Mixed results for Hopkins’ BSB debut

John Hopkins had a relatively quiet start to his British Superbikes career with a 17th and a fifth in yesterday’s races from Brands Hatch.

Hopkins crashed in the first race while attempting to pass Stuart Easton for fifth place after seeing the leaders were beginning to open up a gap to him and Easton. He remounted and managed to finish 17th.

He said: “I saw that the leaders were starting to get away and I knew that I had to get around Easton if I wanted to have any chance of getting on the podium. I got a really good drive out of turn one, hit my same braking marker and went up the inside of him. Unfortunately though, I was 10 miles per hour quicker at the braking point and just ran off. Instead of hitting the wall I decided to lay it over.”

In the second race, Hopkins started from fifth and said he got a good start but was bumped by somebody and lost positions in the first turn. When all was settled, he found himself behind Easton again. He spent a few laps trying to get by Easton before outbraking Easton into Paddock Hill and setting off after the leading quartet.

Hopkins said: “From that point forward I pushed for about two laps to see if I could make any headway on the group in front of me.”

“Unfortunately I started pushing the front and after the poor results in the first race, I just wanted to get a consistent finish and get into the points and have something to build off.”