BONI PULLS OUT OF SWEDEN GRAND PRIX HOURS BEFORE HIS SCHEDULED ARRIVAL

CAS Honda is disappointed to announce that American rider, Matt Boni, will not be racing at this weekend’s Grand Prix of Sweden in replacement of the injured Billy Mackenzie.

Boni was due to be landing in the UK this morning, but just hours before his scheduled flight, the 21-year-old from Geneva, Florida, delivered the news to the CAS Honda squad that he is no-longer heading over to contest in the MX1 World Series.

Boni had confirmed last week that he would be able to step straight into the CAS Honda set-up for the Swedish event, and despite only a seven-day turn around, the team along with its sponsors had managed to put everything in place to make it possible for the deal to go ahead.

Following the confirmation of the agreement, in which CAS Honda offered to provide Boni with everything he requested, the team and sponsors got to work on arranging travel plans, riding gear, helmets, licenses and so on for the American, which all arrived just in time for the Honda-pilot to use this weekend.

Boni’s reasoning for not coming was that he has blisters on his hands following a race last weekend and there is now some conflict of interest with the Hart and Huntington team he rides for in the USA. CAS Honda had been assured that there would be no problem for the American to race this weekend with the intention of replacing Billy Mackenzie for the remainder of the season.

While bitterly disappointed at being left in the dark after so much hard work, and once again down to one rider during an injury-filled season, CAS Honda will continue to look for a suitable replacement for the final few races of the year.

CAS Honda would also like to apologise and thank all of its sponsors whom have worked so hard to ensure that Matt would be able to board the bike this weekend.

Neil Prince: CAS Honda Team Manager
“To be honest I’m absolutely shocked and very disappointed that this has happened. Matt confirmed to me via email over a week ago that he would definitely be able to ride for us. He seemed very enthusiastic about coming to race in the Grands Prix and conversations have been ongoing for some time. CAS Honda offered to meet his every request, and everything was in place for him to ride this weekend; from the number boards for his bike to his Fox racing gear, water bottles, licensing, helmets, boots and so on. Matt also read and confirmed the press release we issued last week, which thanked his current team for allowing him to ride, but it seems that this is now not the case. I received a call late yesterday from his manager saying that Matt had some infected sores on his hands, as well as a problem that has arisen with sponsors of his Hart and Huntington team in the USA and he has now decided he wants to focus on the X-games. This is another major blow to the team, as we were looking forward to having a new personality under our awning this weekend following a tough run of injury-filled races. It also means we’ve wasted a further two weeks and a lot of our sponsors’ resources, as well as the cost of making this happen, only to be let down in the final few hours before he was due to be arriving here. We will now review the situation again this weekend and make a decision as to what we will do for the remainder of the season. I’d like to thank and apologise to all of our sponsors for their hard work, but unfortunately this matter is completely out of our control.”

Tags: cas, florida, fox, helmet, honda, mackenzie, sweden, usa, water