Hopkins: The biggest weekend of my life.

Team Suzuki's John Hopkins took advantage of a week off after Assen to return early to Southern California for some much-needed rest and to promote the upcoming Red Bull US Grand Prix, to be held on July 8-10 at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.

The Los Angeles-born Anglo-American met with the motorsports writers at the three largest newspapers in Southern California, the top broadcast news outlet in Los Angeles and representatives from two national magazines.

"I think having such a race in America is actually going to open eyes and knock the borders down and let the sport grow in America," revealed Hopkins. "That's what I'm more interested in. I've dedicated my life to this sport, and I always will."

Hopper began his day on Tuesday meeting with Bill Center of the San Diego Union-Tribune, in Oceanside, near his home in Ramona. He then traveled up the freeway to Long Beach and met with the Orange County Register's Damian Dottore and Road Racer X's Chris Jonnum.

Hopkins then guided his BMW M3 across the city to meet with legendary motorsports writer Shav Glick of the Los Angeles Times at the world-famous Phillippe's The Original French Dip in downtown Los Angeles, near the Times' offices.

To end the busy day, the #21 met with a journalist from Popular Science magazine at Red Bull's offices in Santa Monica before retiring to his beachfront hotel for the evening.

On Wednesday, Hopkins headed to California Speedway for a news segment with KNBC-TV. He detailed his rise to MotoGP and promoted both the sport and the US Grand Prix. Hopkins then gave sports reporter Mario Solis riding tips as they toured the Speedway's road course and oval on Suzuki GSXR1000 and GSXR600 roadbikes.

Hopper, due to ride a special Red Bull liveried Suzuki at Laguna Seca, will now retreat to a Southern California resort and spa before heading north to Monterey for next weekend's race - which he says will be the most important weekend of his life:

"My determination and my focus going into Laguna Seca is as high if not higher than anybody who's going to that race," stated John. "I consider next weekend pretty much the most important weekend of my life, up to this point. That's the way I look at it."

The 2005 US Grand Prix marks the return of the MotoGP World Championship to the United States for the first time since 1994.