tractor racing

[Malibu Nick]

A few years ago my boss asked me to get some the shop kids at our school active in homecoming. I started our annual lawn tractor drag races. Its now the most popular event at our high school during homecoming week. Once a year my auto shop is full of farm engineered machines with serious power. Here are some pics and a link to a great video shot by one of my coworkers. There is hope for some of these kids.
http://youtu.be/jCVqGEZQ5KA

 

[Malibu Nick]

The little montgomery ward is the reigning champ!

 

[oldproudvet]

Thanks for posting Nick, you're right those kids are awesome! I taught the same program from the 70s until just recently and nothing can top teens when you can trick them into learning......My school also was in a rural area and the shop had more ag projects then automotive at times, but fun. Our most interesting project the last years I taught was the cooking oil to diesel fuel process. A local shop loaned us a pto dyno unit and a 50 hp White for the first year. 2 things intriqued the kids, first the cooking oil made more hp and then the fact it is kinda illegal 'cuz you're not paying taxes on it. Thanks for sharing, great memories. As an aside, I first met Dave Erb (former Old Abe News editor) at Le Seur MN years ago at a National meet. We spent a couple of days, not talking of Case stuff, but laughing at the similarites of kids all over. He was teaching an automotive program in a economically disadvantaged area in southern Ohio as I recall. During the first energy crisis of the 70s, we had a dozen ol fence row pick ups drug in for experimenting with wood to methane conversion.....

 

[Malibu Nick]

Wow, We must all be cut from the same cloth. I'm experimenting with my classes right now with waste motor oil as fuel. On a little perkins 4 cylinder in the stand. This is my 9th year teaching and I realize every year that I'm going to have to find something new and fun or get left in the dust. We still rebuild and run a fleet of small block chevys on engine stands, work on a drag car and do valve jobs and such on old tractors but the industry is calling for tech's who can read a DVOM a Scope and diagnose using good scan tools. I only get about 2 or 3 a year that care about what an electron does other than make their cell phone work. The electrical savvy kids are mostly going to four year schools to become engineers, not make entry level mechanic's wages. Our local shops are having a hell of a time finding young kids who want to learn enough to fill the turnover gap. Glad to hear that kids are the same everywhere. Thanks for the post, I'm always interested in the opinions of those with more experience than me!