Easily one of the favorites for the title coming into the 2026 AMA Pro Motocross Championship, Jo Shimoda hasn't had it easy in the first two rounds. He went 4-7 for sixth overall at Pala, then endured a fierce battle with Nick Romano in the first moto at Hangtown and was limited by a massive first-turn pileup in the second, going 3-6 for fifth overall. We caught up with Shimoda after Hangtown to get his thoughts on the second round.

Racer X: Well, not the day you wanted, but the first moto was pretty good. Take us through that?
Jo Shimoda: The first moto was okay, I had a better start and made a few passes. I felt a little uncomfortable in a few spots, and third is what I could do. Second moto, we made a little tweak on the bike and was feeling a lot better just riding-wise, a little higher pace, and it was going to be good but that pileup in the first turn was so gnarly. Seth [Hammaker] actually crashed right in front of me bumping with another guy, and his bike was stuck on my bike so I couldn’t get away really quick. It sucks, but it is what it is.

What was it like being in there and seeing it unfold firsthand? I was standing on the other side of the track and it just looked like an explosion of bikes.
I honestly think they should have just red flagged it. That way everyone doesn’t have to rush out there. People were on the track. I tried to get out, but these team guys trying to help riders pick up their bikes and I almost ran over one. Just take time, reset, and go again. That would have been the right call. I think I hit one of the Kawi mechanics, felt bad for him, but he shouldn’t really be out there. Don’t be in the track. It was weird.

Did you think you were going to get caught up in it for a minute?
I was caught up in it! Seth’s bike was on my bike.

But did you think you were going to go down hard and ragdoll?
I was really lucky, to be honest. Seth hit me and I just came completely to a stop. I was on the edge of the track so I didn’t get hit from behind, which was lucky. If I was more toward the middle, it’s hard for riders to stop. I was on the lucky side.

Going back to that first moto, you had quite the battle with Nick Romano. It looked intense. It took you a while to get by him, but once you gapped him. Was it just hard to pass out there? Was he blocking? I mean, he was riding well too.
Everyone is riding good, right? For the first ten or fifteen minutes. Just because the track isn’t gnarly. They fixed way too much. Anybody can go fast, everyone is within one second, railing berm to berm. You can’t really make up a difference during the first couple laps, especially in the first moto. It’s really all start dependent, and the Kawi guys are pulling it right now. It’s something we have to work on. We have to get up front and get track position right away.

It wasn’t as rough at here as it normally gets, was it?
No, not at all. Even at Pala, one side of the track wasn’t prepped and one side was really just berm flat. We were really battling, running the same pace as the leaders, so it’s like we’re not really battling.

You talked about that early pace. Is there anything specific you can work on to help with that?
Of course you want to be aggressive, but like I said, track position after two turns.