THE COMEBACK KID & THE 2026 SMX CHAMPIONSHIP                   

2026 was a remarkable ‘180’ for Spain’s greatest ever motocrosser, Jorge Prado, as he went from ‘zero to hero’ status in the United States with the SuperMotocross title.

By Adam Wheeler

“There were five-six weeks where I didn’t know what the future would be. I was blocked and couldn’t do anything. It was super-tough but once I could get back to KTM I went from a very low moment to a high in a matter of days.” 

In September 2025 Jorge Prado – four-times FIM World Champion in seven Grand Prix seasons – stared into the void. The then-24-year-old’s first full term in the United States for AMA Supercross, Motocross and the 3-playoff for ‘SuperMotocross’ – in total a 31-race campaign that runs from the first week of January until the last week of September – was also his first in a 10-year professional career away from KTM SX-F machinery. 

It did not go to plan. 

Injury and a lack of confidence and security meant Prado was at an ebb, and far from his prime. “It’s very tough when you come from winning everything in Europe to be so far away…I wasn’t even achieving what I would have considered a bad result in the past. You are unhappy, and you are unhappy when you go to the races and unhappy again when you go back home.”

Prado sought a path back to the Red Bull KTM 450 SX-F; a bike and technical platform with which he won the 2023 and 2024 MXGP World Championships and also made some impressive wildcard supercross appearances in ’24. That feeling of previous competitiveness was key. “I knew who I was and I knew what I had achieved in the past,” he tells us of that period. “I was down, and it was a bad time but I knew – or I was hoping! – it could change.”

Jorge had to wade through uncertainty. He was unemployed and there was doubt about his ability, his mentality and his aptitude to tackle supercross; a championship in which he was a rookie compared to other factory rivals. “I just kept believing in myself and I also knew that hard work pays off. I kept working as if I was fighting for a world title or an SMX title,” he explained. “I kept myself as fit as I could. At the same time, it was very easy to doubt yourself. You’re like: ‘man, you can be uncomfortable on a bike but to be that uncomfortable?! Maybe it was me…’ I wondered if I had changed habits and I wasn’t the same kind of rider anymore. It was a very strange situation. All I did was work hard. I was working day and night. I’m lucky because I am a very positive person and I could go through those times…but I also had days that were rough. I’d say the hard work saved me from a lot.”

Coming back to MXGP was not on the agenda. “That was the last thought,” he states. “I also knew if I went home then I would feel like I failed myself. Coming back without trying to follow through on the American dream…I think I would have been so mad for the rest of my life for not trying enough.”

Prado’s dedication and saddle time from October 2025 was relentless and he committed himself to Harrison’s staff and the WP Suspension outfit, as well as mastering the difficulty of supercross ‘whoops’ that often prove to be difference in lap-times between those natives schooled in the discipline and those others trying to catch-up.

“I was riding so much every week that I started to understand more of what I needed. For supercross I had to learn during the season, and I learned a lot this year. That’s when the team is so important because they tell you: ‘if you are feeling this, then try this change’, and that’s what I’m open to. I’m not a suspension guy or an engine guy. I’m only a rider, and I was explaining my feelings; the team’s job is to understand what I’m saying to get the bike better. That’s it.”

Vindication of the Prado/KTM link-up came at the very first race; the biggest and most high-pressured meeting of the season east of Los Angeles. “At Anaheim 1 I thought ‘I’m back…’,” he smiles. “I think I was 4th in the first practice, then I won the Heat race and then got on the podium. We were improving super-fast. I kept improving so much.” 

Prado would suffer a shoulder injury at round 6 of 17 in Seattle that caused him to miss three races but grabbed seven top ten results (two of those in the top five) and charged back to the podium at the Salt Lake City finale to complete his first full tilt at the series. He ended supercross with 9th in the standings and prepped for the ‘Outdoors’. 

Motocross was more Jorge’s element, and he and the team managed to hit their stride. “I was struggling a bit more for the Outdoors but then we had a break in the calendar and we changed the bike for the last three rounds. We made it more like an MXGP set-up and I knew it would work. Motocross is the same all around the world,” he reveals. “It was a nice change and from the last eight motos we had seven fastest laps and ended the year with a win. We went into SMX with the same changes in the supercross set-up and improved even more. It was good.”