Oran Park is hosting the one trial day for V8s before the Grand Finale of the Fujitsu Supercar Series in the first weekend in December.

I've never been to a racetrack before and don't know much about cars. When the first V8 zips by me at approximately 260kms an hour, I flinch, shaken by the raw speed and noise of the car flashing past me just three metres away. They don't look that fast on television.

Andrew Fisher has been testing the Jesus V8 for the past few hours during the allotted hourly 20-minute sessions. Apparently his mechanics were up until 4am that morning preparing the car for this important opportunity. After Andrew Fisher finishes his latest session I meet him in the team truck.

Andrew, a well-built man in his early 40s, greets me with a friendly handshake and a genuine smile.

It turns out his latest session has been cut short because a seal inside the power steering rack has gone bust. This one day of testing costs the team approximately $8,000. Every hourly test session that is missed because the team cannot get the Jesus V8 back on the track is theoretically wasted money.

"The team is trying to locate the part. It's a five-dollar part but none of the other teams here has one so the mechanics are trying Holden places in the area to get one."

I'd be fuming, dividing $8000 by the number of sessions in the day and working out how much money each missed session is costing me. But not Andrew. He doesn't let this phase him.

"I am fairly philosophical when it comes to this kind of thing. You deal with it. The team has done a lot to get the car here today, so it is certainly disappointing. But I had a daughter who was close to dying. So when you have gone through that, whether or not we get out again on the track today for more testing is pretty small in the scheme of things."

Andrew's seven-year-old daughter Lily was born with half a heart.

"My wife Annmarie and I had some hard decisions to make for our daughter when she was a baby. The doctors said we should let her die as her condition would lead to 23 operations, three of which would be open-heart surgery. There was only a 50 per cent chance of her living and if she did she would have to live with no left ventricle.

Andrew explains that it was not a simple decision.

"We had a 14-month old son, would have to move from Sydney to Melbourne and live in the hospital for six months. My work was in Sydney so I would have to leave that as well. We thought through the decision, prayed hard about it although we only had minutes to make the decision because if they did not get her on a plane within the hour we would have missed the only surgeon in the country who could do the procedure as he was heading overseas."
Andrew and Annmarie chose to go ahead with the operations, not knowing what the future would bring.

"Lily made it through the operations, albeit with lots of drama and she had to go through it all again when she was five. She is now seven and is amazing. She is so determined to live life to the full," he says.

As much as Andrew loves racing, it is his story of Lily overcoming a life-threatening condition and his testimony to the grace of God in his life that really motivates him. The most significant component in the Jesus Racing ministry is the visits that Andrew makes to schools and men's groups.

In his presentations Andrew talks about the topic of courage and making important life decisions. He begins by talking about the courage it takes to race a car at speeds of 298km an hour but then shares Lily's story.

"It is such an engaging story and when I share it with the kids they are in the palm of my hand. That is when I can connect with them with the gospel. We share the story from Luke 5 about the men who bring their crippled friend to Jesus for physical healing and how Jesus says, "I will forgive your sins'. We say to the kids that it's like ordering a Big Mac and getting a Fillet O' Fish. But then we explain that the man's greatest need was to be reconnected to God. Then I bring it back to Lily's story and explain that even though she has half a heart and may one day need a transplant, her greatest need is to be connected to God, as it is for all of us."

After the presentation Andrew explains the importance of the decision to follow Christ. Special Jesus Racing editions of Luke's Gospel are offered to students who want to take one. Andrew says there is about an 80 per cent take-up rate.

Christianity's image makeover

Andrew says he wants to create a different perception of Christianity to what most people might be used to seeing and dispel the myth that Christians cannot be competitive.

"A lot of people ask me if it is okay for a Christian to win, even some Christian people."

Andrew has a story from his racing to illustrate the point.

"There was a guy who ran into the side of my car during a race when I was turning a corner. When the race steward asked him what happened his exact quote was "I didn't think he would have the balls to go through the corner that fast because he had the word Jesus on the side of his car'. I politely said, "Well we do and I would appreciate you letting everyone else know so I don't have them smashing into me whenever I go through a corner'."

Andrew goes to great lengths to explain the importance of the Jesus Racing Team living a life of integrity.

"We want to show that you can believe what Christians believe and live it out even in the cut and thrust of motor racing."

However, Andrew says the racing is secondary. He sees it as the "foot in the door' that gets him into schools and men's groups to talk about Jesus.

"It provides us permission to talk to people around Australia about Jesus. As I often say, if I didn't have motor racing as an excuse to get into schools I would just be a 41-year-old bald-headed bloke with no relevance and no one would invite us to their schools or events."

Andrew says 2009 will see Jesus Racing participate in the seven races of the Fujitsu V8 Supercar series around Australia. Andrew will do around 100 speaking engagements including schools, men's groups and community groups.

There will also be the launch of the Bible Society's Jesus All About Life campaign, which is the major sponsor of the Jesus V8. Andrew will be at the Newcastle launch at Easter and the Sydney launch on September 15.

"I like the campaign because it is contemporary in nature. Through the multi-media advertising campaign, everyone in Sydney will at some point come across Jesus All About Life. This will provide the conduit for Christian people to share their faith in the workplace, schools and among family and friends.

Andrew says he likes Connect09 for similar reasons.

"I like that Connect09 gives some structure around how to communicate the gospel to your next-door neighbours, family and friends. I see Jesus All About Life as the call to action and Connect09 as the way to get the foot soldiers to take the message of Jesus out into the community."