The current MXGP champion, Jorge Prado is finding out just how tough the swap is from racing in Europe on tracks he has raced his whole life and racing in America, on track prepared completely differently than in Europe.

Of course, we have seen European based riders have success in America, Jeffrey Herlings a standout at Ironman in 2017, and names like Ben Townley, Joel Smets, Josh Coppins, Stefan Everts, Marc De Reuver, Clement Desalle and many more making one off trips to US during the GP season, but many of these guys picked a circuit, like Ironman or Unadilla, that suited the European riders. For somebody going full time like Prado, its a much different proposition and a much more difficult one.

Not too many people were surprised when the World number one exited the AMA supercross early, it is something we have seen time and time again, and as good as Prado is, he isn’t a supercross rider just yet and that showed. Will he get the hang of the indoor racing, who know, you would think he will, but the competition in America is so tough and so deep, maybe he won’t.

Outdoors though, Prado is a king of the sport, one of the best and much better than he was in Fox Raceway last weekend. The Spaniard is coming back from injury and is still working out the difference from the comfortable set-up on an Austrian bike and now trying to get it right on a Japanese bike. As a fan, I hope he sorts it out, because Jorge Prado at his best, is pretty close to the speed of the best in America. You don’t beat Jeffrey Herlings and Tim Gajser in a World championship if you are not very, very good.

Being that I am not a racer and have no clue what they have to deal with and how tough the sport is, I would never write him off. I love watching his beautiful style and amazing calmness in the highs of racing.

We all await him getting close to his best, so he can at least fight for a podium spot. That for now, is probably all he can hope for.

Jorge Prado: “Round 1 is done here at Fox Raceway and I'm a little bit disappointed. I expected more, but realistically, it's fair that we struggled. I’m coming off an injury, and on top of that, I’ve never raced outdoors on the Kawasaki. We only had four weeks on the new bike, trying to build a setup, so it’s normal that it wasn’t 100%. But that’s the mentality of a racer—you always want to be battling up front. And as a world champion, even more so, especially when you're used to it. Still, the season has started. We got some good feedback, we know what to work on, and hopefully the next rounds will be better. Qualifying was okay—nothing crazy. I was trying to push a bit to get a better start. I made some passes on the first lap, but then I lost the rear wheel of the rider ahead and had to push to the end. I was catching the two guys ahead of me in the final laps, but it wasn’t quite enough. The second moto was P6—a little better than the first one. Small steps. I did my best, and that’s what counts.”