Jorge Prado shocked the world at the 2026 Monster Energy AMA Supercross season opener inside of Angel Stadium. It is no secret Prado’s first full season in America for the Monster Energy Kawasaki squad was nothing short of a disappointment. An injury at round three of supercross took the four-time FIM Motocross World Champion out of the series and unable to gain much needed experience inside the stadiums.
When he returned for the AMA Pro Motocross Championship, it was expected that the reigning MXGP champion would contend for wins and podiums, but as the summer went on that was not the case and things began to get weird under the Monster Kawi rig. Both parties were unhappy and Prado was heavily criticized by media and fans alike for how he went about the situation. He was eventually able to negotiate a way out of his three-year deal after just one year.
Prado signed a one-year deal with Red Bull KTM. He had spent 13 years of his career with the Austrian manufacturer and went all-in that the move back “home” would turn his American career around. Still, even he didn’t expect a supercross podium as quickly as round one. His strong start at Anaheim helps back up his decision in a huge way. At Anaheim he took the first 450 heat win of the season and then grabbed his first career podium on U.S. soil.
All day long, he was much improved from anything he had shown in his previous six supercross appearances. He was on the board in the first qualifying session, ending up fourth in the session, and sixth overall.
In the heat he got off to third place start behind his Red Bull KTM teammate Aaron Plessinger and the defending champion Cooper Webb. Prado pressured Webb early, to the point where Coop went defensive on Jorge and it caused Webb to run into Plessinger in dramatic fashion. Prado rode around the carnage and went on for the heat win, fending off a late charge from his other teammate, Eli Tomac.
After starting nearly last in the first main event gate drop, he took full advantage of the restart and ripped one of his patented holeshots. He surrendered the lead early to Tomac and second to Ken Roczen on lap three but controlled the final podium position from there on.
Prado rode flawlessly, keeping a comfortable gap over the battle behind him between Hunter Lawrence and Jason Anderson. Lawrence closed the gap late but not quite close enough to threaten for a pass. It was a story book performance for the Spaniard.
"This is really ahead of my expectations – the goal for this weekend was to just get through each session and do the best that I can,” Prado said in a team statement. “I had great preparation leading into this year, but I am still so new to supercross. Getting the heat race win was awesome, but I am really happy with my main event and to be on the podium. I rode within my limits and still don't have a lot of words to describe my feelings right now, but all I can say is that hard work always pays off! It's great to start the season this way, so now we'll keep learning and look forward to a new opportunity next week."
Pre-season predictions were all over the place, but nobody expected a podium, including Jorge himself. In his TV podium interview admitted as much, saying, “This is unreal. I can’t even think about standing on the podium right now. Like this shouldn’t be now. It should be maybe at the end of the year or maybe next year, but not now at round one. Like I always say, hard work pays off and this off-season I’ve been putting in a lot of work.”
He expressed gratitude for the Red Bull KTM team saying, “I can’t thank enough, the whole Red Bull KTM Factory racing team for opening the doors again to me. This is my fourteenth season with them and hey, we belong to each other.”
At the post-race scrum Prado talked about how the smooth transition back to KTM. “Once I jumped back on the KTM, I was like, man, this setup, it is basically good for me, like already from day one. This was a big advantage because I could put in a lot of laps this winter, just clicking laps, not even testing. This was a big for me; I put so many hours on the bike.”
Team Manager Ian Harrison has commented that Prado was just “burning up bikes” during the off-season, as he clicked off lap after lap, day after day.
Prado continued about how comfortable he feels back on the KTM.
“I had such a great feeling with the bike that I was feeling safe,” he explained. “And when you feel safe, you can always progress and go a little faster every time. I always felt safe when I was riding supercross, so I could always make progress.”
Prado’s performances are going to be one of the biggest things to watch as the season progresses. If he can keep this going, it would shape up to be one of the biggest bounce back stories in the history of the sport. His Anaheim 1 podium was as straight up as it gets. Was it just another one of those random and wild round one performances? Or is this actually just the beginning? If he was this good at round one, how high could his ceiling really be?
