TESTIMONY
Sammy Maloof: The Race of Life
By Dory Nissen
The 700 Club
CBN.com
– Hot rods, speed and high energy. They’re the adrenaline of race car driver and Hollywood stuntman Sammy Maloof.
“My life as a child always had to do with vehicles,” he tells The 700 Club. “Go-carts, bikes, anything that moved or had a motor on it. I wanted to be a part of it. If it didn’t have a motor on it, I’m going to put a motor on it.”
Sammy’s need for speed became an obsession. So he started illegally street racing in Los Angeles. Fueled by his competitive edge, Sammy started street fighting for money.
“We would twist until someone’s finger broke,” he recalls. “It was a thousand dollars a finger. We would hold and they would say go. We’d twist until someone’s finger would snap for a thousand dollars.”
Ironically, Sammy thought his life was completely normal.
“It’s just the thing to do. People who are free of that can look at me and say, ‘That kid has some issues.’ I’d look at you and say, ‘No, you have the issues.’”
Then he met a radio disc jockey who loved hot rods. The man took a special interest in Sammy.
“I heard my name being mentioned on the radio. ‘Hey, I met this guy out in San Gabriel. He has a racecar shop. Man, I just want to say hi to my friend Sammy.’ I said, 'Wow, man, he said something about me.’ That morning I see Ken pull up in his Charger. He said, ‘Hey, you remember me?’ I said, ‘Yeah, you said something about me on your radio show this morning.’ He says, ‘Yes man, you’re my friend.’ So we started talking. I looked at his car and said, ‘You’ve got a lot of things wrong with this. You let me dial your car in, and if you don’t notice a difference, you won’t owe me a dime.’
“He said, ‘Let me ask you something. You’re into power, but do you know Jesus?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I know Jesus. He’s the Son of God.’ He said, ‘That’s not all. He is who is He.’ I couldn’t say anything else, because I didn’t know anything else. He said, ‘If you want to know what super natural power is, you need to ask Jesus into your heart.’”
Captivated by the word “power,” Sammy asked Jesus to be his Savoir and immediately sensed a change.
“I knew that something went in and pushed something out. At that second, God took what was inside of me and pulled it out this quick. I was transformed. I had no hang-ups no more. It was over with: the insecurity, the competition, the fear the doubt the unbelief.”
Sammy knew illegal racing was wrong. He prayed that God would make a way to legally race with a new race car.
“God said, ‘Obey the laws of the land, and I’ll give you a race car.’ I said [that] I’m not racing. A week goes by no race car. Two weeks goes by no race car. One day I’m walking out of my engine room and that GT was sitting there. It had been there six years. It belonged to one of my customers. He was storing it here. I walked by and said, ‘God, is that the car You want me to have? Because if that’s the car You want me to have, I want it.’
“A week goes by. The man walks in and says, ‘Where’s Sammy?’ ‘He’s in the engine room.’ He said, ‘You got a minute? I’m going to give you that car. You’ve done so much for my family.’ I said, ‘Will you excuse me a minute?’ I walked out and said, ‘Glory be to You, Father. Thank You for my car.’”
Sammy now races legally for regional and national events in the GT1 division in addition to his Hollywood stunt work. He also takes his hot rods across the nation performing stunts and talking to people about winning through Jesus Christ. He’s teaching the same lessons to his kids.
“Jesus Christ is Lord of my life, and I teach them how to win at the race of life and overcome the doubt fear and unbelief. God is saying, ‘Be at peace, know that I am God. Be anxious for nothing. I’ll direct your path.’ He doesn’t want to have trial and error. He wants you to have trial and success.”
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