British Superbike - Season Finale This Weekend

[Randy]

John Hopkins, former AMA champion and MotoGP regular from the US (born in the US shortly after his parents moved from the UK) is the current points leader heading into the season finale at Brands Hatch. It's been an exciting season in the BSB series with a few riders from the US (Hopkins, Jake Zemke, Josh Day, Mark Miller, and this weekend, Melissa Paris in her BSB debut) making their way across the pond to run in that series.

Hopper had many highs and lows this season. He won quite a few races at tracks that he's never seen before, took pole position at the Silverstone round of the World Superbike series setting a new lap record and finished an impressive 5th and 7th. He also had a wildcard ride on the Rizla Suzuki MotoGP bike at Brno, but, unfortunately, crashed and hurt his hand badly causing him to withdraw from the race and miss a few BSB races while recovering from hand surgery to repair the damage. He had to have a 2nd surgery to fix the remainder of the damage and still went on to take a win and a 3rd less than 2 weeks after surgery.

The final superbike events this weekend will be a triple header with 1 race on Saturday and 2 races on Sunday.

 

[ugar-6]

Man, I hope he can pull it off. He has great talent but has been hampered by bad bikes and bad luck, in addition to battling his own demons. I met him last year at Barber and he's a real nice, approachable guy.

 

[jeremyr62]

I think most of the UK is rooting for him too. One of those types it's impossible to dislike, even with earings.

 

[Randy]

Forgot to mention..assuming he comes out of the race this weekend unharmed, he has another wildcard MotoGP ride at Sepang, Malaysia on Sunday, Oct 23.

 

[Randy]

Although Hopper didn't pull out the win in race 1, he finished 3rd and the closest person in the points, Tommy Hill, finished 4th. Points lead extended from 8 to 11. Final 2 races take place tomorrow.

 

[jeremyr62]

Holy sh1t, what a race! If you like bike racing try to get sight of race 3, the decider. Race 2 is good too but race 3 is a classic.

 

[Randy]

Hopper beat out Hill in race 1.

Race 2, Hopper had electrical problems - had to pull of, turn the bike off and turn it back on. Fought back to finish in the points and held on to a 2 pt lead going into the last race. All he had to do was finish ahead of Hill.

He got a decent start and settled into 3rd behind Shakey, who left the field behind and go on to win, and Ellison. Going into the penultimate lap, Hill got past Hopper and was leading him at the white flag. I've been watching racing for many years and don't remember a more exciting last lap. 6 position changes and Tommy Hill eeked out Hopper by .006 seconds and win the championship. Was a great season for Hopper with many ups and downs, but, hats off to Tommy Hill for winning the championship.

Highlights from the 2011 BSB finale at Brands Hatch...

Race 1

 

[ugar-6]

Damn, wanted Hopper to win it. However, for him to finish that close on tracks that he's seeing for the first time this year and to have the electrical gremlins...hats off.

 

[jeremyr62]

Hopper is such a class act. I was hoping he'd stay in BSB for another year but it seems he's off to sunnier climes alright.

https://www.britishsuperbike.com/news/hopkins-reflects-on-brands-hatch-title-finale.aspx