Figge Out For the Houston Race..

[drewdawg727]

Press release:

Due to residual back pain from his incident in the final laps of last weekend’s Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, Alex Figge will not compete in this weekend’s Grand Prix of Houston. Figge will undergo further evaluation and an MRI this afternoon.

Alex Figge: “I experienced a huge amount of discomfort this morning in practice so I will be getting an MRI this afternoon. From here I will focus on recovery so we can log some miles in May. We’ve got several tests scheduled in the coming weeks I need to make sure I am recovered as those tests are essential.”

This concerns me...two injured drivers in the same weekend with back problems. What's wrong with this picture?

[rustyfan]

While obviously not to the same serious extent, it's almost starting to look like when the IRL first went to their own new chassis and the rash of back injuries that came with it...

[JohnSSC]

The announcers noted before the LBGP that after Tracy's crash, Wilson spent a good bit of time adding padding to the cockpit area of his car.

I am not suggesting that the DP01 is a danger, but perhaps Panoz should look into this and develop a "kit" of sorts to properly pad the cockpit.

[Knowlesy]

This is becoming a depressing season of Champcar. *sigh*

[JohnSSC]

The cars could have stood to have more thorough testing before the season started. Not that the teams did not put them through thier paces, but more miles were needed.

[Craig]

I wondered why there was little activity around their truck yesterday. Will the team sit out the race or will they bring another driver in?

Edit: Just seen the other thread - Moreno - fantastic!!

[Davhut]

Robin Miller had an interesting TV commentary about the number and types of injuries suffered by drivers in Panoz cars. It was spooky.

[Leighton Irwin]

It is unfortunate that neither Panoz nor CC can afford to do the crash testing F1 does.

[Snrub]

Originally Posted by Knowlesy

This is becoming a depressing season of Champcar. *sigh*

Two injuries. It's too soon to tell if there is an issue with the DP01. What else has been depressing since the season started?

As I'm sure many people do I suspect there may be an issue with the car, but we don't really have the knowledge or data to make a definative comment yet.

Hopefully it can be sorted out. I really do think that the old Lola and Reynard era designs were probably the safest race cars in existance. In the 90s crashing was much more common and accepted. Almost every race had massive crashes, particularly on the ovals. It is astonishing to think of the forces that those cars would deal with.

[Knowlesy]

It's not just the injuries that are the problem. The whole Champcar picture this season has been putrid.

Of course, on the main topic, it is damn annoying to have lost these two drivers. Not what we need at all. But welcome back to Roberto Moreno, a link to the glorious past!

[Charlies]

Originally Posted by Leighton Irwin

It is unfortunate that neither Panoz nor CC can afford to do the crash testing F1 does.

Surely they did some crash testing? Experimenting on street circuits isn't the place to find out how the car performs in a crash.

[mountainstar]

Tracy's accident I've summed up elsewhere. He is back riding his mountain bike and probably has more a chance to break bones on that thing then his champcar.

Figge, from witness accounts, had a very hard hit with the wall, with a compression of the spine, no fracture. In other words a sore back that will heal with rest.

The panoz was crash tested several times I recall and I recall one change was made, but I can't remember what.

Also keep in mind both incidents were unrelated, in other words the cars crashed differently. It is something for engineers to keep their eye on, but I would hesitate to push panic buttons by proposing radical solutions which may in turn be worse.

[D.R.T.]

Originally Posted by Knowlesy

It's not just the injuries that are the problem. The whole Champcar picture this season has been putrid.

In what way, once the racing has started, all be it only two events I thought the races had been good as opposed to putrid ?