James Stewart OUT for AUS-X Open

Australian supercross fans are blowing up the internet this morning after learning that American superstar, James Stewart, has pulled out of the AUS-X Open, the fifth round of the 2015 Australian Supercross Championship, scheduled to take place on November 28-29 in Sydney, NSW.

The news crushes hopes of seeing Stewart and Chad Reed battling on Australian soil for what might have been the first and only time. Stewart was supposed to take on Reed at the final round of the Australian Super X series back in 2009, but made claims that his immune system was too low for him to be able to travel Down Under and race.

An official statement from the promoters of the AUS-X Open can be found here.

Here’s the press release from Yoshimura Suzuki Factory Racing:

Yoshimura Suzuki Factory Racing has announced today that James Stewart will not attend the Australian Supercross round coming up on November 28 as planned. The multi-time AMA Supercross/Motocross Champion will race the upcoming Bercy-Lille Supercross in France on November 14 and 15. 

Stewart had a strong return to action by winning the Red Bull Straight Rhythm, his first event back, in early October. The following week at the Monster Energy Cup, Stewart suffered a jammed wrist in practice and ended up pulling out of competition after the first Main Event. After several days of rehab, Stewart went back to testing and training the following week, only to suffer another crash at the test track, jamming the same wrist. 

“We’re all disappointed James won’t be able to race in Australia,” said Team Manager, Mike Webb. “We were looking forward for him to get as many gate drops as possible before Anaheim but we just lost three weeks out of our program. We feel the amount of time the trip to Australia would consume would be too much at this point. He has a lot of training and testing of new parts to accomplish before we’re ready for A1 and right now we’re a bit behind. After talking with James about where he’s at physically and where we’re at testing wise, we’ve decided that it’s best to keep him here and continue the program that we know will have him ready for A1. Obviously James is disappointed in the decision not to race but he understands 100 percent that in order to be ready for A1, this is the best option.”

“I’m bummed for all my fans and sponsors I won’t be able to make it to Australia,” said Stewart. “The best thing about being back racing has been experiencing all the fan support first hand. I was really looking forward to doing that in Australia but I have to look at the big picture and we’re two months from A1 and I need to show up there healthy and prepared. The wrist is fine, at least as good as it can be. It’s just one of those things I can go months or years and it’s fine, but then that one wrong hit can set it back. I just needed to rest it a bit more before getting back at it. The important thing is I’ll be ready to race come January.” 

Stewart is back in Florida preparing for the Bercy-Lille Supercross and continuing his training for the 2016 AMA/FIM Supercross Championships, which kicks off in Anaheim, CA, on January 9, 2016.