“Yeah, a year ago, he had some other things he had to take care of first, and we told him if he takes care of that, we’ll chat. Now here we are a year later with the title,” said Ian Harrison on The Weege Show post-race at Thunder Ridge Nature Arena Saturday night.

Twelve months ago, the Red Bull KTM team manager was perhaps at an all-time stress point, as Chase Sexton’s final days with the squad played out poorly, both with Sexton’s personal relationships with the team, and then on the track, with Sexton face-planting hard at the SMX finale and having to drop out of the Team USA Monster Energy FIM Motocross of Nations effort. Eli Tomac was coming to KTM, and there were also rumors Jorge Prado wanted back on a KTM…but that could only be possible if Prado somehow got out of his multi-year deal with Monster Energy Kawasaki.

Well, Prado got out of his deal, and KTM enjoyed a very successful 2026 campaign. Tomac won races early this year, and then Prado won them late to hoist the Monster Energy SuperMotocross World Championship trophy.

Want to know something interesting? The only reason KTM even had a slot available for Prado was because Tom Vialle chose to take a multi-year deal with the Honda HRC Petronas MXGP team and not return to KTM in the U.S. for 2026.

After the race, Steve Matthes caught up to Harrison to talk Prado, and also the drama of getting Julien Beaumer onto the Motocross of Nations team as a last-minute replacement for Chance Hymas.

Racer X: Dude, he got it done. I was a little worried, but Jorge rose to the occasion in that second moto. That was a fantastic, clutch ride by him. He got the start and he needed it. Yeah. Great job.
Ian Harrison: Thank you. Yeah, I was just listening to both of them speaking Haiden and Jorge here at the press conference, and to hear them both say that they were that was the maximum. They went wide open for 20 minutes. I mean, it was epic for us. We all got to watch an incredible race with just a few feet between them. But Jorge, he put up with a lot of pressure and his progression this year, it's impressive.

Yeah. Anything change for the second moto start? Either gate bike or anything to allow him to get the better start?
No, the only thing he changed was his starting gate and his rear tire choice. Say I think for him, he took a gamble. He thought he would go for it. And I felt like his tire choice was also a little bit better on the hard pack stuff [Prado explained in the press conference that he switched from the full-scoop sand tire in moto one to the new hybrid scoop/knobby for moto two]. I felt Haiden was more aggressive, but Jorge was a little smoother, and I feel like he got a little bit better traction exiting the corners. So, it was like this, this yo-yo thing, you know, Haiden would catch him on the entry, and he'd get away on the exit. But it was cool to watch really cool race.

And then I was thinking like, we know his stuff with lappers. He's not the greatest with getting around guys. And I was like, oh no, we got some guys out there. But he did a good job.
Yeah, yeah, I don't want to hear this from him anymore about the lappers! He does a good job. Yeah, it was just an exceptional, exceptional race and even the facility and everything was what a way to end it. It was really nice.

Yeah. I was going to ask you about that. Does this help? Because we've talked on Monday [on the PulpMX Show] about the series and you know not everybody's stoked on it. I think rightfully so. But you come to a place like this. The track didn't race great, but it was cool and fans were into it. And this place is awesome, right?
I agree, and I think for the first time, you know, for the layout, it was nice to have like that real combo of both. And I'm sure that next year they'll make some improvements. I'm sure that they'll work on maybe perhaps the lighting a little bit, but overall, the size of the venue where the people can spectate from. I thought all of that was excellent. It was a great day. Yeah.

Cool. I was talking to Mitch Payton a lot about this today about the Team USA drama. And first Julian wasn't going to do it, then he was going to do it. You guys had to talk to Austria today, I guess, and get some permission. Take us through the ups and downs of putting Beaumer on the team today.
I'm glad you asked me. Like it was crazy. I was calling guys in Europe this morning asking, “Hey, can you get the bikes from Belgium to Austria and then get them to the track on the truck? And then we want to change the engine spec. We wanted to go to a little bit more of a mellow engine. Can you do that?” They said, “Okay, yeah, we'll do it.” Then I called my engine guys [in California]. They said they'll do it tomorrow, Sunday. Then the guys are going to build the bike tomorrow afternoon [Sunday] because on Monday, we're going to go testing. And then I called Mike Pelletier to get our hotel rooms and that organized. So, it was there was so much going on this morning. It was crazy.

You were like, “Hey, I'm trying to win a title here,” right?
Yeah. But look, you know, we can all point fingers and say, “Hey, so-and-so would be a much better choice.” But he put his hand up. Julian was so eager to go it was crazy! Once I organized the bikes and I told the AMA, they said, “Okay, this is a solution we can work with only six days away,” so that's what we went with. And, yeah, I'm just thankful for everyone in my group, all the guys in Austria for taking care of things to get us there.

And everyone who will be working on a Sunday, right?
Yeah, yeah, everyone's making it happen.

It's awesome to see that for sure. And I think he'll do great. I mean, Chance is a great rider, but I don't think there's a huge drop off with Julian. They're both 250 guys jumping on a 450. Yeah. When you when you say it like that then I think it's pretty level change.

Well congratulations on the title man. That's awesome. He [Prado] really came through big time. And thanks for everything, Ian.
Thank you. Appreciate it.