> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # These teenage kids are real gearheads on the racetrack What would Jesus drive? - URL: https://www.smdp.com/these-teenage-kids-are-real-gearheads-on-the-racetrack-what-would-jesus-drive-2/ - Published: 2007-03-17T15:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-24T00:15:41.000Z - Author: Melody Hanatani - Tags: local, Sunset Park, #archive-import SUNSET PARK You go, girl! While some teenage girls spend their time shopping or chatting on the phone about the boy du jour, a group of junior Danica Patricks are getting down and dirty, with wrenches in their hands and grease smeared across their face. For nine local teenagers, race car driving isn’t just something to watch on television on Sundays, it’s a time consuming activity that demands dedication to creating a real life version of Hot Wheels. It’s all part of a program at the Church on Pearl Street, where for the past three years, Pastor Jeff McCulty has guided a group of teenage girls toward creating their own race vehicles from what were once junked cars. But that’s just the start. The girls then race the finished product at the Bakersfield Speedway in the Junior Mini Stock class. Before the season begins, the drivers, ranging in age from 14-16 years old, purchase an old stock car, removing all glass, fabric and plastic. The car is then sent to a welder, who fuses a cage to protect the driver in the event of a racing rollover. Then, the teenage girls come in with their work gloves on and toolboxes in tow, adding the fuel valve, racing seats, seat belts and padding. All the work is done by the girls with the assistance of McCulty and 20-year-old Crystal Shanley, who gained automotive experience growing up around her father’s auto repair shop. The program was started in 2005, a year after McCulty bought his own speed demon and raced it at the Bakersfield Mesa Marin Raceway to fulfill a lifelong dream. It all happened after McCulty found out that he was a match for his mother-in-law, who was in need of a kidney transplant. “I ended up being the lucky dog and what I said then is that I want to do something before I do the kidney transplant,” McCulty said. “What I wanted to do was go racing.” While at the racetrack, he found out the raceway offered a class that allowed high school students to race for free. The light bulb went on and McCulty decided to channel his love for racing into the kids at his church. Surprisingly, it wasn’t the teenage male parishioners that jumped on board. In fact, the first boy didn’t sign on to the team until last week. The pastor soon donated his 1978 Chevy Monte Carlo to the team, called “Church on Pearl Roman’s 8:1 Racing,” and asked the girls to build him his own race car, which they did when they refurbished a 1988 Honda Civic. “We won the race that year, competing against 14 teams in their class,” McCulty said. The team participates in about 15 races every season, which runs from March to September. Meeting each Tuesday to work on the cars, the girls joke around while tightening bolts, quoting their favorite movies including 2006 comedy “Talladega Nights,” saying “I’m gonna come at you like a spider monkey!” Once someone starts the quote, the others will finish it. The program is open to teenagers between the age of 14-16, though McCulty has admitted middle school students in the past. Both church and non-church members are invited to join. Participants must be at least 14 years old and have their parents’ permission in order to drive the cars. For 15-year-old Candace McCulty, it was only a matter of time before she joined the race car life. Her father, the pastor, was an announcer at the Bakersfield Mesa Marin Race Way when she was a child. The oldest of the three McCulty children who are part of the team, Candace McCulty raced in a competition last week, demolishing the car after crashing it into the wall. Hitting the wall itself wasn’t scary, but the immediate aftermath was when another race car slammed McCulty from the side. “That was the scariest wreck I’ve been in,” she said. Today, the car sits in the lot at the Church on Pearl Street, marred by irreparable damage. The team is now looking for its next big project, hoping to find a Honda Prelude made before 1994 to add to its growing collection. The Preludes, which Honda stopped producing in 2001, are popular among the teen race crowds. One day, 11-year Kendra McCulty, one of the youngest members, hopes to race a car herself. Since joining the team two months ago, the middle school student in Marina del Rey has learned the basics of transforming a regular car into a racing machine. When she does go behind the wheel in three years, the youngest McCulty will see race car driving as preparation for when she takes her driver’s license test. “It’s scary because Candace is about to get her license and she did that,”Kendra McCulty said pointing to the wrecked car. *Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 17, 2007.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/031707.pdf?ref=smdp.com)