Justin Wilson does not expect to need surgery to repair the fractured vetebrae in his back following his accident in practice on Saturday for the IZOD IndyCar Series race at Mid-Ohio.
"I fly to Indy tomorrow. They think I won't need surgery but I will need a brace," Wilson posted on his Twitter feed on Sunday. "I will be back as soon as possible. Thanks for all the messages. I appreciate the support."
The 33-year-old Dreyer & Reinbold driver ran wide at Turn 1, went on to the grass where his car then traveled over a perpendicular access road and bottomed out. Wilson sustained an anterior compression fracture of the fifth thoracic vertebra in the resulting impact.
Wilson was extricated from his car and taken to the circuit medical center before being transferred to the local hospital, Mansfield MedCentral, where the diagnosis was made. The Briton remained there overnight before being transported to Indianapolis tomorrow where he will meet with IndyCar's medical consultant Dr. Terry Trammell.
Simon Pagenaud, who qualified Wilson's No. 22 car 18th without any prior running over the weekend, finished the race in 13th place.
“Considering that I was thrown into the car yesterday morning, I think that it was a good weekend," said the Frenchman. "Obviously, qualifying was a bit of a roller coaster for me with getting in the car quickly and trying to do my best. It's difficult to pass here, so we finished 13th. We had a really good racecar, but it's just frustrating because I didn't have the chance to run by myself and show the pace of the car.
"I think that the Dreyer & Reinbold Racing/Roll Coater car was one of the fastest out there today. We just needed to qualify up front and we would have been OK. All in all, considering the bad luck that the team had all weekend, the team should be glad about that. We will see what happens next.”
"I feel really sorry for Justin," added Pagenaud. "He's a good friend and you never wish for this kind of situation to happen. I'm glad that Dreyer & Reinbold Racing asked me to represent him and the team I'm pleased that they have confidence in me to do the job."