JOHN HOPKINS may miss his home US GP in three weeks after he continued a crash-strewn season with another heavy fall during the qualifying hour, another victim of the Ramshoek corner that claimed Capirossi, and lucky to escape with nothing more than leg and ankle fractures after slamming feet-first into the barrier.
The Hopper started the season injured after crashing at Phillip Island tests, then hurt his back again crashing at Catalunya, although he kept riding.
The Assen crash was expected to keep him out for two weeks or more, missing Assen, the German GP, and probably also Laguna Seca. He sustained a fracture in his left ankle, re-opened an old fracture in his left tibia, and incurred a new fracture.
He was scheduled to fly to California directly to see Dr Ting, famed orthopaedic surgeon who numbers Lawson, Rainey, Doohan and others among past patients.
Hopkins lost control as he changed direction after the fast right-hand kink on the section of the old circuit leading towards Ramshoek corner and the final chicane. He and his bike sped across the new tarred run-off area and the gravel trap so fast it looked almost as though he had suffered brake failure. This was not the case.
