Jorge Prado’s first full championship in the U.S. continues to be an uphill battle. After an issue resulted in a DNF in the second moto of the Thunder Valley National, he scored 23rd place and zero points in moto two of the second moto at the High Point National over the weekend. His eight moto finishes to date have been: 7-6-12-5-8-39-12-23 and his overall finishes sixth, ninth, 13th, and 17th, repetitively.

The Monster Energy Kawasaki rider was battling RJ Hampshire for sixth early in the first moto before fading. Coty Schock and Benoit Paturel were battling over tenth place late in the race and both riders straight up passed Prado. By the end of the race, Prado was half a lap and almost a full minute behind Hampshire, who finished sixth.

The post-race Kawasaki release noted Prado “started to tighten up mid-moto” and he confirmed it was arm pump. The Kawasaki press release said the following:

Prado said the following in the post-race release:

“It was a difficult weekend. After the first qualifying session, we made some changes that helped me put a fast lap together for second qualifying. In the first moto, I had a pretty good start, but I struggled the first lap to get some passes and was getting arm pump, which caused me to drop back a bit. The second moto was a mudfest. Hopefully, now with the next two weeks, we can improve a lot and bounce back for the next part of the season. Hopefully, we can make some big changes and improve to be battling up front.”

We caught up with Paturel and Valentin Guillod for our Best Post-Race Show Ever video and Jason Weigandt asked Paturel about how often he caught and passed Prado in an MXGP race.

“Yeah, I think never in MXGP,” Paturel responded. “I think, we cannot put Jorge…we cannot forget the champion. It’s a unique time, also for us it’s new format, the track is new, also for him new time, so I think one day he will be again at the top like in MXGP. So, that was nice, yeah, to pass him. I was happy.”

Paturel has been riding well this summer, but he says he never came close to battling two-time MXGP Champion Prado. He knows Prado has more than his results and riding show.

“I think he can do better but also the level in U.S. is really fast," Paturel added. "I think in Europe, he start in front and he can manage his win, but now with Jett, Tomac, and stuff, you have champions so fast, so you need to learn and focus.”

Watch the full interview with Paturel below.

Could the Southwick National be a turning point for Prado? After a weekend off, we will find out.

Main image by Mitch Kendra