Full-time doctor, mother hoping to make D4D cut

Jill George is a lot of things.

She is a chiropractor. She is a college-basketball referee. She is a wife. She is a mother.

Now the 29-year-old former Golden Gloves boxer from Cedar Falls, Iowa, wants to be a racecar driver. George is awaiting word from NASCAR's Drive for Diversity initiative on whether or not she will have a shot to break into the most competitive and male-dominated motorsport in the country.

Slow ride

Jesus Hernandez has been one of the more successful Drive for Diversity participants but after four years, the initiative has failed to put a driver in any of NASCAR's top three series.

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Recently, George was invited to compete against 23 other aspiring minority drivers at the fifth annual Drive for Diversity Combine held at South Boston Speedway in Virginia, where members of the NASCAR industry scout for potential talent.

George's first time out during the two-day test was rough.

"I put her [car] in the wall because I was trying to go too fast. I came off the corner and hit the throttle too hard," George said as she rolled her eyes, realizing only eight drivers will be selected to join the 2008 Drive for Diversity class.

The members are then given the opportunity to compete with a NASCAR team in one of NASCAR's regional touring series, the Nationwide Series or Craftsman Truck Series.

Dozens of minority drivers from all over the world were invited to apply and 24 were selected to join the recent test at South Boston.

George, with just four years of dirt late-model racing experience, was in a class all of her own as most of the minority applicants, men and women, were in their early-to-mid 20s and grew up racing.

George, however, was busy not racing on a track but running on one at the University of Northern Iowa. She played basketball and went to college to become a doctor and along the way became a championship Golden Gloves boxer at Palmer College.

Not until four years ago did she even watch NASCAR on TV. Then her husband, Rick, asked her to go to a dirt race in Iowa. Uncertain she would be interested, George gave it a whirl and by the end of that summer she no longer wanted to watch; she wanted to race.

George worked in various pits for late-model teams in Webster City, Iowa, and went to every race she could all the while maintaining her full-time career as a chiropractor during the day and a college-basketball referee at night.

In 2003, George's husband asked her if she wanted to build a car and by 2004 she entered her first race. Monday through Friday she worked on clients, and when the weekend came, she worked on her car.

"We started just playing around as a hobby, something Rick and I could do together as a couple," George said. "Then we figured with my background .... I'm very competitive. I made a lot of progress in four years. New opportunities keep being presented to us."

One of those opportunities is now motherhood. George gave birth to her first son, Jackson, in the summer of 2006, but it didn't slow her drive to compete in the car. Her son goes where she goes, including the tracks.

"He sleeps really well at a racetrack," she said. "I put little wax ear plugs in his ears."

George understands the fierce, competitive nature among the NASCAR circuit. She understands that for most, racing is their only focus. The fact that she has more than a few doesn't deter her confidence of becoming the sports next big thing.

"If I can be that woman NASCAR is looking for, it would be a dream come true," she said. "If I can't, then I've had a darn good ride along the way."

Meanwhile, George will wait to hear from the Drive for Diversity program, enjoy the winter months shoveling snow in Cedar Falls and spend time learning the art of cooking as opposed to combustion and carburetors.

"Usually we are at the race shop in the evenings," she said. "There's a kitchen in my house, but only because it ...

"We eat a lot of take out."