Steve's scraped helmet?

[Brammofan]

Brian just posted this on twitter with a "This just happened":
[smg id=338 width=600]

Nothing besides that.  I inquired further and will update.

[Brammofan]

Just heard this:
> Steve has crashed okay but in hospital - bike battered…

[Gavin]

Ouch....

Hope SteveO is ok with just scraps and bruises.

Looks like Brammo won't be racing at Infineon...

That will make it tough to repeat as champs.

Especially with Lightning running two bikes.

Racing is a cruel bitch...

Gavin

[Brammofan]

Yeah... I hope he's out of the hospital soon.

Racing.  What're going to do?

[Gavin]

Freaking curse of the number 1....

G

[protomech]

Well.. damn : (

I'll choose to interpret BrammoBrian's tweet as light-hearted meaning that any injuries sustained were minor.

They can rebuild the bike.. make it better.. stronger..

[FreepZ]

How ironic. 3 hours ago (~6 pm PST), Brammo posted this on Facebook:

Team Icon Brammo all set up at Infineon for the TTXGP.....

What a bummer. I hope that Steve is okay.

[protomech]

Latest tweet:
"Thanks for the concern. Steve high sided during practice and crashed pretty hard, but is ok. Bike is another story..."

[FreepZ]

Looks like Brian Wismann is carrying the story.

http://twitter.com/#!/brammodesigner

Brian Wismann:
Thanks for the concern. Steve high sided during practice and crashed pretty hard, but is ok. Bike is another story...

Asphalt & Rubber:
@brammodesigner Ouch! It's the curse of the new livery. Hope Steve's alright with his hand, & that you can get it back together for tomorrow

Brian Wismann:
@Asphalt_Rubber As it turns out, the finger isn't so bad compared to 6 fractured vertebrae... He'll be ok, but not racing this weekend.

Asphalt & Rubber:
@brammodesigner Damn. I hear @Shelina93 is in town though...


"6 fractured vertebrae" sounds pretty serious to me. So does "Bike is another story..."

[EmpulseRider]

Damn, yeah that sucks. Im not sure those injuries fall under the OK category. Could have been worse though I guess... high sides are nasty as hell.

[Deadly Silent Ninja]

He is not going to be racing for months if the 6 vertebrae are truly fractured and not just fissured or bruised.

Unless they have a second bike and Shelina is ready to take over, Brammo's chances to win the championship again are minimum. 

@Gavin: I know, right? He just wrote about it and suddenly he's in the hospital. I'm not superstitious, but SteveO will probably think about it from now on. 

I hope he is better than the info leads to believe.

[Gavin]

There is quite a range on spine fractures, depending on if the fractures are in the body of the vertebrae vs the transverse or spiny processes. And compression fracture vs fracture fracture etc etc...

Not to minimize it at all...even in the best case Steve O is hurting.

How fast he can come back will be highly variable.

And it sucks on a lot of levels...for Steve, Brammo, TTXGP and the fans....

But is just part of the nature of the beast call racing.

Gavin

[Brammofan]

From TTXGP's YouTube channel.

Damn.

[Brammofan]

Screen grab from video of the right side, showing the damage to the motor:
[smg id=339 width=600]

[Brammofan]

The Empulse RR may be repairable in time to race.... the team are pulling out all the stops....

Guessing Shelina would be the rider.