Copyright 2003, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

FIRST PERSON/OPINION

Via e-mail:

In his prompt and forthright acknowledgement of and apologies for the mistake he made in Turn One at Motegi, John Hopkins has demonstrated maturity beyond his years.

He has earned praise, but received punishment.

FIM officials would accomplish far more for rider safety by improving track conditions than they will ever accomplish by penalizing riders who make mistakes.

What were they thinking?

Lester F. Hardy
St. Helena, California


FIRST PERSON/OPINION

Via e-mail:

In my opinion, John Hopkins’ DQ from Motegi was probably intended to send a message through the MotoGP paddock that dangerous riding will not be tolerated. John was a scapegoat; he caused a crash precisely when the FIM was looking to make their statement.

However, given that the FIM wanted to make a statement, I think both John’s crash and Tamada’s bump were treated equally. Tamada’s disqualification from the race robbed him of a hard-fought third place; DQ’ing John from Motegi would have been an empty penalty as he had already crashed and didn’t finish anyway. The only way for the FIM to inflict an equivalently undeserving penalty was to suspend him from the Malaysian Grand Prix.

Peter Hofmann
Millbrae, California