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Originally posted by sukant08
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Originally posted by R-series
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Oh yeah I remember that...and moreover that time there wasn't any battle between the two...
Moreover the fans were screeming vale,vale..even when Dani's name was announced!!
Moreover the fans were screeming vale,vale..even when Dani's name was announced!!
Now time For an Excellent Article: It comes from Ignition Coloumn in Road Racer X magazine by Chris Jonnum
BODY OF EVIDENCE
When people ask how I got my job, I like to say I tried racing but was short on talent, so magazine work was my backup. Though that’s true, I suspect that what I lacked even more than skills was bravery. Maybe my sense of self-preservation is just too developed, but I’ve always been
hesitant to fl irt too closely with the edge of control. I’ve had a few shoulder injuries, but despite the fact that I’ve ridden motorcycles for over three decades, I’ve never worn a cast in my life. Obviously, that attitude wouldn’t cut it at the sport’s professional level, where it’s routine to sacrifi ce one’s body to the racing gods. It’s easy to envy the top pros’ paychecks and fame, but few would actually be willing to submit to the requisite abuse. Perhaps no rider epitomizes this more than John Hopkins. When I recently asked him to list the injuries he’s suffered in his career, he went on for four minutes. Among the “highlights” are breaking seven bones (including a femur) during his childhood motocross career; breaking a collarbone during his AMA days; mangling his left hand during his rookie Grand Prix season; breaking both ankles while participating in the Crossover Supercross Challenge; cracking ribs, breaking his left foot, and blowing out his teeth at the Sachsenring; breaking three ribs and having a footpeg go up his anus at Motegi; breaking a scaphoid and severing a tendon at Qatar; blowing out a knee and breaking his left ankle and tibia at Assen; dislocating his hip and tearing ligaments around his femur at the same track a year later; and, in a horrifi c crash last year at the Nurburgring, suffering a massive brain contusion and cartilage damage to his wrist and shoulder. All in all, Hopper has undergone surgery an incredible twenty-two times.
John’s ’07 Qatar crash continues to haunt him. It happened early in the year, and because Suzuki fi nally had a competitive bike, he continued
racing rather than taking time to have his wrist repaired. He rode that season and the next, but his ’09 Nurburgring crash aggravated the problem, and this time he elected to have it fi xed. One of the pins installed during the procedure went through a nerve, causing intense pain. After not sleeping well for a week despite painkillers, Hopkins had the pin pulled, leaving him worse off than pre-operation, as the trauma created massive mounts of scar tissue. He had almost no wrist movement through the early part of this year. After the second race, John had the scar tissue removed, but it didn’t really help. Dr. Ting saw him after Road Atlanta and reported that the lunate bone was so discolored in the MRI that it was unfixable, a diagnosis that was confirmed by two other surgeons. When Dr. Ting says to retire, most people pay attention, but John eventually found a doctor in San Diego who would operate. “I’m not done racing by any means,” Hopkins told me. “That’s why we searched so long and hard for the surgeon—I wasn’t ready to quit racing. Retirement was just not an option.” This doctor completely reconstructed Hopkins’ wrist, re-breaking the radius bone in his forearm and shortening it by 3mm, then plating that and installing eight screws and three external pins. Cartilage and a donor tendon were added as well. In early June, John said the recovery was going well. He expected to have his cast removed around the time this issue hits, after which he’ll start a six-week rehabilitation period. Realistically, that means his best hope is to return in time for the VIR AMA Pro round in mid-August. I asked Hopkins if it’s possible that he’s just avoiding the inevitable—retirement— but he insisted that’s not the case. “I’d be able to accept it,” he said. “It would be disappointing, for sure, but it is what it is. More important to me in my life is the relationship with my wife.
We want to have kids in the future, and I want to be able to play with them and take them motocross riding. I don’t want to jeopardize my
quality time with my family.” Nonetheless, he’s determined to give it another try this summer. I almost always resist the cliched crutch of comparing sport to armed conflict, because I doubt that anything can hold a light to the horror of war, but it’s hard not to see parallels in situations like this.
There’s a line about war being the only thing we have left to determine whether or not we’re courageous, but I’d say professional motorcycle
racing might also handle that task. Whatever the case, I don’t care how much money or fame Hopper and his cohorts get; I’m glad I make my living as a journalist. X
hats off to Hopper and all the racers....
, most of us dream to be racers....(rather wish we were racers)...but do we see behind the shining metal and glamour....Its damn tough being one.....its only passion for riding that keeps them there....
!! Then the only thing left for Lorenzo to do was to run Rossi or himself off-track...
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