Australian driver Will Power maintains the championship lead in the Champ Car World Series following his third place at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, but most thoughts were with veteran driver Paul Tracy after the series regular suffered a serious back injury during practice.
On a weekend that also saw the return to the winner s list of reigning Vanderbilt Cup titleholder Sebastien Bourdais, teams were visibly deflated after Tracy s exit from the event when he suffered frontal impact in his Forsythe Championship Racing #3 Champ Car at turn one.
While the full extent of the injury won t be known until further tests are carried out, initial x-rays and MRI scans confirmed the injury as a compression fracture to his first lumbar vertebrae.
It s hoped the crowd favourite is able to recover in time for the Gold Coast s Lexmark Indy 300 on October 18-21, where the 1995 event winner will have the opportunity to race in front of family and friends now based in Queensland.
Tracy was replaced in the Forsythe Championship Racing entry by 2005 Champ Car World Series runner-up Oriol Servia who had only been attending the Long Beach round in the hope of securing a full-time drive in the Series.
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