Tracy targets Portland return

Tracy suffered a compression fracture to his first lumbar vertebrae after a crash during practice for the Long Beach race, the second round of the season.

The former champion was forced to miss the rest of the weekend and was also absent from last Sunday's race in Houston.

But with a gap of over six weeks before the next race in Portland, Tracy is targeting to be back in action by then.

"I feel okay. Good enough to drive right now," Tracy told SpeedTV. "But the doctors have told me I could easily make things worse if I were to have another accident, so the best thing is for me to take it easy and focus on recovering.

"I'm looking at the Portland race in June. That'll give me eight weeks from Long Beach and the docs think I'll be ready by then."

The Forsythe driver, who has been replaced by Spaniard Oriol Servia, said he preferred to stay home instead of travelling to Houston for last weekend's race.

"I've never been much of a spectator, and if I were to go to the race I'd wind up standing around all weekend where by staying at home I can keep ice on my back and work on getting better," Tracy said.