Former world champion, Grant Langston, knows all about the transition from MXGP to AMA supercross and motocross, so he is well positioned to give an educated opinion Jorge Prado’s current situation as he struggles to show his real form after injury and bike adaption issues.
Langston spoke to Donn Maeda recently, and gave his take on Prado’s seasom so far:
I don’t think it’s the best Jorge Prado, in my opinion. If you go watch when he won the GPs before coming over, he looked in the zone, you know, as people like to say, everything he did, like from the scrub, the whips, the corners, everything was on point. He doesn’t look like the same guy. And you know, if you go look over the years, you’ve seen the level where it was the Europeans in the early days were better than Americans, and then it changed pretty quickly. And then I think the Americans kind of would, without a doubt, better than it, you know, and it’s kind of done a little bit of this. You know, Herlings came over a few years ago, and he almost embarrassed everyone. And then Herlings couldn’t beat him, you know, but unless people are in their zone, in the comfort zone, that’s how to judge the best of them.
All I can think of is when I went through it, when I came here, because Pastrana was the golden child, you know? I had people telling me, you think you can beat him. And I’m like, I raced them a couple of times, I raced them at des Nations and I beat them. We were very similar in speed, but I beat them. And so I kind of knew where the bar was. But coming over, I was a little psyched out in going, OK, these are the tracks he knows where I’m in his home country, in front of his home fans, like this is going to be tough. So I almost prepared myself like you are the underdog. But I felt deep down like I know who I am. I know what I can do. And I thought we’d have a good battle, but I still believed I could beat him.
I also left when I was younger, you know, I before even the win in the world championship, I think I don’t even know if I was 18 when I signed my contract or they waited till I was 18. So I was an adult. But, you know, with Prado, he went through MX2 to MXGP and Albertyn did a little bit the same thing. I think when you’re a little bit older, Supercross is a little tougher to adapt to. And then if you don’t get off on the right foot with Supercross, that leaves, in my opinion, the hangover going in a motocross because you know the confidence a little beat up, your body’s a little beat up. So I I would just like to see the whole product we know, because in my opinion, if he’s on fire, I think you see Tomac, Jett and him. You know, three guys, one at the end of his career, one who’s a GP star and the new kid on the block. It’s a cool story, too, you know, different brands, different riders, different backgrounds, different countries, all that.
But something is missing. I’ve heard some murmurs that he’s just not happy with the team in general. You know, when Chad Reid went to Monster Kawi, it didn’t go very well. It’s worked for some people. It hasn’t worked for others. You know, different personalities gel with different people. So maybe it’s just in his head now. But I really would just like to see the 100 percent of Jorge Prado, that would be cool.
