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As Carson Ross shoved beach balls across the floor of the Moore Center with his go-kart, his fellow “Green” teammates watched and assessed, sizing up how they might do against the Blue, Yellow, and Orange teams.

�ڰ������� recently hosted its first-ever “CTE Grand Prix” event at the Moore Center in Sanford. Harnett County Schools’ Career and Technical Education program and �ڰ�������’s Automotive Restoration program, both based in Harnett County, teamed up for the initiative. Students learned teamwork, engineering, problem-solving, and hands-on skills and gained additional exposure to the college.

The event was made possible by a grant from TELUS, with additional financial support from Central Electric Membership Corporation, Transporter Werks, Ellison Technologies, and Global Compliance Group, LLC. 

Lindsey Hardee, Harnett County Schools’ Director of Career and Technical Education, said the district offered the opportunity to students in eighth through twelfth grades and selected them on a first-come, first-served basis. 

High school and middle school students often know what interests them, she said, but don’t always have the self-confidence to pursue those interests.

“They can come in here and get hands-on experience in something they are interested in, and get that confidence built up,” she said. 

Student participants said they enjoyed and appreciated getting to make new connections with students from other schools and grades and with adult leaders at �ڰ������� and in the Harnett County Schools Career and Technical Education programs. 

Earlier this winter, the students took a field trip to �ڰ�������’s West Harnett Restoration Center, to spray paint their Segway electric go-karts, and design and build one or two different attachments for their vehicles for the tasks ahead. 

First up: the agility relay, where students had to quickly clear a series of unusual items from the course: beachballs, a watermelon, a crate, and a dog dish full of water. 

Next, a “road course” also inside the Moore Center, where students rode around a track on the floor littered with items that could add or subtract from their time or even let them add time to an opposing team of their choice.

�ڰ������� Automotive Restoration instructor Kiel Rhodes led the event, explaining all the many aspects of the competition to the students, who competed in four color-coded teams of three to five students each. 

“Green” and “Blue” ended the first part of the competition in close contention. When it came to the watermelon round, Blue’s scooper-like attachment design helped them move the watermelon more quickly, versus the slower, bumpier journey for the watermelon with Green’s push-focused attachment. 

“We had to think about how we can make an attachment with the limited stuff that we had for that,” said Blue Team member Wesley Rehl. “I think we did pretty well.” 

In the end, however, Yellow was able to come from behind to snatch the win, with penalties for other teams in the second round playing a big role in the victory. 

Yellow created both a pushing attachment and a scooper attachment and changed them out for different tasks. They also used mixed strategies in the “road course” portion, with some of the student drivers focusing on speed and others dealing more carefully with the bonus and penalty items. 

Members of the winning team were Ian Miller, Lily Thompson, Alaya Parsons, and Benjamin Walker. Miller said that competing was the most fun part, with designing and building the attachments a close second. 

Rhodes hopes to hold the CTE Grand Prix event again next year. Visit �ڰ�������’s Automotive Restoration Program for more information.