The potential return of John Hopkins to AMA Superbike is the best off-season news for the American series, which is light on good news these days. In spite of his injury-plagued last few seasons, Hopper is still one of the premier riders in the world and to have him back racing in America could be used as the first block in rebuilding America’s domestic series.

With Ben Spies in MotoGP, Mat Mladin retired, Roger Lee Hayden to World Suoperbike, Jason DiSalvo and Chaz Davies to World Supersport and Robertino Pietri to Moto2 AMA Pro Racing’s top talent is exiting stage left at a rapid rate leaving  the U.S. championship seriously short on star power.

John Hopkins

That makes Hopkins’ addition even more important to at least keeping a small spotlight on American road racing. The fact that the class Hopkins is considering racing is American Superbike could be another big benefit for that championship, which has been nearly sucked dry by the DMG, who clearly want Daytona Sportbike to become the premier road racing class in America.

While deep down Hopper can’t be thrilled with having to come home to race after being on the world stage for the last eight years (yes it’s hard to believe, but it’s been eight years since Hopkins last raced AMA) he can at least look at this season as the opportunity to settle unfinished business.

Hopkins left for MotoGP (then still 500cc Grand Prix) in 2002 after having won two support classes. Some critics, including Mat Mladin, claimed that Hopkins went to the world championship prematurely having never even raced AMA Superbike. At the time Hopkins was viewed as the brightest young star in American racing and the best hope of that eras riders to run heads up with Mladin in AMA Superbike, but the potential showdown never happened. Now Hopkins can come back and have a chance to prove what he could have done in the class.

If he ultimately decides to come back Hopkins faces an uphill battle in terms of the history of American riders returning to the domestic series after competing in world championships. The list of riders who came back and had less than spectacular returns is long. Doug Polen, John Kocinski, Fred Merkel, Scott Russell all struggled after coming back from the world stage. Perhaps the only success stories are Doug Chandler and Ben Bostrom who both eventually earned American titles after returning from world competition.

There’s no doubt that American Superbike has sunk to depths never before known in the series and there are no illusions to any quick fixes to bring back what once was the premier Superbike racing class in the world, but at least with Hopper’s return there’s a glimmer of good news. And that’s a start.