It was another very tough weekend for Jorge Prado who continues to struggle to show his full potential on the Kawasaki depsite hard work from both side – but at least his starts were back!
Kawasaki delivered the following press release on Prado’s day with Jorge saying he is looking at the postiives. With two weekends off, can Jorge and Kawasaki finally find a setting that allows Prado to show his full potential?
Press Release- Prado started the weekend strong, qualifying seventh aboard his No. 70 KX™450SR. When the gate dropped for Moto 1, Prado rocketed out to grab the holeshot and battled through the first turn before climbing Horsepower Hill in second place. On Lap 2, a misstep through the whoops section caused him to drop to fourth. As the race wore on with mounting pressure from behind, Prado battled to finish eighth.
In Moto 2, Prado once again demonstrated his elite starting ability, launching into second off the gate. He was quickly pushed back to third but continued to battle to maintain his position. Heavy roost and much dryer, hard-packed track conditions disrupted his rhythm as the Spaniard fought within the top-10. Struggling to find clean lines on the challenging track, he slipped further to 15th just eight minutes into the moto. A red flag brought out a restart, and when racing resumed, Prado made several quick passes off the line. Pressure from the pack caused him to fall back to 22nd on the following lap. Regaining his composure, Prado mounted a late-race charge and worked his way up to 19th, where he would ultimately finish.
Prado said: ““It was a challenging weekend, but there were still some positives to take away. I started off strong in qualifying with seventh, and in Moto 1, I grabbed the holeshot and came through the first turn in second. I was feeling good early on, but a small mistake in the whoops on Lap 2 dropped me to fourth. After that, I just struggled to maintain pace and ended up finishing eighth. In Moto 2, I had another great start and was running second early, but I got shuffled back pretty quickly. The roost and dust made it tough to stay consistent before the red flag came out. After the restart, I had a strong jump and made a few passes, but I got caught up again. I regrouped and finished 19th. It definitely wasn’t the result I was hoping for, but I’ll learn from it, take the positives, especially the starts, and keep building for the next one.
