Sunday Album / A weekly profile of a family--its history, joys and trials. : On the Right Track : A shared passion for racing and an emphasis on values drive this tight-knit clan to succeed at any speed.

Not many families have a group need for speed, or collectively tempt fate by flirting with danger. But when the goal is raising children who will do well in the world, whose horizons extend beyond television and the mall, and when the patriarch thinks racing cars is a great thing to do, well, it’s time to fasten your seat belts.

The Swartzbaugh family of La Habra Heights followed the tracks of Dad’s hobby, which meant speeding along in a variety of vehicles, from four-wheel quad bikes to souped-up cars and trucks.

“Jim is definitely the leader,” says Madonna Swartzbaugh of her 40-year-old husband. “He always directs the children to do things that he thinks will help them develop as people.”

Their daughter, Hallie, a pretty blond whose high school yearbook photo is captioned “Colgate Smile,” inherited her father’s fierce desire to win. Although brother Nathan’s temperament had always been more easygoing, he also got involved in racing anything with wheels not long after he was out of diapers. More often than not, he won.

The Swartzbaugh family races in small events in California, not yet in the big time, where the risks are greater and drivers are supported by big-name sponsors. While the family was having fun and steering the children away from boredom and laziness, Nathan gradually advanced from talented but somewhat reluctant participant to prodigy. At 14, he’s now driving in the same races as his father, a lone teenager surrounded by adults. Although he’s too young for a driver’s license, that’s not a consideration for track racing. And he’s looking forward to a career behind the wheel, an idea his parents are still digesting.

This weekend, Nathan and his father will race in one of the four events in the L.A. Street Race around Exposition Park. While the NASCAR Featherlite race is expected to be the big draw, the Swartzbaughs will drive small trucks in the Ultra Wheel Spec Truck Race.

A youngster competing against adults might seem odd, but in the Swartzbaugh family, it’s not whether you win or lose, it’s why you come to the track. For them, it’s to be a close, highly competitive family. Here, the Swartzbaughs tell us, in their own words, what their lives are like.

Jim: A Way to Teach Teamwork

In every man’s heart, he’s a race car driver. He wonders if he coulda or shoulda won the race.

My dad taught me to drive when I was 13, in a church parking lot. Nathan started driving a car when he was 10. Hallie’s been through three courses of fast-lane driving school on a track with professional race car drivers. She was 12 when she completed the first one, and she’s quite a driver.

People who would say that I’m crazy to let my kids drive race cars don’t have the relationship with their children that I have with mine. I know what they’re capable of. Nathan and Hallie, at their age, are probably better drivers than the majority of people out on the highway. Nathan started racing a bicycle when he was 8 years old. He went from beginner to expert in four months, which is unheard of. I enjoyed watching him race, but I wanted to participate with him. So he got into mountain bike racing so we could race together. Instead of him racing in the little kiddie class, I’d make him race with the adults so I could be with him in case something happened. Right after he started racing, when he was 10, he finished in the top five in the 15-year-old class.

He has that gift. He has the feeling of what’s going on between the machinery and the ground.

It’s a good situation for my children to learn about responsibility, scheduling, working to get sponsorships. Every time we take Nathan’s truck out, it’s $400 for a set of tires. The deal we made is the kids have to pay for that by signing up sponsors, so they’re learning the value of money.

Hallie: Learning the Business Side

I’m Hallie. Just Hallie. It isn’t a nickname or anything. I’m my brother’s manager, because one day my Dad said to me, “How would you feel about being Nathan’s manager?” And I said, “Hey, yeah. That sounds really interesting.” It is, but it’s not all fun and games. A lot of pressure comes with being manager. Basically it’s selling him, selling the truck he races, getting money to race.

My top priority is getting sponsors. If I don’t get the money, he can’t race. So I’ve gotten some ideas from people who are in sports marketing. I put together a proposal and went out to 10 companies near where we live, and I came back with three sponsors right away. Some of the sponsors wanted to talk to my Dad, because that’s what they’re used to, but when they see us getting interviewed on TV they’re getting it that I really am his manager. They get their name on Nathan’s truck and on our T-shirts. Also, I’m always right there with Nathan when he’s doing press interviews. What I’m doing is learning firsthand about communication. I’m dealing with adults, and I’m 16, so I’m learning a lot. I know I’m going to go into some kind of business when I grow up. I’m pretty good, so I think it’s what I should do.

If I wasn’t doing this, I’d be hitting the beach a lot more. I don’t have time for some things that I’d like to do, but, hey, I get to be on TV. I like being my brother’s manager, but it’s so time consuming.

