It was the worst-kept secret in the motocross world and now we confirm what we’d tipped weeks ago … motocross world champion Jorge Prado is heading Stateside.
We guess the question on everyone’s lips is, can the Spanish rider add to his four motocross world championship titles with his move to the United States of America?
It is a tough call, because as good as Prado is, and he was clearly the best rider in this year’s MXGP championship, with the championship, more GP wins than anyone else and more race wins.
He also led more laps than two of the all-time greats in Dutchman Jeffrey Herlings and Slovenian Tim Gajser and, on many occasions, he made these two legends look average.
However, I think in many experts’ eyes, mine included, there is an Australian guy call Jett Lawrence in the field and for me, Lawrence is the best rider we have ever seen, period.
Better than American Ricky Carmichael, better than Belgian 10-time world champion Stefan Everts, better than supercross hero Jeremy ‘Showtime’ McGrath.
Those are the three kings of AMA motocross, AMA supercross and MXGP, but Lawrence just does stuff that is so smooth and precision perfect. Every time you see him race, it’s mouth-wide-open stuff.
We do have the same vibe we had when French two-time world motocross champion Sebastien Tortelli went to America as the then current world 250cc champion back in 1999.
After dominating Stefan Everts in the final round of the World championship in Greece, the Frenchman just looked like his future was going to be rosy and while Tortelli had more of a charging style and less technical as somebody like Lawrence, he came up against a guy with the same style, in Ricky Carmichael.
Now, we all know RC ended up being the “GOAT” (Greatest Of All Time) of AMA racing and dominated anyone and everyone in his path. We just get the same feeling about Lawrence vs Prado. Had the Spaniard stayed in Europe, he might have won himself another four or five world titles, in America, it will be a lot harder.
We do believe he will be the second-best rider in the AMA Nationals, if he gets through the AMA supercross series uninjured. He is arguably a level above Chase Sexton, Eli Tomac, Cooper Webb or Ken Roczen at this stage of their careers.
We also have to go back to when New Zealand’s Ben Townley moved to America. Having won the 2004 MX2 world title, he moved to the MXGP class and battled hard with Everts and fellow New Zealander Josh Coppins and while Italy’s Antonio Cairoli was winning the MX2 World title in 2005 and Townley finished third in the MXGP, we really felt like those two would have been a brilliant battle for world titles from 2006 until 2017.
Unfortunately, Townley moved to USA and spent a lot of his career injured, while Cairoli went onto become the second-best GP rider of all time.
Of course, Prado has skills that Tortelli and Townley probably didn’t have and supercross will be easier for the Spanish rider, as his technical skills are suited and GP tracks now help riders develop a lot better, but it’s still hard work heading to America.
A long list of Grand Prix riders took the route to USA and most failed or got lucky that their careers didn’t line up with legends like Carmichael, Ryan Villopoto, Ryan Dungey or Eli Tomac.
Frenchman Dylan Ferrandis won himself an AMA 250 and an AMA 450 motocross championship and he for sure, wasn’t winning a World title while names like Jeffrey Herlings, Tim Gajser and Jorge Prado were around, but took a good break when the AMA championships were in transition and names like Aaron Plessinger, Adam Cianciarulo and Zach Osborne, and not Eli Tomac or Ken Roczen, were in charge.
What Haiden Deegan can do when he hits the 450 class will also depend a lot on what Prado can win, and while it’s hard to say if Deegan is as good as Lawrence and Prado, he might just be better than both and he has that ruthless style that might cause the two smooth, and consistent riders a problem, just as Carmichael did to McGrath back at the start of this century.
And then we have Belgian Lucas Coenen also wanting to make the move and he, like Deegan might be too young and strong for Lawrence and Prado at some stage.
Whatever happens, we will all sit back and hope our World MXGP champion can actually win titles in USA and add to his already legendary career.
You can only respect Prado for the move, because as we saw this year, he could easily have dominated the sport in Europe for many, many years, but he has the courage to take the road less travelled.
Photo courtesy Kawasaki
Words courtesy Geoff Meyer
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