Stewart pulls out of Aussie SX

James Stewart won't be lining up in the 2015 AUS-X Open in Sydney on November 28-29, with a recent wrist injury blamed for the American's withdrawal.

In a media release, his Yoshimura Suzuki team said Stewart had reinjured a wrist that he first hurt at the Monster Energy Cup in October, which had put the pre-season program back three weeks ahead of the 2016 AMA supercross opener in California on January 9.

Hence, the decision was made to cancel the trip to Australia, but Stewart will still compete in the Bercy-Lille Supercross in France on November 14-15.

“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.

Stewart said: “I’m bummed for all my fans and sponsors I won’t be able to make it to Australia. 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 its 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.”

The management of AUS-X Open released a statement this morning, expressing its huge disappointment with Stewart's withdrawal. An emissary from the management team is now on their way to America to "resolve" the situation.

This is the second time that Stewart has pulled out of a major event Down Under, after he was a last-minute withdrawal from the final round of the 2009 Australasian Supercross Championship in Brisbane.

Chad Reed will still be on the start line at AllPhones Arena in Sydney on November 28, which will also double as a round of the 2015 Australian Supercross Championship.