John M. Kocinski was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, March the 20th, 1968. His father's name is Jerry and his mother's name is Judy. He also has an older sister, Lisa.
John is single and lives in Los Angeles,  California, his base in the United States for training. He also has a home near  Barcelona, Spain, where he stays during the European part of the World Championship.

     John believes that the key to being successful is self-discipline. He therefore follows a very strict diet and fitness plan which includes eating and sleeping at the same time every day, a pretty hard thing to do when you are suffering from jet lag all the time. John loves salads and pasta, and his favorite drink is iced lemon tea but for training reasons he mainly drinks water with added mineral salts.
     
     His very special character and racing style has made him one of the most popular racers in the world. John's addiction to racing began at the very young age of 4 and when he was 17 he moved to Modesto where he trained at Kenny Roberts training Ranch.
Kenny spotted his talent at once and asked him to race under his team colors.
John Kocinski's first race was on a Yamaha YZ80 that his father modified and prepared. He entered the YZ80 in the three races, winning the 125cc class. He finished second in the 500cc class, and completed the day with a third in the 1000cc class,  with the same bike!!.

     Kocinski at 17 year old was, at the time, the youngest factory-sponsored road racer in America and probably even in the world. In fact, Kocinski was so young that he was ineligible to race in the Daytona 200 Superbike race (March, 9th). The reason: FIM regulations required that a rider had to be 18. John's birthday wasn't until March, 20th.
But rather than sit and watch Daytona from the sidelines, John signed up to race the AMA Championship Cup Series the previous Sunday, March 2nd. Kocinski entered the series as the youngest rider on the circuit.

After several years of amateur competition, in which we won four AMA National Competitions, Kocinski won his first professional, riding a Yamaha TZ250 at the Brainerd Formula 2 race, September 1st, 1985. It was only the second time he had ridden a formula 2 bike!!!
John's height (5'5'') and weight (120 pounds) fitted the diminutive TZ250 to perfection.
Apart from competing in the AMA Superbike Formula 2 Championship, Kocinski had another thing on his mind: High School Graduation. He completed his senior year and after the June Ceremony he began racing full time.

     On March 26th, 1989 Kocinski won every race he entered. As the two-time defending AMA 250cc National Champion, Kocinski started off the season by winning the Daytona 100 for the second year in a row. The same day starting from 53rd position in an 80-rider field, Kocinski knifed his way to the front of the pack to win the 600 Supersport race.

     In 1989 he won an unprecedented third straight AMA 250 National Championship, as well as making his Grand Prix debut in the 500cc class, considered the ultimate form of motorcycle road racing. Kocinski rode a YZR500 for the Yamaha Team in the German, Austrian and Yugoslavian GPs.

     Oddly enough, John rides mini-bikes during the off-season training. As Kocinski explains, the object of riding these slower bikes is to fine-tune his concentration and reflexes: " The mini-bikes helps my timing and concentration--knowing when to gas it (accelerate while exiting a corner) and when to brake.".
Kocinski trained harder than ever in 1989 when he knew that it was going to be his toughest season ever. By the end of the year he had to race in three different continents (Asia, North America and Europe), in FOUR different classes (250cc National, 600cc Supersport, 250cc Grand Prix and 500cc Grand Prix) ! . A hectic schedule to be sure, but Kocinski wouldn't have it any other way. Because from a professional standpoint winning motorcycle races is what Kocinski knows best. And he planned to keep on winning as after that he won the 1990, 250cc World Championship the first time out!!!.

     The two following years (1991-1992) John raced in the 500cc class in the World Championship, finishing 4th and 3rd respectively in front of people as famous as Kevin Schwantz.

     In 1993 he rode a 250cc Suzuki for half of the season giving them the two first podiums ever gotten by a Suzuki 250cc, finishing 11th in the World Championship. (And that was racing HALF OF THE RACES). Later in the season, after changing his manager John came back to the 500cc class on a CAGIVA factory bike , finishing in 4th position in his first two races and winning the third, in the U.S. Grand Prix in Laguna Seca. That was the first ever victory for a Cagiva in a normal condition race. Not surprising at all, providing that John Kocinski is the former U.S. Grand Prix winner, and also holds the record for most wins at Laguna Seca. The following race in Spain, John was pushed out of the race when he was in the lead heading for his second victory.

     Kocinski began 1994 with a victory in Australia with his Cagiva. He was fighting for the championship when a crash in Germany made him lose his chances of winning the championship though he kept pushing to set his Cagiva at the 3rd position in the World Championship.
     John got a lot of chances to win the World Championship the following year with the Cagiva. He enjoyed racing the red bike, he got a lot of feeling and loved the team, but at the end of the season Cagiva decided to stop racing.

     Then, John, took the decision to dedicate 1995 to water-ski. That preference for water sports comes from a very young age, when John was still living in Little Rock. He always loved it, and now, finally he got some time to practice. He trained with the best water-skiers in the world, such as Jennifer Leachman, Sammy Duval or Andy Mapples. Of course - couldn´t be in any different way- John took it very seriously, and ended competing in some slalom water-ski series.
This time off also allowed John to move to Sacramento, where he looked for some land to buy, and started to set some business up. In a few words, to do the things he never had time to do before: set his life up.

     But above all John is a motorcycle man, and in 1996, he came back to the motorcycle sport with Ducati, to race the Superbike World Championship.

     The following season (1997), John raced with the RC45 Honda in the Castrol-Honda Team, winning the Superbike World Championship (the biggest success for the RC45 before and after).
At this time John had already found a site in Spain where to water-ski as a complimentary training for the time he spent in Europe.

     John raced in 1998 for the Spanish Movistar-Honda-Pons Team, in the 500 class World Championship, archiving a 12th place overall, though he got two serious crashes, which injuries unable him for some races.

After that, in 1999, John got something that he always wanted: Racing in Erv Kanemoto´s Team. With no sponsor but with a lot of determination, Erv set a Team up for John to race in the 500cc class World Championship, but lack of money is something hard to deal with in motor-sports, and they had a really hard time fighting against the factory and sponsored teams, ending up the season in a very notorious 8th place only beat for some official factory bikes.

     They couldn´t keep going in that situation one more year, so for the 2000 season Erv retired from competition and John signed to race in the U.S.A with Ducati Vance & Hines Team in the AMA Superbike championship. In the last races John decided to put a sticker of  Kanemoto racing on his leathers as a personal sponsor to honor his friend.

     John is now moving to Los Angeles where  he expects to find a permanent home.

     In 2001 John took a new challange working as a test rider for Yamaha to develop the new competition prototipes: The Yamaha M1. John tested in every circuit that it was needed to make sure the bike was going to be competitive.
As a ressult of this great job, Yamaya request him back for the 2002 to be able to fine tune those bike to the point to beguin to compete in the worldchampionship as soon as posible.

    This was the last motorcycle job for John Kocinski who is now retired from motorsports and enjoys  a more relaxed lifestyle in his Californian home.