from autosport.com

Looks like it is worse than initially appeared. May even miss laguna seca.


John Hopkins will miss both this weekend's Assen race and the forthcoming German Grand Prix after sustaining ankle and leg fractures in a qualifying crash in the Netherlands.fr

The Kawasaki rider, who was still nursing back injuries suffered in Barcelona three weeks ago, lost control at high speed on the approach to the Ramshoek corner and slammed into the barriers.

Team boss Michael Bartholemy told the official MotoGP website that Hopkins could also have suffered knee injuries in addition to the three fractures already confirmed by the MotoGP medics.

"He has a break in the ankle and two fractures in the tibia, one old fracture that has opened again and one new," Bartholemy said.

"At the moment they have put on a cast and said he should not move his foot for 20 to 25 days. There may also be some damage to his knee so there will be another scan shortly."

Bartholemy added that there was a possibility that Hopkins could also be ruled out of his home race at Laguna Seca, which takes place a week after the Sachsenring event.

"Sachsenring will not be possible for him, so I hope that we will be back for Laguna Seca, but anyway we want to wait until he is 100 per cent fit because he is still carrying the Barcelona injury and I would prefer that he comes back at 100 per cent," said Bartholemy.

Get well soon Hopper.

Put RL Hayden on the bike when he's ready.

From Soup - Hopper then speared into the tyre barrier feet first.

That place sounds more dangerous than Laguna! Where are the FIM standards?? They shouldn't be racing there!

You should have seen the place 25 years ago - there were water filled ditches lining the track - but now that I think about it I'd still take that over the old turn 2 at Laguna...

That was a seriously fast and big off, glad to see he made it into the med centre under his own steam with a little help.

garyb425 - 27 June 2008 02:23 PM

You should have seen the place 25 years ago - there were water filled ditches lining the track - but now that I think about it I'd still take that over the old turn 2 at Laguna...

Assen was once the same with the water filled ditches. So was Sears Point, as Wes Cooley painfully found out. I was standing there when he went off and it wasn't pretty. I didn't eat for a couple of days afterwards, though I did drink a bit.

Jeff N - 27 June 2008 03:37 PM

garyb425 - 27 June 2008 02:23 PM

You should have seen the place 25 years ago - there were water filled ditches lining the track - but now that I think about it I'd still take that over the old turn 2 at Laguna...

Assen was once the same with the water filled ditches. So was Sears Point, as Wes Cooley painfully found out. I was standing there when he went off and it wasn't pretty. I didn't eat for a couple of days afterwards, though I did drink a bit.

I was referring to Assen as far as the water-filled ditches. Yeah, Sears was a nightmare - I was at the track when Cooley went down at Sears, although I don't think I saw the accident (Turn 1, wasn't it). I was one of 5 people that saw Jon Woo go into the wall at Turn 2 at Laguna,that was absolutely sickening. Still turns my stomach today. You knew on impact...

I haven't seen the Hopkins crash - was he in the normal run-off area?

I think they should let Jamie Hacking replace John Hopkins at Laguna seca and have him test at Indy next week so he could learn the bike and tires before the Laguna race. He has had alot of succes at Laguna and is the most succcesful Kawasaki rider this year and is fully fit and when possible wild cards for Kawasaki at Laguna were rumered he had mentioned he would like to ride a Motogp bike at least once.

amafan - 27 June 2008 08:00 PM

I think they should let Jamie Hacking replace John Hopkins at Laguna seca and have him test at Indy next week so he could learn the bike and tires before the Laguna race. He has had alot of succes at Laguna and is the most succcesful Kawasaki rider this year and is fully fit and when possible wild cards for Kawasaki at Laguna were rumered he had mentioned he would like to ride a Motogp bike at least once.

What the heck, he'd be a good choice, too. He seems to have gotten the crashing out of his system.

I like Laconi better but the schedule might conflict. Not that it would matter toward kawasaki's WSB effort.

Laconi or Tamada might be a good choice for Germany because of track knowlege but Hacking has 10 more podiums in the last two years than laconi and Tamada on the Kawasaki SBK and has many wins at Laguna seca in supersport racing.