Adam Cianciarulo, who spent years as a training partner alongside Jo Shimoda, has summed up Jo’s personality quite well. When it comes to unintentional comedy, Jo is hilarious. People love Jo. That’s why the crowd cheered him when he took the Honda RedBud National in the 250 class via 1-1 scores. Jo is from Japan, but the American fans are in full appreciation for him on July 4^th weekend. Remember, this is the guy who had “I love USA” scrawled on his chest when he came to the RedBud podium a few years ago.

As for that unintentional comedy, Jo started his weekend by asking a serious question to our own Mitch Kendra in the RedBud parking lot. "What is lot B?"

Lot B is the party zone at RedBud.

Jo is not interested in that. He’s here to do business and in fact has been doing that all summer, he was second in the points to Haiden Deegan, so when Deegan’s weekend started to unravel, perhaps it’s no surprise Jo took the biggest advantage. Again, though, his answer to the weekend breakthrough was so simple it was…unintentionally funny. Was there something different in his riding this weekend?

“Um, no, just riding the same, my fitness is the same. Everything is about the same, but [the] start,” he said. “I was honestly more stoked about starting [up front] than winning a moto. But, yeah, good for Honda. It was really good day.”

Indeed, Honda was the title sponsor of RedBud 2025 and the Red Riders swept all four motos. The Honda HRC President from Japan was in attendance, which is rare, and he had to have liked what he witnessed.

So if it’s just starts for Jo, can he do it again?

“We have to keep making improvements,” said Shimoda. “Today it worked out with dirt texture, but maybe for Millville, I don't know, it could be a little more sandier, it could be a little tackier, so I just have to be aware. But yeah, I would say much better than all of my starts from the first round [until now] so I think this direction is really, really nice.”

Shimoda’s mechanic Ben Griffith spoke of the progress with Will Christien on the SMX Insider post race show.

“To be fair, we always knew Jo could do it," he said. "There are no doubts. He had the speed since round one, knew Haiden had been a little bit better than him but we knew if Jo could get a good start, at least in the top three, that he was going to be there. This week we really worked on on stuff with our starts, on the bike and with Jo. We had two good starts, holeshot the first moto, top three second moto and it just all clicked.”

Deegan had a bad day. Levi Kitchen was also very fast at RedBud and possibly could have won it after taking second in moto one and getting ahead of Shimoda early in moto two, but he crashed. The record book now shows a RedBud 1-1 for Jo, and those other details don’t matter. Wins equal confidence.

“Self belief,” continued Griffith, the mechanic. “It’s the only thing he needs. I always tell him. He has the speed. He has all the tools to do it. Just believe in yourself and it will come. The last couple of weekends haven’t been the best for him, but he’s had good results here at this track before, so he had the belief in himself, and I could see that in him. Moto two he said, ‘I want to go inside gate’. I said, ‘Hey, if you want to go inside gate, you’d better be sure.’ And he did it. So that’s self belief, I believe. The team believes in him, and that’s why we never stopped working with him.”

Honda and Jo are clicking. Jo’s Honda deal is also up at the end of the season. He was asked about the prospects of returning in the press conference.

“I don't know if I can really answer this. I haven't really signed on any papers,” he said. “I'm looking good on Honda right now, but yeah, I can't really answer to this. Nothing is confirmed yet, sorry.”

You’re not going to get much from Jo on a race win or on his 2026 negotiations. That’s honestly part of the appeal. Jo is gonna be Jo and the fans love it.

Will the same vibes be there this weekend when Deegan, Kitchen and others look to rebound? It’s all about self belief. Jo has a little extra right now.