Mike Forest out for a couple of months

[cameraman]

This got lost in the weekend's coverage.
That is quite the design flaw :eek:

Injury puts Forest's Atlantic debut on hold
By Robert Tychkowski, Edmonton Sun (http://www.autonet.ca/Motorsports/Story.cfm?Story=/Motorsports/Champ/2006/04/09/1527187-sun.html)


LONG BEACH -- Edmonton rookie Mike Forest's Formula Atlantic debut is over before it even started.

So are the first two months of his season.

The 24-year-old is out with a back injury after a stuck throttle in qualifying Friday sent him into a tire wall at 90 mph.

"It turns out there are compression fractures in two of the vertebra, and it's going to be six to eight weeks,'' said Forest, who thought he'd be in the starting grid this afternoon until an MRI yesterday revealed the damage.

"It didn't show up on Friday because the back spasms were so bad and that's what everybody was focusing on.''

It's a bitterly disappointing start for last year's Formula 2000 points champion, who wanted to start the new circuit off with a bang, not a crash.

"It's a bit of a bummer. I was extremely happy with the first day of qualifying. I was up to 13th for a while (out of 29). I think I would have done fairly well. All I can do is lie back and let it heal.''

The only bright side in all this is that there's five-week break between Long Beach and the second race of the season in Monterrey, Mexico.

"I won't have to miss a lot of races and I'll be back in plenty of time for Edmonton,'' he said. "I'd like to be out there right now, but that wouldn't be the smart thing to do. I have a lot of racing ahead of me.''

The accident came when a piece of debris, allowed in through a design flaw, jammed open Forest's throttle return. Champ Car wants the design fixed, so the time off will give the team and manufacturer time to sort that out.

[Dr. Corkski]

Swift back-breaking POS crapwagon. :gomer:

[devilmaster]

I'll give them kudos for admitting it.... When was the last time anyone heard comments about a design flaw and the series wanting to fix it from IMS?

[theunions]

I met Mike on Wed. (nice guy) - missed Fri. qualifying, then walked towards pit lane to see a forlorn PR1 crewman sitting by Mike's thoroughly smashed Swift adjacent to the Champ Car paddock.

Imagine my surprise to see him Sun. morning in the Atlantic paddock actually standing and walking on his own, so things certainly could be worse. And he was disappointed, all right.

[nrc]

What's the design flaw? There's an opening in the tub somewhere?

[FCYTravis]

I assume the design flaw has to do with the way the intake and air filter is designed. We had a similar situation with Jimmy in the #99 car at the Rolex 24... the air filter shredded and jammed the throttle butterfly open... thankfully, only 15 percent open :eek:

[nrc]

Ah, I see. Throttle return jammed, not the pedal.

[Anteater]

More info about Mike Forest in the Edmonton Sun (a paper whose motorsports coverage is far better than anything I get in my local papers!):
http://www.edmontonsun.com/Sports/OtherSports/2006/04/14/1534224-sun.html

Fun stuff about Champ Car, too--I love the "quote" from Tracy! :rofl:

[cameraman]

To think that Wilke himself poached my bolded quote of the Edmonton article at the start of this thread for his own evil purposes. I feel so used :rolleyes:

Anyway, Mike Forest put out a press release with the following description of the shunt.


With approximately 10 minutes remaining, a rock got trapped under the floor mounted, throttle return stop and held the throttle open as he braked for turn 4. With the throttle held at 60% open, the car would not slow and he crashed heavily through the tire barriers and into the concrete wall causing the session to be red flagged. The impact was so heavy, the rear suspension collapsed from the momentum.

The crush structure in the nose and the HANS device (head restraint) did their job, minimizing further damage to car and driver."

This is a big disappointment. I needed the track time and wanted to get the first race under my belt at this fabulous circuit.”

The car had slowed to 85 mph (135 kph) at the time of impact for the nearly head-on crash. After struggling for breath for a minute Mike was able to get out of the car with the assistance of the Champ Car Medical team who took him to their medical centre for diagnosis and treatment (muscle spasms). A subsequent MRI at St Mary Medical Center confirmed 2 compression fractures in his spine. While very stiff and sore, there is no significant instability in the spine and he is somewhat mobile.

He will travel to Indianapolis on Tuesday to see Dr. Terry Trammell who is Champ Car's specialist orthopedic surgeon. Andreas Wirth (who sits on pole for today's race) suffered the same injury last year. "Andreas was very kind to tell me of the treatment Dr. Trammell had prescribed and gave me some pointers on the recovery process. Both sets of doctors have said it might take six weeks to get rid of the pain and start to heal so we'll have to see if we can accelerate that to make the Houston test and race."

[Anteater]

Pretty scary stuff! :eek:

[cameraman]

Looks like he will miss the next 5 races.


"I was quite upset at first and tried to not get totally discouraged," said Forest. "I was looking at this season as a great opportunity to learn and improve and I'll be losing out on a lot of that learning time and that's the most disappointing thing. Unfortunately my off-season is going to be a little longer now, but I'm going to keep training, keep working with the team and keep my focus. When I do get back in the car it will be like the season's starting right now."

Forest plans to attend all of the Atlantic events until he's healthy enough to return to racing and is focused on doing all that he can from outside the car to help his PR1 Motorsports team.

The Canadian is currently undergoing limited therapy sessions, working on range of motion exercises for his back and plans to return to Indianapolis to visit Dr. Trammell at the end of May, when he hopes he'll be cleared for more intense physical training prior to getting back in the car. Forest has set a goal of recovering in time to compete at his three home country races in Canada (Toronto, Edmonton and Montreal), beginning with the Toronto race on July 7-9.

[theunions]

So who's replacing Mike in Houston?

[cameraman]

They have not announced anyone yet.

Actually they haven't even announced if they will replace him.
They only ran Bomarito in yesterday's test.

[cameraman]

Nice to see Mike Forest is back in the #32 car.
He is still a bit off the pace but at least he is back in the car.
:thumbup:

[cameraman]

Damn.

Mike Forest had to withdraw because his back couldn't take it. :shakehead

[theunions]

He didn't aggravate his injury, did he?

[cameraman]

All they said was this:
#32 FOREST has also withdrawn for the rest of the weekend as he continues to recover from his back injury suffered in Long Beach.