Car enthusiast Angel Rodriguez knows first-hand the toll illegal street racing can take.

The Boyle Heights teen was arrested in October and spent a night in jail after racing another driver on the freeway near Torrance. Rodriguez had to pay $1,400 to retrieve his impounded Lexus IS300, and after pleading no contest, was sentenced to traffic school and 80 hours of community service in an act of leniency.

Angel Rodriguez, left, who was sentenced to community service after engaging in illegal street racing, drag races (legally) against an off duty Los Angeles Police officer Sgt. J. “Jesse” Garcia as part of the Granada Hills-based MotorGospel Ministries’ inaugural Beat the Heat series at the Irwindale Drag Strip at the Irwindale Speedway in Irwindale, Calif., on Thursday, April 12, 2018. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Pasadena Star-News/SCNG)

Angel Rodriguez, left, who was sentenced to community service after engaging in illegal street racing, drag races (legally) against an off duty Los Angeles Police officer Sgt. J. “Jesse” Garcia as part of the Granada Hills-based MotorGospel Ministries’ inaugural Beat the Heat series at the Irwindale Drag Strip at the Irwindale Speedway in Irwindale, Calif., on Thursday, April 12, 2018. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Pasadena Star-News/SCNG)

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Angel Rodriguez, right, who was sentenced to community service after engaging in illegal street racing, drag races (legally) against an off duty Los Angeles Police officer Sgt. J. “Jesse” Garcia as part of the Granada Hills-based MotorGospel Ministries’ inaugural Beat the Heat series at the Irwindale Drag Strip at the Irwindale Speedway in Irwindale, Calif., on Thursday, April 12, 2018. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Pasadena Star-News/SCNG)

Angel Rodriguez, right, who was sentenced to community service after engaging in illegal street racing, drag races (legally) against an off duty Los Angeles Police officer Sgt. J. “Jesse” Garcia as part of the Granada Hills-based MotorGospel Ministries’ inaugural Beat the Heat series at the Irwindale Drag Strip at the Irwindale Speedway in Irwindale, Calif., on Thursday, April 12, 2018. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Pasadena Star-News/SCNG)

Aaron Schwartzbart, founder and president of MotorGospel Ministries talks about racing during the inaugural Beat the Heat series at the Irwindale Drag Strip at the Irwindale Speedway in Irwindale, Calif., on Thursday, April 12, 2018. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Pasadena Star-News/SCNG)



Angel Rodriguez, who was sentenced to community service after engaging in illegal street racing, will be legally racing against an off duty police officer Sgt. J. “Jesse” Garcia as part of the Granada Hills-based MotorGospel Ministries’ inaugural Beat the Heat series at the Irwindale Drag Strip at the Irwindale Speedway in Irwindale, Calif., on Thursday, April 12, 2018. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Pasadena Star-News/SCNG)

Aaron Schwartzbart, founder and president of MotorGospel Ministries talks about racing during the inaugural Beat the Heat series at the Irwindale Drag Strip at the Irwindale Speedway in Irwindale, Calif., on Thursday, April 12, 2018. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Pasadena Star-News/SCNG)

Angel Rodriguez, left, who was sentenced to community service after engaging in illegal street racing, before he legally raced against an off-duty police officer Sgt. J. “Jesse” Garcia as part of the Granada Hills-based MotorGospel Ministries’ inaugural Beat the Heat series at the Irwindale Drag Strip at the Irwindale Speedway in Irwindale, Calif., on Thursday, April 12, 2018. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Pasadena Star-News/SCNG)

Angel Rodriguez, right, who was sentenced to community service after engaging in illegal street racing, before he legally raced against an off-duty police officer Sgt. J. “Jesse” Garcia, left, as part of the Granada Hills-based MotorGospel Ministries’ inaugural Beat the Heat series at the Irwindale Drag Strip at the Irwindale Speedway in Irwindale, Calif., on Thursday, April 12, 2018. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Pasadena Star-News/SCNG)

After authorities nabbed the East Los Angeles College student again near his home in January for reckless speeding, Rodriguez decided he had enough.

