After a phenomenal start last week in Anaheim where Jorge Prado scored third, a bad start put the Red Bull KTM rider in the unenviable position of having to ride through the pack at round two in San Diego. When the checkers flew Prado crossed the line in thirteenth place. We caught up to him immediately following the race to get his thoughts on how it all played out.
Racer X: Jorge, the day seemed pretty good. You were up there in qualifying and you had another great start in the heat race. The start wasn’t so great in the main event though, was there something specific that happened, or was it just one of those things that happens sometimes?
Jorge Prado: The start, people were moving a little bit, and Chase [Sexton] touched the gate and I think that made me lose focus a little bit and I wasn’t able to get a perfect reaction. I didn’t get the best jump and I struggled with riding in the mid-pack, and that’s really it, that’s my race.
Yes, I wanted to ask you specifically about riding in the pack, it’s quite a different animal than being up front like you were last week. Can you talk about the challenges of getting stuck behind slower guys and not being able to make quick passes?
Yeah, it’s very different than having a good start and being up front. A lot of riders get tight when they start up front, but I’m the opposite. When I start up front I’m more loose and I ride more like myself. When I’m mid-pack I’m more stressed about all the riders, at the moment, with the experience I have in supercross. Hopefully I don’t experience this often. It was definitely not nice to be mid-pack.
Yeah, but you don’t have a lot of supercross races under your belt, so would you say you learned valuable lessons being mid-pack?
Yes. You always learn. If I miss another start it can happen and I will have this race under my belt, and I’ll already know what it feels like. Maybe I will feel a bit better next time, maybe not as tight. That’s what I think.
Some of the other riders I spoke with mentioned the dirt had a lot of grip, which was making it tricky in some places. I don’t understand that, but did you experience that dynamic at all?
Not really. I felt like the track was a little bit slippery in places. In some corners it was loose. Hopefully it’ll get better for A2.
The crowd got extremely loud a few times. Does that break your focus at all? Do you wonder what’s going on? Or is it just business as usual?
I was like, ‘I wish they were screaming for me, I wish I was out front!’ But no, I was just focused on myself, I already had too many things on my mind.
Is 13th a letdown for you after getting a podium last week?
No. I prefer to be on the podium again, but I did my best. If I did my best and I finished 13th, what do you want me to do? I need to get this experience. I didn’t ride perfect in the main event, but I also take a lot of positives out of today. I need to be happy and I can see the steps forward. We keep moving.
