It was a disastrous day for Kawasaki in Colorado as both Jason Anderson and Jorge Prado DNF’d the second moto! Prado could only finish eighth in the opening moto and crashed in moto two, as he battles setting up a new bike, new tracks and coming back from injury.
Meanwhile, Jason Anderson tweaked his knee in the second one after two crashes and pulled out, he will his knee checked out this week.
Kawasaki said of their nightmare moto two in the 450 class:
“Prado pulled another strong start out of the gate, turning the first corner in fifth place with Anderson close behind in ninth place. Early in the moto Anderson tweaked his knee from a tip-over on the top of the track. This caused him to be unable to put any weight on that knee, which led to another crash where he was trapped under his bike. Due to the pain in his knee, Anderson retired from the race early. Prado was clicking off consistent laps in the beginning of the moto, until he hit a kicker off a deep rut in the treacherous track conditions that led to him retiring early as well.”
Prado said: “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.”
Anderson said: ““Obviously, today was not how I wanted the day to pan out. My main concern for Thunder Valley is always the elevation because I struggle with altitude sickness, so I was focused on managing that. I ended up getting 19th overall. The first moto I got a bit squeezed out on the start and was just trying to hammer in laps. The second moto I went down at the top of the track and tweaked my knee, then I ended up going down again and got trapped under my bike for a bit. I didn’t feel comfortable finishing the race after that. I’m going to get my knee checked out next week and we’ll see how it all goes from there.”
