Signs of life from Monster Energy Kawasaki's Jorge Prado, who was quick in qualifying at The Wick 338 over the weekend and then started well and ran up front early in the motos. A pair of crashes-- one while trying to hold off Eli Tomac in the first moto, and another when hitting a lapped rider while running second in moto two--hurt his results. He ended up 5-6 for fifth overall.
Still, this was....something. He's Jorge's take.
All right. Jorge Prado so I'm thinking this is much better than it's been. You ran up front. It's an awesome day. But then you crashed in each moto and dropped back. So I don't know, like, if you're super stoked or, like, super pissed. How do you feel?
Jorge Prado: Well, from the weekends we’ve had in the past, it was better. But we were still far off. But I mean better at P5. So it is what we could do and I think I pushed a lot and I did my best. And that's it. So not much to say.
Second moto looked like it took the wind out of you a little bit.
Yeah. So I crashed with the lapper. I smashed him and went down. So then it's hard to regroup and it was a little bit hot. So the heart rate, it coming up and it was hard to drop it again. And I had those few laps were Justin Cooper got by and I just didn't feel myself. And then four laps to go, I regrouped a little bit and I was catching him again, Justin Cooper, I actually catch him big time. And then on the last lap I'm like, ‘Man, am I going to make it happen?’ But it was too big of a gap. So I just held to that position and that's it. So yeah, it was a pity for one weekend that I could maybe manage to stay a little bit more up front. I made a small mistake, but yeah, like I said, we are off, so maybe I'm pushing it a little bit too much.
So I was gonna say the Kawi guys came out to ClubMX and worked hard all week with you. But you're still thinking you’ve got a ways to go?
Oh, yeah. We are far off. I mean, I'm a sand rider and I finished P5 today. It's a track where I should be winning, and I know I would win with different stuff. So yeah, we just need to keep working. Yeah, they we did some testing the first week after High Point. I don't know. I don't know what to say. Hopefully we improve somehow.
How's the communication with you and the team and everything else? I mean, I think you're probably both frustrated, right? How is the communication? How is the meetings, phone calls, that kind of stuff?
Yeah, everything is fine. I think they are trying their best. And I'm just waiting.
So did you feel like you're running top three? You know, you're back to up front where you want to be. Did you feel like, hey, still the bike is not where I needed to be? Like you were compensating? Did you still feel when you were right there that there's work to do?
Yeah, of course. I mean, I can put in a good lap in practice because I can put all my efforts into one lap and compensate everything that were are off, I compensated for one lap. But I cannot do it for 35 minutes. No one can do it 35 minutes like that. So we could see today, qualifying [session] two, I put a good lap. So that's the speed I want to keep the whole moto, but for me, right now it's impossible because we are off. So yeah, I mean, it's the sand track. I'm more like a sand rider. So I think today I could compensate a little bit with my sand skills, kind of. And a little bit my fitness, but yeah, we were still off.
So I do all these stupid internet shows on YouTube and all that stuff. You're a huge topic of discussion with fans and questions. Do you follow that stuff? Do you care and does that even bother you? Like, do you care about sort of the narrative about what's going on with Jorge Prado?
To be honest, not really, because I feel like 99 percent of the people doesn't even know what's going on. And talk is free. You know, everybody can talk. I respect everyone, and everyone has opinions. But pretty much 99 percent of the people think I need to adapt to the tracks, which is not true. They all think they know. And for me, I mean, I don't follow anything, but sometimes things just pop up and I'm just laughing. Like this guy is talking like this about me. I'm a four-time World Champion. Last year, I won 11 out of 18 or something. Are you really telling me I'm not fast enough to win today here? I mean, if you guys really knew [what was going on], you would be impressed. So we just need to keep working. And for me, it's a pity because I think that I could be winning, but right now I don't have the tools to do it. And today, I try to push it a little bit too much, like, in the first moto I tucked the front. Just because I'm overdoing it. Because the bike right now it's not at the speed, at my speed. So yeah small mistakes. Hopefully we learn and we only can go up from here. I mean the last weekends were terrible, so hopefully this race also brings a little bit more, I don't know.
Last question. Chad Reed. Talk about bringing him here. He's helping you. How that's going?
Yeah. So we started on Wednesday. We were at Club, and we were just talking and he was like, “Hey, I think I can help with some stuff.” And he just came out and we did some tweaks to the bike too, and together we built a little relationship over the last weeks at Club, and it's clicking. So for example today after before moto two on the sighting lap, I did a little adjustment. I didn't like it. And I was like, ‘Hey Chad, I need this and this and this.’ And he was like, all right, let me think. And then we talked with the suspension guy and we touched the right stuff, and I felt it right away in the moto. So I mean all the help, it's welcome at this point to try to make the bike better. The team is happy with it too, so I don't know. He's there at Club. I'm there. He knows my situation. I'm coming from Europe, going to the new brand. And it's not easy, you know, especially when you're used to winning and now you're hardly in the top three.
