Issue 11 -August 2004

Drs. Smith and Georges Racing for chiropractic
By Todd Stumpf • Photos by Leonel Monroy, jr.

Drs. Oliver Smith II and Tom Georges love competition, though not with each other. They love promotion, as long as it focuses on just about anything other than themselves. They love to practice and they love to race.

Now, with their sponsorship of NASCAR driver Geoffrey Bodine, they have found a way to combine their passions. The two, each a solo practitioner in El Paso, Texas, were among the sponsors of a racecar representing El Paso in the 2004 Brickyard 400 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Their sponsorship sums them up fairly well.

The decal — Chiropractic, Racing Towards Health — embosses the tail end of Bodine’s lime green No. 34 Dodge Intrepid.

Neither one is keen about self-promotion but each is very keen on promoting the chiropractic profession.

“I am far more interested in promoting chiropractic and not my specific practice,” Smith says. “The NASCAR project is a perfect example of why it doesn’t bother me one bit that my name is not directly involved. I am just excited for chiropractic. My father always encouraged me to give back to our profession. Too many of our doctors concentrate on developing their practice and not our profession.”

ADDING VALUE TO LIFE
So why racing? For Georges, simple as it sounds, it was a matter of wanting to add something to his life.

“Believe it or not, I was just looking for something to do in my spare time,” he recalls. “I had a neighbor who was as excited about cars as I was. So I bought a ’67 Corvette. That was about 12 years ago.”

Fast forward to present day, and you can see that a hobby has become somewhat of an obsession.

“It’s still a hobby, but it’s grown to a bigger level,” Georges said. “I’m into racing more because I do it personally. There’s an incredible high for me. NASCAR is kind of an offset of that. I enjoy it because of its popularity ... but I’m not your typical crazy NASCAR fan.”

By crazy, he means passionate. NASCAR fans, an ever-growing legion sector of racing-wild humanity, are known for their fervor. Races routinely draw hundreds of thousands of fans. Their telecasts draw millions. Those numbers grow exponentially with every passing year. When it comes to sports, there may just be no “crazier” lot.

But that’s part of its aura and mystique and a part of what draws two otherwise typical chiropractors from west Texas into that world.

“Any red-blooded American male loves horsepower, fast cars,” Smith says. “There’s something [in racing] that is a lure for some people.”

So when the chance to sponsor a car popped up, the two chiropractors didn’t hesitate.

“We always enjoyed NASCAR, but now we get really excited about it,” Smith says. “Some companies spend $1 million a year to get their ad on the back of a car for a year. This is just for a race. It's exciting to get chiropractic out like this.”

Says Georges: “The NASCAR thing fell in our lap. To play on a national level like that was a little bit of a fluke. When the opportunity arose we grabbed it.”

THEY RACE FOR CHIROPRACTIC
But these two don’t simply support racing. They are active in it. And they are good at it.

For Georges, racing began sometime after he bought that first Corvette. Soon he was selling the merits of racing to Smith. The two went to a race school and learned to drive in what are known as dwarf cars.

They wore racing suits, drove on a track, did some laps, got some instruction and were instantly sold.

“By the end of the day, we had the ‘bug,’” Smith says. “We got a Legend car, then two. Then Tom got into SuperTrucks and we got into the SuperTruck class.”

The NASCAR family is broken down into divisions, among cars and trucks. The Nextel Cup
is what you see on ESPN or ABC on the weekends. The Busch Series is the next level, where the up-and-comers cut their teeth.

Another branch is known as the Craftsman Truck Series, in which “trucks” run on asphalt tracks. The series in which Georges and Smith compete is similar to the Craftsman, but the races are on dirt tracks.

“If you put our trucks by theirs, they look strikingly similar,” Smith says.

And they look strikingly similar to trucks, too, although they are really just cars made to look like trucks. Each "truck" starts with a tubular steel race frame, upon which a fiberglass body is placed. Trucks can have Dodge, Ford or Chevrolet designs. The engine is basically a racecar engine.

Smith’s truck, for instance, is styled to look like a Ford F-150. Much like a NASCAR car, it is for racing only; headlights and taillights are really just decals.

But while the trucks and their decals aren’t really what they appear, the races — and the danger — are very real.

“If you race, you’re going to have harrowing experiences,” Smith says. “I had a guy about the third race of the season literally climb up on the side of my truck. All I could see was the underneath of his truck. Thank God no one got hurt. I haven’t seen anyone really get hurt, except bumps and bruises.”

The trucks go around the dirt track at top speeds of approximately 100 mph. They start out in packs of 15 or more, and heading into the turns, things can get interesting.

Georges’ success has been marked by a 22-race win streak that dated back to last year and was still alive in July. Many of his patients come in on Friday afternoons to pick up discount tickets for the races.

“It doesn’t hurt, either, that the track announcer is a patient and takes every opportunity to promote me and chiropractic,” Georges says.

CHIROPRACTIC THEIR FIRST LOVE
But while the two doctors love driving and the racing world, their deepest roots are and will remain in chiropractic.

“I see the opportunity to affect more people’s lives in chiropractic,” Georges says. “In chiropractic, I foresee myself doing this as long as I can walk in here and be mentally and physically sound. I want to continue to grow as we have. We’ve been especially fortunate. One of my major goals is to take in an associate.”

They can get away for a weekend to race or to watch a race. But when the weekend’s over, these two men take off their helmets, put their white coats back on, head back in to their office and help people.

Chiropractic may have enabled them to have a hobby such as racing, but racing will never replace it on the priority list.

Todd Stumpf is a freelance writer from Akron, Ohio. He can be reached at TStumpf22@yahoo.com.