OMG! NO WAY!! Is Hopkins headed back to MotoGP??

[Trackday Guru]

Alvaro Bautista broke his FEMUR in turn 15 at Qatar during practice. And Guess Who is the Team's already-named replacement rider.

Wow. Let's hope it happens.....

[lrrs313]

It would be great to see Hopper actually get a ride on a competitive bike. He might actually be able to do something with it.

[eboos]

It would be great to see Hopper actually get a ride on a competitive bike. He might actually be able to do something with it.

It would be even better to see Hopper not burn his bridges whereever he goes.

[Eddie]

Suzuki's last hope returns. Nice to see him back in the mix.

[Dieseldan]

Doesnt look like he will be there for this race.

[CBR929RE]

It would be great to see Hopper actually get a ride on a competitive bike. He might actually be able to do something with it.

yeah too bad he's riding an uncompetitive bike.

[eboos]

Suzuki's last hope returns.

No, Chris Vermeulen is racing WSBK, and Suzuki failed to contract Ben Spies for 2009.

[CMG241]

http://www.roadracingworld.com/news/...?article=43742

Its official, good for him.

[Paul_E_D]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (webOS/1.4.5; U; en-US) AppleWebKit/532.2 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/1.0 Safari/532.2 Pre/1.0)

hope he's got his life back on the rails this time. Don't think he could handle it all the first time around

[Paul_E_D]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (webOS/1.4.5; U; en-US) AppleWebKit/532.2 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/1.0 Safari/532.2 Pre/1.0)

damned phone

[CMG241]

they refer to hi races with BSB interfering with MotGP schedule, have to believe he'd just flip off the BSB team for chance to keep the seat in MotoGP..

[Trackday Guru]

Good for John!

But it sounds like more of a Suzuki BSB contract thing that may possibly hold him back than anything.

You can't just bail on one Suzuki contract in order to be a part of another Suzuki contract.

Bottom line is; the decision to jump to MotoGP to replace Bautista simply isn't up to John.

Of course, he'd love another opportunity to finish what he started, and I think everyone will agree that had he known the impact the economy would have on Kawasaki at the time of his contract signing with them, he probly would have gladly stayed right where he was at Rizzla.....but it's SUZUKI'S call as to which team he will ride for based on their marketing needs - be it MotoGP or any other team/series. You do that once and no manufacturer will hire you for fear of you bailing on THEIR contract mid-season.

Here's the release from SUZUKI's and Paul Denning - MotoGP Team Manager:

[Johnny B]

....Suzuki failed to contract Ben Spies for 2009.

You say that like it's a bad thing. I shudder to think where Spies would be right now if he hadn't ended up on the Yamaha.
BTW, during the broadcast of the race today, the announcer said that it was the first time a Suzuki wasn't on the MotoGP/(500GP) grid since 1974!

[JudyGT]

So, where was he?

[tls25rs]

So, where was he?

Hopkins couldn't get to Qatar in time for the race and their Japanese rider that they wanted to ride couldn't get out of Japan in time to get there either.

[Trackday Guru]

Hopkins will be riding at Jerez for the MotoGP team. They are lining up at lest one shake-down test for him, but again, noone yet knows it the Rizzla BSB Team will be willing/able to release him for future MotoGP races as doing so may put the BSB title run in jeapordy as it's so early in their BSB season.So to start their BSB season without their "A" contracted rider puts them at a serious deficit.