I have a boyfriend. I do have a life. I’m a junior at Sonora High School in La Habra, and I have to keep my grades up or my parents take away the car keys. I work as a swimming instructor for 5-year-olds. I’ve always been in team sports--swimming, water polo, volleyball. I’m competitive. I guess it’s in the blood. My dad has raced for as long as I can remember.

My whole family is in this, so every time we go out to a race it’s also family time. We’re pretty close. We’re definitely a team.

Nathan: Racing With the Big Boys

I’m only 14, and I’m racing, but if I waited a couple of years to do this, I’d be a normal race car driver. I wouldn’t be the youngest guy. I wouldn’t be anything special. I really want to make a living doing this, and starting now is my way of getting into it easily.

I’ve always ridden motorcycles and off-road bikes, driven go-carts, and I went to go-cart school and driving school on a track called Willow Springs. When you’re driving, you get all these exhaust fumes in your face. Your eyes start watering and you get a headache and dizzy and stuff. I’ve had to pull in because of that, or because of a blown tire. There’s always that chance that you could get hurt. That’s racing, and you’re not going to be racing if you’re worrying about it. So I don’t worry about it. If I hear a rattle in the car and I’m going 130 in a turn, I’ll think, “Whoa! This is crazy.” But then I just forget about it. You can’t think about that or it’ll mess up your concentration.

When I go back to the racetrack after I haven’t been there for a while, I worry if I’m going to stink. But I don’t. When everybody’s going past me and I feel like I’m really slow, it makes me lose my confidence. Usually those guys who go out way faster spin out and crash.

I still hang out with my friends, ride my bike and jump my bike, but I think I’m going to have to give that up, because I get hurt a lot. And if I’m hurt, then I can’t race. I think racing is a lot more important than riding my bike.

I can’t race unless I get a 3.0 average. My dad made it clear that racing couldn’t interfere with school. There are a lot of rules in our house. We know what the consequences are if we don’t make curfew or if someone’s caught drinking. We talk about everything.

I like spaghetti and bread. I like to sit and watch TV and eat a loaf of Wonder Bread. It’s sick, but it’s really good.

Madonna: It Keeps the Family Together

When you’re a racing family, there’s plenty to do for everyone. My original role was to worry. I don’t do that much anymore.

We have a motorhome, and we take that to the track and camp there overnight. I take the pictures and take care of all the details. I’m the one operating the video camera. I just kind of sweep up behind everybody.

The other drivers we’re around are very family-oriented people with good morals. There are a lot of worse things kids could get into.

When I see the benefits my kids are getting from it, I think, “What’s the harm?” I think they’re growing from it. Racing has taught Nathan some wonderful things, like no drinking and driving.

Jim and I have lain awake at night, talking about how we could get these teenagers to want to keep hanging around with us. So we do Jet Skis, off-road bike riding. Jim’s thinking was, if we make it fun for them to be with us, then they’d want to hang with us and bring their friends along. So, as a family, we very deliberately concentrate on doing things together. I think it’s important to keep the kids busy. As long as they’re doing something, then I know they’re OK. We try to keep things scheduled for them. And racing is part of that. Doing nothing would not work in our family.

I don’t find it hard to follow Jim, and for someone who once thought herself quite the women’s libber, that surprises me sometimes. I was born in Iowa and came to California when I was 21, because I just knew that I didn’t want to be a pig farmer’s wife, and that’s probably how I would have ended up. I’m 44, I’ve been married 17 years, and I feel everything’s turned out well in my life. Racing doesn’t keep me from doing something else that I want to do. I like being outdoors. I like the social aspect of it. It meets a lot of my needs too.

We’re on a [race] level now that we know. If we move to where Nathan’s competing on a regional or national level, I don’t want my kids to lose the family part of it and go into something that’s more of a tougher, boys’ club part of racing.

Nathan says he wants to race professionally . . . he’s gotten serious about it. He used to go to the racetrack with his dad, and sometimes he’d be bored. Then, when he started racing, you could see it in his eyes. It’s becoming a passion. We’ve made a conscious effort to keep Hallie involved, and the idea just clicked that she’d make a wonderful manager. Now she’s looking forward to going to the track too.

I would say both my kids are comfortable with themselves. They’re very natural, and that’s one thing I don’ want them to lose with a lot of attention.

This racing thing has gotten bigger and bigger, so it’s taking more and more time. It’s growing and kind of consuming us. We’re very, very open as a family. We always hoped that the kids could come to us and talk about things, so to keep those lines of communication open, we’re always talking to them.

It’s kind of scary that Nathan’s getting more involved in racing now. We don’t always know what’s the right or the wrong thing to do because we’re moving onto unknown ground. So we talk about it a lot. As a family.

Mimi Avins can be reached by e-mail at mimi.avins@latimes.com.