“Racing on the streets probably would have been the death of me, (or) the death of someone,” Rodriguez, 19, said in a recent interview.

On Thursday, Rodriguez raced legally against an off-duty Los Angeles Police Department officer in a 1/8th-mile drag race as part of the Granada Hills-based MotorGospel Ministries‘ inaugural “Beat the Heat” monthly series at the Irwindale Drag Strip. (MotorGospel is piggybacking on the National Hot Rod Association’s weekly Thursday Night Thunder event, where community members can race their vehicle at the drag strip for $20.)

The “Beat the Heat” series involving off-duty cops is MotorGospel Ministries’ latest effort to encourage illegal street racers to move to the racetrack.

Illegal street racers are “just posers who think they are racers but are not,” said Rodriguez, who is working with MotorGospel Ministries to get the community service time he has done with that organization to count for the court. “When you go to the track, these are the big dogs.”

After finishing public service with #MotorGospelMinistries, former #StreetRacer Angel Rodriguez will face off against #LAPD officer Jesse Garcia in a drag race Thursday at the #IrwindaleDragStrip in the #BeattheHeat series. pic.twitter.com/ysY3Budbgh — David Crane (@vidcrane) April 10, 2018

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LAPD Sgt. J. “Jesse” Garcia, officer-in-charge of the Central Traffic Street Racing Task Force, raced Rodriguez at the drag strip on Thursday, narrowly getting beat. The last time he raced someone like this, he said, he was in his late teens.

“It’s about having fun, just doing it in an environment that’s as safe as possible considering that it’s motorsports,” Garcia said. “As long as they’re not on the streets, we support it.”

Garcia, who met Rodriguez after his second arrest, believes the teen is a success story.

“He was offered a (second) chance and took advantage of it,” he said.

MotorGospel Ministries’ new program is forging a unique partnership between motorsports enthusiasts and the Los Angeles Police Department, said L.A. City Councilman Mitchell Englander, who chairs the council’s Public Safety Committee.

It “provides a safe and creative alternative while removing the danger (of illegal street racing) from our communities,” he said in a statement.

Aaron Schwartzbart, founder and president of MotorGospel Ministries and a three-time champion race car driver, said they do a good job of “humiliating” illegal street racers at the track.

“We can do 150 to 200 miles (per hour) skillfully” at the track, he said.

While Schwartzbart acknowledged that driving the racetrack is not without risk, he noted that it’s safer than illegal street racing, in which many innocent bystanders have been killed.

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Since Schwartzbart became a chaplain for the National Auto Sport Association in 2004, he’s officiated over five deaths at various racetracks, he said. Meanwhile, more than 10,000 traffic deaths were attributed to speeding in 2016 alone, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Association.

MotorGospel Ministries, founded in 2001, has both religious and non-religious activities, including an anti-street racing campaign in partnership with LAPD’s Central Traffic Division Street Racing Task Force.

Since 2012, the campaign has offered anti-street racing motorsports events and education throughout Southland racetracks.

But Schwartzbart acknowleged that luring illegal street racers to the track hasn’t been easy.

“It’s a very hard thing to get any of them to come to the track,” he said.

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Their ministry also includes a church for those who wish to attend and a youth center, where they offer after-school auto shop along with subjects such as math, science, rock-and-roll, hip hop, art and government.

Schwartzbart was ordained as a minister in 2014. He said he gave up a six-figure salary as a rocket scientist to devote himself full-time to his MotorGospel ministry. He’s also an instructor for the National Auto Sport Association.

Jerry Warner Baxter, 23, of Sylmar met Schwartzbart years ago, and began volunteering with him and working on race cars from the pastor’s home.

Baxter is now a driver with MotorGospel Ministries and aspires to be professional. He’s also an instructor with the National Auto Sport Association.

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Had he not met Schwartzbart, he would have likely gotten his racing fix on the streets, engaging in “red light races” and being a danger to the community.

And he would likely never have felt the thrill of legal racing, he said.

Those who race on the street “think they know what the car can do, but they are sadly mistaken,” he said.

“You can push the car so much further on the racetrack.”