The youngest rider on the European Motocross Championship grid is the star of Stefan Everts’ KTM Factory Junior Team.

The 14-year-old Jorge Prado Garcia won the Spanish round of the EMX 125 class after a hard fought race against his New Zealand team-mate Josiah Natzke.

Prado is now leading the EMX125 championship with a 19-point margin over French Yamaha rider Maxime Renaux and 29 points over Natzke.

The two KTM riders shared the points that day in Spain, with Renaux finishing third and fifth, but Prado got the nod for the overall win because of his superior finish in the second and final race of the weekend.

“During the last lap I couldn’t hear the engine because of their cheers,” Prado said.

It was his first overall victory on also his first season in this class. In the two previous rounds he stood on the podium as well, and he is the current owner of the red plate.

Nobody denies Prado’s talent, because everybody knows that he is the youngest on the grid.

Born in January of 2001 in the small northern Spanish city called Lugo, Prado is now 14, when most of his rivals are between 15 and 17 and already have at least one year more experience in the 125 category.

Eight out of 10 riders in the top 10 of the championship are in their second or third season in the class, and none of them won a heat in their first year, but Prado still doesn’t know the way to the paddock without passing through the podium.

But, who is this happy and kind Spaniard? Jorge explains it easily: “I am a boy like any other, a good student but also a motocross rider. My life is motocross, I can’t live without it and in the early future I’ll do it professionally”.

He is living in Lommel (Belgium) near his team headquarters and with a lot of sand tracks around his home: “My family made a huge effort to leave Spain and to come to Lommel, but I think it was a good bid, because I learn much more here, I can ride faster on sand and I can improve my level everyday riding with all the MXGP stars”.

He is now part of the Juniors Factory Team designed by Stefan and Harry Everts for KTM: “Obviously it’s really useful to have their support and experience to advice us because they were the best in the World and they know how to arrive there”.

65cc WORLD CHAMPION

When he was just three years old, his father bought a motorbike and he started to race some motocross and trials races and soon the results convinced the family to continue with the game. He won the Madrid Championship in both trial and MX and in 2010 he was the Spanish MX65cc champion.

But it was in 2011 when he started his international career winning both European and World Championship, which opened the door to the KTM factory team. This kind of contract with such a young rider was not something usual, but KTM saw something special in Prado.

It was then when the family took the difficult but firm decision to leave Galicia and go to Belgium: “Yes, I really miss my country, the sun, the food and my friends, but here in Lommel we are better focused on our goal and we feel that we are going step by step in the right direction”.

They moved to a little house in the town near the school where Jorge and his sister, Cecilia, ride their bicycles to and from everyday: “It was not easy in the beginning but now we speak Dutch very well and by the moment we are good students”.

His father, Jesús, is working in a motorbike air filter company and helping Jorge with all his training and logistics while his mother, Cristina, is working in an ice cream store.

During the last three years Jorge’s performance was very good and he was usually the fastest on the track and won a lot of races, but injuries arrived in the worst moments and titles escaped his hands: “My worst moment was last year in Finland, where I was really fit, riding very fast and arriving to the European Final as the favourite for the title, but a rider crashed in the first practice lap, I fell down and another rider hit my leg. It was very hard because I lost both the European and World Championships” he explains with watery eyes.

Jorge and his team decided to quit the 85cc class and move to 125cc class even knowing that he would be the youngest rider in the class: “I adapted very well to the 125 bike, during the first weeks it was difficult because of the weight, but now I feel very comfortable on it.”

-Don’t you feel in a big disadvantage because of your age?

– “I know that I need more strength because I’m still growing up, but when I am under my helmet I never think about this and I never worry about what the others think”.

-And how do you manage the fans and the team pressure?

-“I don’t feel any pressure, I just feel support. I am lucky because I have the support from Red Bull-KTM, the best team in the World and this is my motivation to improve myself.”

HOLESHOT BOY

When we talk about present and future goals Jorge is candid and sincere: “I’d lie if I don’t recognise that my goal for 2015 is to be European and World Champion. For the future I’d like to be MXGP World Champion and AMA Supercross champion”

To achieve these goals, Prado has important weapons like his environment taking care about all the details and his skills in the track. The main one, the start: Prado took 5 out 6 holeshots in the 125 class and one second place start: “I know that this is an important advantage in motocross, but not the only. The races are long and hard, you have to work hard and dig deep to avoid being passed”.

Another talent is his adaptability to any ground: “I prefer to ride in a hard and fast track with big jumps like SX, but I know that normally I benefit when the track conditions are difficult with sand, mud or bumps. Some others went very fast in Talavera but have problems in the sand.”

In Spain the whole team had a good performance, are they your main rivals?

“Conrad and Josiah are very fast, they were the favourites for the championship but they didn’t start the season very well. I hope them all the best, but I’ll try to make it difficult for them. Renaux and (Finnish rider Miro) Sihvonen are also riding fast and we are only at the beginning of the season.”

Prado is a charismatic pilot with thousands of followers and the Spanish fans are hungry for motocross stars. In Talavera he spent hours signing autographs and taking pictures with the spectators: “I know this is part of the game and I assume it”.

Things are going very fast because Jorge is twisting the throttle very hard and some journalists and prestigious former riders such as Kiwi Ben Townley are advising Prado to avoid wasting his time in the EMX and go straight to the MX2 class.

For the next winter he is planning to spend some weeks training in California in order to get some experience in the USA: “Yes we are talking with KTM about our future plans and I like to hear all of the advice but it’s still early to talk about this”.

Now everybody is marking him as the favourite and all the eyes are on him. He is Jorge Prado, SixT1

Photos courtesy G Maes

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