When most people think of go-karts, the image of an amusement park often comes to mind… racing with your friends and families down a circle track, hoping you’re going fast enough to win first place.
But for the students from Vanier Collegiate that are taking part in the Vanier Velocity team, go-karts are a source of knowledge and excitement.
Fifteen of Vanier Collegiate’s students from grades 9 to 12 have created a new go-kart building and racing team named Vanier Velocity.
Vanier Velocity is sponsored by Moose Jaw Ford and the team is being aided by Moose Jaw Ford’s technicians. The reason behind this sponsorship is to give back to the community and give students with an interest in mechanics an opportunity to learn from professionals in the field.
"I enjoy it. I enjoy passing on my knowledge to the kids and answering questions they may have about vehicles. Just making it more known that if you want to get into the trade this is some of the stuff you can expect to do," Said Derick Adam, one of the Moose Jaw Ford technicians about working with the students.
With the help of the technicians, the students have been taking gas-powered go-karts and installing electric motors in them with a battery pack to make them fully electric. The change to electric is to provide knowledge and experience to the students. With the future slowly replacing gas-powered cars in favor of electric cars, it made more sense to teach them about electric vehicles. The students also drew and colored the designs for the shells of the go-karts, then the technicians painted the shells over the course of 3 months.
"It's a lot of fun, but it's definitely a learning curve. Stripping them down and getting to see the gas engine and see how it runs was really cool, and then getting to see the new technologies that are even used in a real car, it was really neat to see that," Grace Waldenberger, a member of Vanier Velocity said, regarding the installation of the electric motors.
All the work that Vanier Velocity is putting into the go-karts is for a competition on June 18th at the Town N’ Country Mall. The competition is going to be between Vanier Velocity and other Moose Jaw schools’ go-kart teams. The other schools partnered with different dealerships to aid them in building their go-karts. The races will be going on all day so go on and enjoy the races.
