Garden Valley Collegiate’s automotive technology students came home from the Full Throttle Challenge earlier this month with the second-place trophy in tow.
The program tasked the teens with building and modifying a Drift Hero go-kart kit provided by Princess Auto.
“The first day we walked in there, we all saw the dune buggy and you could hear all the guys say, ‘Let’s put a turbo on it,’” shared class spokesperson Selena Friesen, Gr. 11.
Working with a limited budget, the students had to give serious to consideration to the improvements they wanted to include.
“We could add a modification, but it had to have a reason behind it,” Friesen said. “You have to really think, should we actually be doing this?”
“It was student-led,” said instructor Zane Strydom of the modifications. “They wanted to add more lights, they wanted to do the turbo—they were big on that.”
“And there were a bunch of suggestions that they had which were outrageous,” added fellow instructor Robin Mondor, noting a flamethrower was one idea thrown out there, but it didn’t fit with the safety focus of the competition.
They eventually supplemented the basic kit with a windshield, additional lights, and fenders, all designed to increase the safety of the vehicle.
“It was a great project to work through all the way through,” Friesen said. “There were obviously problems that we had to solve, but that just made it even better. You felt so accomplished after it was done.”
On June 5, GVC’s entry went up against six other schools from across southern Manitoba. They were beat out for first place by Lord Selkirk School by just .25 points.
“They had a full trailer attached, which was bigger than their cart,” noted Mondor. “That might have been the difference. If they didn’t have that, we probably would have taken first place.”
“If I had known that a trailer and a hitch would be the thing we needed, I would have spent all night working on it,” said Friesen. “But just to be able to even get second place was amazing”
A competition like this really serves to motivate the students and kept them engaged in the project throughout the school year, observed Strydom.
“Everyone is competitive, everyone wants to win,” he said.
The second-place finish came with $3,000 in Princess Auto gift cards, which the shop class will use on new tools.
End of an era
The win was a great way for Mondor to wrap up not just the school year but also his career as a full-time teacher.
He is retiring after 22 years in the automotive department at GVC. He and his wife are bound for their next chapter in Nova Scotia.
“I’m going to work on cars and do some woodworking and be my own boss,” Mondor shared.
Looking back, he said he’s proud of all the students who came through the auto shop program and have gone on to find success in a myriad of different careers in the community.
“They’re owning their own businesses in carpentry, plumbing, electrical, whatever—students who came through here to learn hands-on skills that are transferrable to anything they want to do.”
The past two decades have seen changes in student numbers, curriculum requirements, and, of course, the technology they’re working with and on. Mondor will miss it all, but he knows he’s leaving the program in a good place.
“I knew this day was coming … but I’m leaving this program knowing it’s going to still thrive,” he said. “I put a lot of work into getting this program to where it is, and there’s been a few teachers who have helped along the way. It’s good to be able to hand it over to the next guy [Strydom], knowing that Zane’s competent enough to push it to the next level.”
Strydom was actually one of the first students in the program when it became part of the Red River Technical Vocational Area, Mondor noted, so it’s truly come full circle.
