John "Hopper" Hopkins (born May 22, 1983)[citation needed] is a former motorcycle road racer based in the United States.

[8] 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.

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.

The 2002 season saw Hopkins join the WCM RedBull Yamaha team alongside multiple race winner Garry McCoy.

Although the two-strokes held (on average) a 10 kg weight advantage over the four-strokes, they had between 30 and 50 less hp depending on the engine configuration used for the racetrack.

Continuing with Rizla Suzuki, Hopkins set near-lap-record times aboard the new 800 cc motorcycle, and was labeled the dark horse by Colin Edwards.

Explaining the decision, Rizla Suzuki boss Paul Denning suggested that "There are reasons for that other than performance," highlighting commercial concerns in particular.

Hopkins returned to MotoGP in the Spanish motorcycle Grand Prix in April 2011 as a temporary replacement for Álvaro Bautista in the Suzuki team.

[13] After the Kawasaki team pulled out of MotoGP, Hopkins secured a mid season ride on the Stiggy Racing Honda replacing Roberto Rolfo.

Hopkins was fast from the start being fastest in free practice sessions, capturing his first Superbike World Championship pole position with a new circuit record lap.

He missed the first race of the season after a testing crash, ironically breaking the knuckle below the stump from the finger he had chopped off at the start of the year.

[19] In April 2013, Hopkins had hip replacement surgery following a heavy crash at Monza, but announced at the Le Mans MotoGP event in May that he would be testing again within two months.

[20] After one season in SBK John Hopkins returned to United States racing - he was considered a superstar in the AMA.

Hopkins came within 0.006 seconds of winning the title, losing out to Tommy Hill on the last lap of the final round at Brands Hatch.

On October 29, 2013, it was announced that Hopkins, after taking a year out to recover from multiple injuries, would return to the British Superbike Championship for 2014 having signed to ride for Tyco Suzuki.