Lawrence Brothers Out for Paris Supercross Due to Visa Issues
Racer X has learned the Lawrence brothers have been forced to pull out of the Paris Supercross (set for November 12 and 13). The Australian duo was set to compete at this year's event but unfortunately visa issues will keep the brothers in America.
While Honda HRC and Ken Roczen butted heads—and parted ways—over the FIM World Supercross Championship (WSX), the reason the Lawrence brothers are not competing in the Paris Supercross does not appear to be a similar issue. It appears Roczen’s time with HRC is up as the team announced the signing of Colt Nichols to compete in the 450SX Class of Monster Energy AMA Supercross alongside Chase Sexton. But the Lawrence brothers coming to America to race might cause an issue getting back into America, which could impact their prep for 2023.
Although losing the two HRC brothers for the event, the Paris Supercross is expected to see Eli Tomac, Cooper Webb, Marvin Musquin, and now Ken Roczen, who will serve as a replacement for the Aussie brothers.
Below is the full press release from the organizers for the event:
Hunter and Jett Lawrence have just informed the organizer that they will not be able to make their European Supercross debut in Paris on November 12 and 13…
Recently the two Australian pilots, who arrived in the USA at the end of 2018 but never left the country since, discovered an unexpected complication in their status vis-à-vis the American Immigration services, a legal problem which does not allow them to come to Europe nowadays. The Lawrence brothers were therefore forced to hastily cancel their participation in Paris.
“We are absolutely sorry for this situation, both vis-à-vis the organizer and the French fans and Honda France, to whom we ask to believe in our absolute sincerity. We were happy to run in Paris! We are of course formally committed to doing so next year, exclusively for Paris, knowing that this cannot lessen the disappointment of the spectators, which we share from the bottom of our hearts,” said the Australians.
"It is sad for us, organizers, not to be able to present the announced program, whereas the Lawrence brothers had confirmed their presence to us more than a year ago,” declared Sophie Casasnovas, President of Larivière Organisation. “We offer our most sincere apologies to our loyal public. We take note of those of Hunter and Jett as well as their future commitment to the Paris Supercross, but our priority today is to compensate for this heavy defection in the most sincere way. , transparent and brilliant as possible. We are working hard on it and will communicate about it very quickly.”
Here is the post announcing Roczen is in for this year's event.
