Students and teacher will learn together as the shop class at Port Hardy Secondary builds their first ever stock car for racing this summer.
Teacher Kevin McGhee decided on the project car for his Grades 10 to 12 class after surveying the students.
“I wanted to do the track because more cars are needed at the track and I wanted to show the kids how easy it is to build a Busch class car,” explains McGhee. “Maybe in a year or two they will build their own car and that would help build the track back to where it was 10 years ago.”
And McGhee knows how entertaining the track could be. He grew up in Quatsino and graduated from Port Hardy Secondary about the same time the shop program at the school was discontinued. Thanks to the efforts of principal Steve Gray and the school district, the program was resurrected last year in McGhee’s leadership.
McGhee put the word out last month that the school was looking for a car to rebuild and race.
The car, a 1981 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme, was donated by John Klatt from Tysol. Many parts have been donated by Laurie O’Connor, who is “really big on racing”.
The 25 students work in two groups, with Level 1 learning basic engine skills and tools as well as how to dismantle an engine and put it back together. The older or more experienced Level 2 students learn advanced engine functions like differentials and transmissions. McGhee says Macandales donated six engines for the kids to take apart as part of the learning process.
Right now the future stock car is at the take-apart stage and students are crawling all over it with hammers, screwdrivers and wrenches.
One of two female students, Genevieve Wilson, is the foreman of the engine removal.
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