit, I just watched the 500s and 250s. Wayne Rainey and Kevin Schwantz were big heroes of mine and a little later Mick Doohan also made a big impression on me."

It soon became clear that Hopkins had to decide between motocross and road racing for he could not afford the time and money to do both and for a while it looked motocross would win out.

That was until a chance meeting with American journalist and team owner John Ulrich while Hopkins was racing at a club meeting. A chance meeting that impacted on the future direction of his racing career.

By the time he was 15 Hopkins found himself racing against Ulrich's son in 125 and 250cc club races and from that friendship with the Ulrich family came the turning point.

"Things on the 250 weren't going so well, I had bike troubles and not enough money to race all the time. I was at a point where I was going to go back to motocross and concentrate on that when John Ulrich said let's go for a test ride on a Supersport 600."

That led to a dramatic escalation in the racing activities of John Hopkins under the guidance of John Ulrich.

Hopkins won the Aprilia Challenge Championship winning thee out of four rounds and six races in the process. He was signed to join the EMGO Suzuki team quickly establishing his presence in Supersport racing aboard both a GSX-R 600 and GSX-R 750.

Hopkins was 16 when in his AMA Championship debut he finished tenth in the 600 Supersport and fifth in the 750 Supersport races at Loudon in New Hampshire.

That created a platform for the 2000 season when he won three races with six podium finishes on his way to claiming the AMA 750ccc Supersport Championship to say nothing of his success in the Formula USA Unlimited Superbike Championship with seven wins out of 12 races.

And for 2001 Hopkins continued his AMA success by wrapping up the USA Formula Xtreme Championship.  More significantly it was during this period that the raw talent possessed by Hopkins and his connection with John Ulrich was to really pay off.

The link was the long-term friendship between Ulrich and Peter Clifford, Director of Red Bull Yamaha Grand Prix Race Team.  Both were internationally recognised road racing journalists who had become involved in team management, Ulrich in the US and Clifford on the global stage of GP racing.

"John Ulrich is the guy who could claim to have discovered Kevin Schwantz although Kevin never actually raced for John he spotted his talent and recommended Kevin to Yoshimura," Clifford said. "For the past 15 years or so John has had a lot of young riders through his team so when he calls me up and says I've got a guy who is possibly as good as Kevin Schwantz I took a lot of notice." "That rider was John Hopkins."

Three test sessions with Red Bull Yamaha over a period of a year, Brno (2000 and 2001) and at Estoril (September 2001) landed Hopkins a ride with Red-Bull Yamaha for 2002.

"It was a big decision not to go to college and just concentrate on racing but the opportunity to do the world championship on a factory Yamaha was not one to miss. I felt pretty lucky, some guys would kill just to do a one lap on one of these bikes."

John impressed during his first year in GP with consistency and plenty of points scoring results on the two-stroke 500 against the onslaught of the new four-stroke juggernaut.

Hopkins now joins Suzuki to ride the revised GSV-R four-stroke with Kenny Roberts in 2003.

"I am really pleased to have a full factory contract in only my second year of GP racing," said Hopkins.

"It's been my dream to be a full factory rider - and it all seems to have happened so fast, I want to thank Suzuki for their faith in me. I've had a lot of success with Suzuki in the past, and I know this team gives me the potential to get to the top," concluded the 19-year-old.