Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

This just in from John Hopkins, via cell-phone from Malaysia:

I’m testing with my new team here at Sepang in Malaysia right now, and everything’s going pretty good.

The track conditions here aren’t that great with all of the moisture. It’s actually raining at the moment. That’s how it is here in Malaysia, especially around November.

On the first day, we just put in some laps and just got to a basic set-up. We didn’t want to go to any extremes. We just wanted to learn the bike, put in a good amount of laps and got comfortable with the machine.

Yesterday went really well as well. It got cut short to a half day by the rain, but we started messing with suspension settings.

One thing I definitely had to get comfortable with again was engine braking, getting into the corners and then changing lines getting out of the corners.

I guess they had a couple of problems with the clutch last year, and I think we’re running into the same problems.

Even with the clutch deal, the Suzuki four-stroke is a lot easier to ride than a 500.

The Suzuki’s quite a bit faster, but it doesn’t really feel too much faster.

I’m pretty close to my qualifying time right now on the Michelin race tires, and I’ve already gone a-second-and-a-half faster than my race lap times, consistently. At the moment, we’re not too far off the times Kenny is running, and he is testing the new prototype chassis.

I’m learning to change my style all around; I’m going back to the style I used back home in AMA.

Other than that, it’s good to get on a set of grippy tires, that’s for sure! There’s a big difference between the Dunlops and the Michelins.

It’s a big difference with the factory bike and team because you, as the rider, are taking a part in the development, and I’ve never had that before.

Kevin Schwantz is out here right now, so I’ve been hanging and talking with him. He’s going to ride the bike during a media day tomorrow. Then we don’t test again until January. It’s going to be pretty busy after January, so it’ll be good to go back home, take a little bit of time off, hang out and be a 19-year-old guy again…for a month or two.



For more, see John Hopkins’ column, “The GP Kid,” in the January issue of Roadracing World & Motorcycle Technology.