Students at Minneapolis North and Lakeville North high schools taking part in a first-of-its-kind rat rod go-kart build-off are getting some extra help from a NASCAR legend known as The King and a celebrity motorcycle builder.
Seven-time NASCAR champion Richard Petty and motorcycle expert Billy Lane are mentoring students during the build-off which is part of Northern Tool + Equipment’s "Tools for the Trades" program. Both were at the Minnesota State Fair grounds on Friday as part of the MSRA's Back to the 50's weekend to announce the build-off.
The build-off challenges each school to spend a year constructing rat rod go-karts using a new, cutting-edge 740cc NorthStar EFI engine.
"These high school kids are going to be taking a NorthStar engine and building a rat rod around this engine from scratch," said Billy Lane. "They're going to be racing them roughly a year from now at one of my Sons of Speed motorcycle racing events in Florida. Richard Petty and I will mentor them along the way, showing them some tricks, things we know, and really just advice and guidance."
Tools for the Trades is a program that provides schools with professional-grade tools and monetary support to schools.
"Tools for the Trades really prepares students who want to enter the trades for that," added Lane. "The emphasis in the last few years has migrated from preparing high school kids for that kind of thing. It's a really excellent program and there's a huge appetite for it and I'm glad to be a part of that."
Instructors at both Minneapolis North and Lakeville North are busy prepping for the build-off.
"So ideally we're going to get our 740cc NorthStar engine in the fall and then we're going to start our research and design phase right away in September," said Zach Humphrey, who teaches automotive, small engines, and powersports at Minneapolis North. "We're just going to start from there. We'll research our chassis, start figuring out where we're going to put all of our components, and a concept for our body, steering, breaks, and suspension for rat rod. It's going to be a year long process."
Kevin Baas is in his sixth year at Lakeville North as a manufacturing, engineering, and technology instructor. He says the Tools for the Trades program came at exactly the right time.
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"I've been working on building a program here and trying to update it with better equipment," Baas said. "Budget cuts are always in the forefront and it's tough to find the money to really get what you want, so you just work with what you got and do the best you can. Tools for the Trades will help us with the final step of our shop renovation with all the tools and equipment the kids are going to need to be successful."
Instructors at both schools are still piecing together what the upcoming semester will look like. 20 Minneapolis North students will likely be tasked with working on the rat rod project, while around 14 or so students will be working on the Lakeville North rat rod.
"We're overjoyed with being able to be working with Richard Petty and Billy Lane. We're excited that if the students run into problems on the project, they'll have those two resources to bounce questions off," said Luther Kominski, who teaches auto body and collision at Minneapolis North. "Hopefully students will become inspired by their career paths and see that these two celebrities are willing to invest their time back into the trades and back into these students' lives. Hopefully they see themselves going into the trades in the future."
Baas, whose classes in the past have built motorcycles, says while it may be a rat rod build-off between Minneapolis North and Lakeville North, there's more of a sense of comradery than competition as each student involved stands to gain something from the project.
"It's exciting for me as a teacher," he said. "I get goosebumps because I know how excited my students are going to be when we present this in the curriculum this fall and get going on it."
Along with the hands-on learning, Lane says students are getting a real-life lesson in perseverance, listening, and paying attention.
"Especially nowadays there are so many distractions there's so many distractions and so many things pulling them away from what they might try to be focused on, this is going to be something that if they want to succeed at, they're really going to have to work hard at that."
Both Richard Petty and Billy Lane are attending the MSRA Back to the 50's Weekend Friday at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds as they make the build-off announcement.
Minneapolis North and Lakeville North will present their finished rat rods at the 2024 edition of the Back to the 50's Weekend.