Get to know the grid: WSBK- Leon Haslam #91

Leon Haslam #91

Personal opinion: a nice looking guy, did a full season in WSBK in 2004, for Renegade alongside Noriyuki Haga. He was 8th overall with a best of 3rd, but it would be unfair not to mention his impressive victory in a British Superbike race at Brands Hatch on one of the team's 3 ventures into the series. In torrential rain, this was the only Ducati win in the series all year, even though this was the title-winning bike in both 2003 (Shane "Shakey" Byrne) and 2005 (Gregorio Lavilla). And a very impressive career BSB, he already has 1 podium this year, came 3rd in race 2 – Philip Island- Australia.

LEON HASLAM - RD 1 PHILLIP ISLAND

Leon Haslam - Portimao Test 2009

History- from:http://www.leonhaslam.com

NAME: Leon Haslam

DOB: 31 May 1983

PLACE OF BIRTH: England

HOME TOWN: Smalley, Derbyshire

HEIGHT: 5'7"

WEIGHT: 67 kg

MARITAL STATUS: Girlfriend, Oli

HAIR COLOUR: Brown

EYE COLOUR: Green

NICKNAMES: Pocket Rocket or Unibrow

FAVORITE FOOD: Fajita's or Pizza

FAVORITE DRINK: Banana Milkshake

OWN CAR: Ford-Ranger Thunder

OWN MOTORCYCLE: 999 Ducati

FIRST ROAD RACE: Brands Hatch 1997

FIRST WIN: Silverstone 1998

FAVORITE UK CIRCUIT: Cadwell Park

FAVORITE WORLD CIRCUIT: Phillip Island, Australia

MOST SUCCESFUL SEASON: BSB 2006

BEST MOMENTS: Five BSB wins from seven races at the end of 2008

FAVORITE RACE IN YOUR CAREER: Win and last lap challenge at croft wet race 2006 and BSB 2005- Oulton Park, when I had to start from pit lane

AMBITIONS: To be MotoGP Champion

FAVORITE ALL TIME RIDERS: Valentino Rossi, Ron Haslam, Freddie Spencer

MOST RESPECTED RIVAL: Jeremy McWilliams

SPORTS HERO FROM ANOTHER SPORT: Eric Cantona

LIKES: Rambo films and honest people

DISLIKES: Broccoli and people who lie and are two faced

HOBBIES: Golf, Football, Motocross, Snowboarding, Snooker, Pool, Diving, Darts, Watching films, Cinema.

LEATHERS: Spidi

GLOVES: Spidi

BOOTS: Xpd

HELMET: Arai

AIMS FOR 2009: To establish myself and team as WSB front runners

THOUGHTS ON WORLD SUPERBIKES: "We've got a tough year ahead but Stiggy has assembled a very good team and very good machinery."

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS:

1995: National Young Motocross Champion
1997: Scooter Championship at age 14
1998: Young Rider of the Year Award - MCN
1999: Winner Under 23 British Championship
2001: Youngest ever rider to compete in 500cc World Championship
2002:7th in Portugal in debut season in 250cc GP class
2003: 12th in British Superbike Championship
2004: Winner of BSB race at Brands Hatch and named 'Rookie of the Year '
2005:4th in British Superbike Championship
2006: 2nd in British Superbike Championship
Man of the Year 2006
Rider's Rider of the Year 2006
2007: 3rd in British Superbike Championship
2008: 2nd in British Superbike Championship

Get to know the grid: WSBK- John Hopkins #121

John Hopkins #121

Personal opinion: not a bad rider, but not as good as his ego, was a protégée racer when he was young, many thought he has amazing potanciel, but so far we haven’t really seen it on the track, maybe the move down to WSBK will be good for him, but he will find it hard to be a real contender for the championship, because of the races he missed already and also I am not sure he will be able to be faster the Ben “elbows” spies and Haga. But for some reason he does seam to have a lot of fans in the stats- any way- I hope he has a better year then the last few…

Trading Places:

John Hopkins

vs. Vitantonio Liuzzi

john hopkins highside

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

John Hopkins
Nationality	American
Date of birth	May 22, 1983 (1983-05-22) (age 25)
Place of birth	Ramona, California
Website	hopperracing.com
SBK Record
Current team	Stiggy Racing Honda
Bike number	21
World Championships	0
Race starts
Race Wins	0
Podium finishes
Pole positions
Fastest laps

John "Hopper" Hopkins(pronounced /ˈdʒɒn ˈhɒpkɪnz/) (born May 22, 1983) is an American motorcycle racer in Superbike World Championship as well as previously in motoGP. He first raced in MotoGP in 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.

