When the men took a car to race at Painesville Speedway, they didn’t actually expect to win.
It’s a ministry, the Rev. Douglas Reeder says.
He’s the pastor at Calvary Fellowship Baptist Church, one of a pair of area Baptist churches collaborating in the effort.
“We’re trying to get outside the walls of the church a little.” Reeder said.
On its debut run a week ago at the Painesville Township track, No. 7, the Dodge Neon sponsored by the churches, had the slowest lap time of all the cars there.
“He’s the only one whose wife would let him do it,” explained Hansel Moore, a member of the Calvary congregation. “Besides, he’s the only one of us who can fit into the seat.”
The Rev. Jim Porostosky’s Lakeshore Assembly of God congregation may have started it all 18 years ago.
“It’s God’s vision for us, and next year we plan to have a race car there.”
Now that Mentor church sponsors a trophy at the race track. It’s framed around a sticker with John 3:16 printed on it: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
“The first car carrying the sticker to cross the finish line wins our trophy,” Porostosky explained.
More than 60 percent of the cars on the track have the church’s John 3:16 stickers affixed to them, he said.
Meanwhile, the Knights of Fellowship race team plans to race at Painesville Speedway at least once a month.
“We’re looking to get some of our recent high school graduates involved,” Reeder said.
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