When four-time World motocross champion Jorge Prado signed with the Kawasaki team in USA, he believes he would be the man to beat in the AMA Nationals. He told mxlarge back while still racing in Europe that he expected to be the guy who is winning, but it sure hasn’t turned out that way.

Prado mentioned when he signed with Kawasaki of his intentions and while the Kawasaki US team is a great team, when you have raced Austrian bikes your whole life, racing a Japanese machine seems like it might be a totally different prospect.

“Coming to America to race Supercross, Motocross and the SuperMotocross World Championship with Monster Energy Kawasaki is an incredible opportunity. I’ve always admired the level of competition here, and I’m excited to challenge myself against some of the best riders in the world. This is a new chapter in my career, and I’m ready to give it everything I’ve got, representing a legendary factory like Kawasaki. The passion and intensity of the fans here is unmatched, and I can’t wait to experience that energy.”

Of course, it hasn’t turned out that way and the World MXGP champion is struggling big time. Davey Coombs of MXSports and RacerX understands Europe vs America better than most. As one of, if not the best historian in our sports history, DC knows his motocross and is as big a fan of MXGP as he is of his own series. He has seen it time and time again, where the World motocross champions come to America to race and find it tough going and even more so now, that the AMA series is a one-day event.

“Once the green flag drops (on the one-day format), it is on,” DC said. “In Europe, you get so much more time to learn the track, we just have that on a one-day program, and I think they will get used to it. There is a big difference from Italy and Indonesia (which makes it tough for American racers to race in the GP series), compared to Indiana and Iowa. You don’t know where to eat (in Europe), you don’t know what to do. Those guys will adapt quickly.”

In the opening round at Fox Raceway, Prado was clearly off the pace and just coming back from injury, it was obvious, he wasn't going to be battling for wins or even top five finishes.

"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.”

As for what Prado expected, well, there is no doubt, he wanted to win, he wanted to beat Jett Lawrence and he expected to do that. Since his supercross injury and coming back to race the AMA Nationals, it’s been an uphill battle and one that is hard to see him get to the front, any time soon. Thunder Valley was another tough one.

“Not the results I was looking for today. The track conditions were pretty difficult out there. The rain made it very slippery and the ruts were super deep. It was a hard track to feel comfortable on having never been here before. In Moto 1 the track felt super soft so we made some changes to the bike for Moto 2, but I ended up hitting a hole in a deep rut that threw me off and ended my moto. We continue to make improvements during the week and we will learn from this race and look for more progress next weekend.”

High Point didn't go much better, with Prado not even making the top ten overall with 12-23 finishes. So, with a week break before the Southwick round of the AMA Nationals, you get a feeling the Spaniard will have a little time to test and prepare for the “sand” race, and we all know, the euro’s are pretty good in sand. Let’s hope he can at least get top five and build into the season. It has been a hard grind for the Spaniard, but we all know, battling Benoit Paturel for 12th in a race, isn’t where he belongs and that is just where he was in last weekends AMA Nationals round, at High Point.