• Government
• Profession
• Business
• Opinion
• Health

• Health reform
• H1N1
• P4P
• EMRs
• Medicare
• Liability
• AMA House
• » More

• Book Excerpt
• Business Pitch
• Meetings
• » More

• Contract Language
• Ethics Forum
• In the Courts
• Practice Management
• Technically Speaking
• » More

• Issue dates
• Regions
• Health plans
• Sections
• News briefs
• Columns
• Editorials
• Letters
• Writers
• Other years

• Search tips
• E-mail alert
• Radio
• RSS
• Mobile
• Subscribe
• Institutions
• Staff directory
• Advertising
• Permissions
• Reprints
• News media
• Site guide
• Useful links
• About
• Premium
• Contact

Physicians finding new challenge behind the wheel

When it's time to get away from it all, some doctors take the fast track.

By Damon Adams, amednews staff. May 6, 2002.

• PRINT|
• E-MAIL|
• RESPOND|
• REPRINTS|
• SHARE

The Doctor is Out
A look at physician lives outside the exam room. In the office, time is a precious commodity for today's busy physicians. Away from work, many doctors find unique activities and hobbies to help them unwind and to enrich their lives.

As a medical student, he used to dream about being a professional race car driver, his machine leading the pack with a checkered flag and victory waiting at the finish line.

Then reality set in, and Mark Prashker, now an MD, MPH, realized his skills were better suited to a doctor's office than a racetrack. Today, he is a rheumatologist who chairs the health services department at Boston University School of Public Health.

But Dr. Prashker's dream never really died. It just got modified.

When he's not practicing medicine, Dr. Prashker races cars as an amateur. Several times a year, he crawls into a Formula Dodge and tries to beat other drivers at speeds up to 130 mph.

He isn't the only physician who feels the need to speed. Orthopedic surgeons, family doctors and psychiatrists all have been known to rev their engines at weekend races.

These racing doctors do it for fun -- and as a getaway from the daily grind. For most, winning is secondary.

"Honestly? I'm a fairly middle-of-the-pack racer, and I'm OK with that," said Dr. Prashker, 40, who hasn't won a race in nearly nine years of racing. "I'm doing this because I love cars and I love racing."

Like Dr. Prashker, most racing doctors take part in vintage auto races, maneuvering their cars around the twists and turns of road courses and competing against Cobra 427s, Austin Healeys, Ferraris, GTOs and Formula Super Vees. Much of the appeal is seeing and showing off these gems from the 1950s and 1960s.

"I kind of joke they're old guys' old cars," said Joel Matta, MD, 54, an orthopedic surgeon at Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles and a racer since 1978. [...]