Parsons back in hospital, McGehee on sidelines.

Ray Parsons of Parsons Motorsports Marketing's health has taken an unexpected turn for the worse, causing him to put everything on hold for the remainder of the 2002 Indy Racing League season on Tuesday and leaving popular driver Robby McGehee without a ride.

Parsons is now hospitalised in Cleveland, Ohio, according to Raelene Crower, his company's director of sponsor relations and marketing.

"We're waiting for his fever to come down, and then he faces an operation," Crower said. "The recovery time for the operation is eight weeks minimum, so we had to put everything on hold for now."

"We'll be praying for Ray's health to improve," McGehee said. "It'll be depressing for all of us to sit out all of these races. We all thought that we could finish the year together; this is very unexpected."

Although McGehee will continue to scratch for a ride for the remaining four rounds of the 2002 Championship, he currently holds no funding to which he can bring to any new drive. Sadly for McGehee it looks as though he will also miss his 'home' race at the Gateway International Raceway, near his hometown of St Louis.

Last year at the 1.25-mile Speedway, McGehee's Cahill Racing squad managed to attract local sponsorship for the event from Major League Baseball team the St Louis Cardinals.

The outlook for the #54 Parsons Motorsports crew, headed by Greg Beck, is far from gloomy however as they operated as the pit crew for Tomas Scheckter during the Michigan Indy 400 weekend, coming away with a dominant victory and now look set to extend that role for the rest of the year.