It was shocking to even see Jo Shimoda competing at the 250SX East Division opener in Texas, as he was coming back from neck surgery quite early. Even more shocking, he nearly won the race! Jo joined Jamie "Darkside" Guida's MotoXPod show this week to share his thoughts on the weekend.
Darkside: So first round of the year done in Arlington. There's some positives and probably some negatives in your eye on the night, but at the end of the day, looking back, how do you feel about your performance?
Jo Shimoda: I think, you know, I spent a very, very little time on motorcycle and I mean, performance wise, you know, I just did the best I could. Yeah, I mean, you guys tell me if I did good or not!
Well, you look like the Jo Shimoda we're used to very, very technical, very smooth, very few mistakes. And honestly, I feel like the AMA made the mistake that cost you the race. So your performance, I think was 100% on par. It was great.
Thank you. Yeah, it was good night, though.
You just mentioned very little time on the bike. I think I heard six days, so I'm sure your expectations weren't very high. But did you feel pretty good in those six days?
I mean, to to be fighting for, like, wins, I was like 'Not really.' I thought I was not ready enough. We needed to work on the motorcycles as well. Like, I was kind of behind on everything, so, like the confidence really wasn't there, but for whatever the reason, when the race comes on, all of my adrenaline kicks in and and it turns out to be okay every time. So that's kind of kind of how I felt.
How about how about off-the-bike training since the back injury, has that been more difficult to get through, or are you at a point where you feel like you're back to your normal self?
Honestly it's okay. There's two things, right? Like the cardio cardiovascular side. I was a little bit behind because there is some restriction on my on my neck. So like, no running or no bicycling outside for at least six to eight weeks. And so I was basically just doing, I don't know, a little bit of stationary and stuff here and there, but I was okay to do gym after like six weeks if there's no pain. I was able to do a lot of stuff. So actually, fitness wise, I think my muscles have gotten stronger, but not the cardio side.
It was said by many riders that this was the most technical track that they've seen this year. Obviously the first one for y'all. What was that like? You know, you're trying to ease back into this, and then it's this beast of a track. I noticed that you weren't really doing the quad line that a lot of riders were.
Yeah. Like to your point, I was just honestly not comfortable doing the jumps. Just rusty. I was a little bit off on my motorcycle setup and stuff. Just needed to, like, catch up on a lot of things. Even, like, blitzing whoops. Just didn't feel the comfort, you know? And I crashed on the whoops, too. So it's like we're trying to build back some confidence. During qualifying I was just trying to get a little more laps in and feel it out. By the time the main comes around, it's my job to perform. So until then, yeah, just kind of trying to get the race routine back, to be honest.
Coming into the series, how close did you feel the bike was? And now that we're done with round one, do you still feel it? It's as good as it was coming in?
For the second round coming up? Actually, we made a lot of progress. Well, we just made a lot of progress during the day race day. Got closer and closer to where I want it. And now that we have a little bit of time the team's been sending me new forks and shocks to try, and I'm moving forward for sure.
I think you did, what, two heat race starts because of the red flag and the main event, and I believe, I don't know if you were credited with the holeshot and all of them, but you were certainly top two. So starts are on point.
Yeah, actually from the practice starts and to the races it was all holeshots for me.
That's right! Yeah.
Yeah I mean my starts, we ended the year last year really good. I mean we didn't really change a thing. So I kind of just had to do the same thing.
How big is Daytona to you? That's a monumental win for a lot of people. Obviously more so in the 450 class, but it is legendary.
I mean, it would be cool to win there, you know. But to me, I treat it like every race, you know? So yeah, to me, a win is a win. Anaheim or Arlington, it's the same, happiness for me.
Let's talk about the the red flag thing, the red light, for just a minute. Obviously, with you in your situation, you did what you thought was right. Do you remember them talking about the lead in lights? Those red lights mean don't roll? You have to now look for the red cross?
I don't know. I mean, I don't think it's in the rulebook.
It's not. No.
Well, it's very confusing. I mean, I never heard of a red leading light. I thought the red light and cross flags are are for there to the riders to roll every obstacles, no matter if it's a tabletop or double, triple, etc.. You can't jump anything. It's dangerous, you know?
I think everyone needs to really understand like, honestly, I was like, after the race, I was kind of mad that like, it was a very confusing situation. I got passed there. I had a three-second gap and I got passed and had to had to work for it again. Unfortunately, I couldn't make the pass. But honestly, like after after I seen more and more about the critiques and like this controversy with people and the teams and AMA, it gets more confusing. I think to me, like the race, the race win, yeah Pierce can have it. I have nine rounds to figure it out and nine rounds to get it back. That's fine. But I think for everyone's safety I think, well, now it seems like the first red light is, like, you can jump the jump, you know?
Yeah.
That's basically how I understand it. Yeah. Like the rulebook says red lights are there to just roll the jump. There's actually other things too, like the remote. What I got told after the race was the remote [for the red light] was not working and stuff. Like, where do we even start at this point?
I want to talk about the pass. With about three to go you you cut across the rut and thought about it. Seems like you thought about throwing a block pass and changed your mind. Would you have done that differently if you could do it over?
I would say, yeah, but also it's so hard for people to see that the Arlington dirt is pretty slick. And I tried to go in the middle there, like going off the main rut and then try to like break and make the rear to slide into him. But the front was kind of like not gripping for me. So I was like, I was like trying to just stop, you know?
Yeah, I kind of thought that. Yeah, I think if you had connected with him, Daxton might have got both of you.
Yeah, like, my plan was to just try either give him a little love tap or just show him a wheel to where he doesn't get on top of the tabletop. And I mean, once we roll the first jump, then, like, I'm on the inside, I would 100% take it for the next corner, you know?
There you go.
The entry was so awkward and I was not expecting it to be that slippery. So, I don't know, it was just a bad decision.
Friday, February 27, 2026 at 5:03PM 
