Eye injury hampers UMP tour rookie
Jose Parga’s hopes of running the full UMP DIRTcar Summernationals schedule for the first time in his young career were short-circuited after just five races by an eye injury he suffered Monday night in his shop while preparing his race car for Tuesday evening’s Hell Tour event at Jacksonville (Ill.) Speedway. | Complete Summernationals coverage
The 21-year-old driver from New Berlin, Ill., needed medical attention Tuesday to remove metal from his right eye and was advised to stay away from dirt tracks for several days.
“I was working on the race car (Monday) night and some metal got in my eye,” Parga told DirtonDirt.com. “I thought I got it out and woke up (Tuesday) morning and my eye was swollen shut. I went to the doctor and they got it out, but I also had some rust in the eye so the doctor said not to do anything so it don’t get infected.”
Parga is not expected to have any vision problems from the eye injury and he hopes to be back racing as soon as doctors allow him.
A first-year Super Late Model driver, Parga entered the first five Summernationals events. He qualified for two features, finishing 22nd on June 15 at Kankakee (Ill.) County Speedway and 21st on June 18 at Daugherty Speedway in Boswell, Ind.