He was born in Ramona, California to English parents. His race number is 21.

Biography

MotoGP career

2002

The 2002 season saw Hopkins join the WCM RedBull Yamaha team alongside multiple race winner Garry McCoy. The team was using Yamaha YZR500 motorcycles on lease from Yamaha. Overall the YZR500 was considered to be uncompetitive that year, due to a change in the regulations allowing 990 cc four-stroke motorcycles to race against 500 cc two-stroke motorcycles. 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. Hopkins finished the season ranked 15th, with 58 points, which put him 25 points clear of his teammate McCoy.

2003

In 2003 Hopkins joined the Suzuki factory racing team. This year he would ride a 990 cc V4 four-stroke. In 2003 John was teamed with 2000 500cc world champion Kenny Roberts, Jr.. Although he was racing a four-stroke this year, the results didn't seem to come as one would have expected. There are many theories for this, including the Suzuki's lack of power and its tendency to wear out tires faster than other bikes. This year also saw Hopkins involved in a turn 1 crash at the Japanese Grand Prix at Motegi, he was accused of causing this crash, and was suspended for one race. This suspension resulted in a DNS (did not start) at the Malaysian Grand Prix. Also noteworthy for the 2003 season was the crash in Italy where Kenny Roberts, Jr.'s GSV-R Suzuki suffered an engine management failure and the bike launched into Hopkins, putting both GSV-R's out of the race. At the end of the season, Hopkins finished in 17th place with 29 points. This finish put him 2 places and 7 points ahead of his teammate Kenny Roberts, Jr.

2004

The technology and technical advancement of the GSV-R was further developed in 2004. Most of the refinements took place in the engine management package, making the bike easier to ride. Towards the end of the year, the GSV-R was showing clear improvements, allowing Hopkins to move up the standings. Unfortunately it also saw several mechanical failures, which effectively undid the hard work to develop the motorcycle. Having qualified on the front row at Motegi, he was eliminated in a first-corner crash. Of note is that John was crashed into by Loris Capirossi, one of the same riders he himself had hit at the very same turn 1 at Motegi in 2003. Overall he finished 16th.

2005

John continued with Suzuki in 2005, as the team showed promising signs after the arrival of Paul Denning as team boss following Denning's success with Suzuki's British Superbike team. John briefly lead at Donington, but his best result was a 5th place at Motegi, and he was 14th overall. Qualifying results were often better than race results, largely due to Bridgestone tyres being better suited to short runs.

2006

Remains at Suzuki, now backed by Rizla, where he is joined by new team-mate Chris Vermeulen. Enjoys his best season yet. Hopkins finished the 2006 season in 10th place overall with 116 points. Hopkins has had one pole position this season, at Assen. His best finishes were in China and in Catalunya, where he finished fourth.

2007

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. On 15 February 2007 he fractured his wrist after falling while testing at the Jerez circuit in Spain, but returned for the start of the season.

Hopkins completed his long-overdue first MotoGP podium finish at the Shanghai circuit in China, finishing in 3rd place - 3.6 seconds behind Valentino Rossi but 7.6 seconds ahead of 2006 event winner Dani Pedrosa. He finished as 4th overall in the 2007 season, two places ahead of Vermeulen and one behind Rossi.

2008

For 2008 he joins Kawasaki Racing Team. Explaining the decision, Rizla Suzuki boss Paul Denning suggested that "There are reasons for that other than performance". He crashed heavily at Assen, fracturing his ankle.

Prior to 2009 season, Kawasaki made the decision to halt Motogp racing activities because of the global economic crisis, meaning that John Hopkins will not have a ride for the 2009 season.

2009

After the Kawasaki pulling out of motoGP, Hopkins secured a ride on SBK's team Stiggy Racing Honda.