If you read this here website, then you knew there were strong rumors last week that both Jett and Hunter Lawrence would not compete for Team Australia at the 2021 Motocross of Nations.
Well, the rumors were officially confirmed following the Budds Creek National on Saturday, as they stated in the post-race press conference that they will miss the event.
“Yeah, I’m definitely out,” Jett said. “It sucks, because I obviously really want to go. I can speak for Hunter and I, we both really want to go and represent our country. Just the people a lot higher than us, with visas and stuff, were not really allowing us and stuff like that. It is mainly just the people who are higher up in this world who are not letting us do this right now, so yeah.”
“It sucks. If it were completely up to Jett and myself, we would be there,” Hunter said. “Unfortunately, with everything kind of going on right now and stuff, it’s not really up to us to decide. It’s a bummer. It’s one of the coolest events all year. It’s awesome that you get to represent your country. It’s a bummer to miss it. Me and Jett were going to be on the team for the first time together, so we were looking at a really good team. Hopefully next year it is going to be a little more normal and we can be there.”
Jett and Hunter join a growling list of stars that won’t compete at the event this year. As we’ve previously noted, with the Motocross of Nations taking place right in the middle of the FIM Motocross World Championship season, we’ve already seen many top MXGP riders decide to opt out of the event. In addition, Ken Roczen has stated he won’t attend, and the Star Racing Yamaha team won’t be sending any riders as they will move their headquarters from California to Florida directly after the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship.
On Friday, Davey Coombs at Racer X reported that the Team USA announcement has been pushed back to the 11th round of the championship at Fox Raceway at Pala 2 on September 4 due to the uncertainty “of these latest COVID-19 outbreaks and restrictions.”
Main image: Octopi Media