Former MotoGP star John Hopkins told Roadracingworld.com in a phone interview that he is looking forward to an upcoming test on an AMA American Superbike-spec Suzuki GSX-R1000 and that he is “leaning towards” accepting a deal that will see him race the 2010 AMA Pro American Superbike Championship for Team Hammer, Inc. racing as Team M4 Suzuki. “I’m really looking forward to the test at Fontana,” Hopkins said, referring to an AMA team test scheduled for February 2-3 at Auto Club Speedway. “I haven’t been on a bike in quite some time. I’ve been on my motocross bike doing some motocross laps, but I haven’t been on a road race bike since my crash in Germany. That was a bunch of months ago, so it will be good to get on a bike and get acquainted with a streetbike again and get rolling. And I’m looking forward to riding with the M4 team because I have a lot of history with them, and it will be good to work with some of those guys again. I’m really looking forward to that.” Hopkins has been considering two deals this off-season. One deal would put him on a MotoGP prototype developed by the Italian FB Corse outfit, and one deal would see him return to Team Hammer, which gave Hopkins his first professional ride in 1999 and started working with him when he was 15 years old. Hopkins said he is close to finalizing the deal with Team Hammer. “It’s a matter of working out the little details,” said Hopkins. “I haven’t signed anything yet. We’re still in talks with the FB Corse MotoGP team that’s supposed to be coming out this next year, but I’m just considering my options. I’m definitely leaning towards the M4 deal, for sure. “We’ve talked a lot with Monster [energy drink, Hopkins’ personal sponsor] and got things rolling with Monster. I think it’s a matter of time. “The negotiations were to test the FB Corse bike and then make a decision whether I was gonna ride for them or not. But for them it’s not really much of an option for me to test and then sign, so I don’t think that’s going to happen.” Asked for his thoughts on possibly returning to the AMA Pro Road Racing Championship, Hopkins said, “I’m really excited about it. There’s still quite a few fast guys racing in the AMA, so it’s not going to be easy by any means. With the rules and everything some people say it’s a dying sport, but I beg to differ. My whole plan is to go out and have fun riding the motorcycle, add some character and hope the results are good. That’s my whole deal.” Hopkins says he is healthy and fit with no lingering effects from the serious injuries he suffered in a crash during the World Superbike event at Nurburgring last summer. “My fitness is great,” Hopkins said. “My fitness is actually back up to where it was, I would say, in 2007. So I’m really happy about that. I’m working out five days a week really, really hard. I’m doing about 150 to 200 miles a week on my bicycle and some motocross. That’s been my schedule for the last month, so it’s been really good.”