Tracy injured in crash, replaced by Servia.

Paul Tracy has been ruled out of the second Champ Car World Series round at Long Beach after injuring his back in a heavy crash during free practice, the former champion being replaced at Forsythe Racing this weekend by Oriol Servia.

Tracy was taken to hospital when he suffered a head-on collision with the wall at turn one in practice ahead of final qualifying, with X-Rays and MRI examinations confirmed the Canadian had a compression fracture to his first lumbar vertebrae.

The extent of the injury and the time out Tracy will have to take will become known in the next few days but for the immediate future it is Servia who will take over straight away.

Servia is used to assuming plum seats in place of injured drivers, the Spaniard having impressed many his with performance at Newman/Haas in 2005 when deputising for Bruno Junqueira over much of the season.

Having been looked over in the driver market following the off-season, Servia will instead get his first competitive taste of the action when final qualifying gets underway later today.