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 WINSTON-SALEM -- The go-kart competition had a little something for every contestant: hands-on learning, peer recognition and camaraderie, and an opportunity to race a motor vehicle on school grounds without ending up in the principal’s office.  

But what organizer Kai Ehnes wanted most out of the event was for high school students to discover their role in the creation of a sustainable society.  

Twelve teams of students from four Winston-Salem high schools competed in an alternative-fueled go-kart competition at Career Center High School on Wednesday. Ehnes and other teachers at the school organized it to motivate students to pursue careers or hobbies in alternative energy.  

“We needed to do it in a way that would be tangible for them,” said Sean Bennett, a biology teacher at the career center. “Go-karts are tangible for kids.” 

Students spent several weeks designing and building their vehicles, choosing electric motors and batteries, ethanol, methanol and biodiesel as fuels. Then they tested their creations on the track, swerving around tire markers to the cheers -- and gasps -- of spectators.  

“I ain’t got any brakes!” one driver yelled before crashing into a crowd of people.  (No one was injured.)

One team of students and teachers constructed their electric go-kart with bamboo, plywood and epoxy. The cart suffered from a loose chain and squeaked on the race track. 

“We just wanted something that was lightweight and fit in with the green theme,” said Phillip Smith, a senior at the Career Center. “What’s greener than a bamboo car?” 

Senior Logan Maxwell and four other members of an alternative fuels club at the Career Center outfitted a biodiesel-fueled go-kart. Maxwell, who plans to study solar technologies at N.C. State, also built a solar-powered toy car and hydroelectric generator for his senior project.  

Maxwell said he believes youth have inherited the responsibility of transforming how America powers itself.  

“We’ve almost been set up by a society that favors fossil fuels over all of the alternative, cleaner fuels,” said Maxwell, who attends the Career Center. “So we sort of have a weight on our shoulders.” 

Yet, Maxwell and other young people can access a growing support network of entrepreneurs, advocates and researchers. Abdou Lachgar, a chemistry professor at Wake Forest University, attended the competition to explain biofuels production with passersby.  

Lachgar said a university research team hopes to create a chemical catalyst that produces fuel out of cheap feed stocks that people don’t eat, such as beef tallow and brown grease. 

“We still have a way to go to make it inexpensive and recyclable,” Lachgar said. “We can use it once and then we have to regenerate it.” 

Lachgar added: “To solve these problems young people are the ‘must have.’ We need their creativity, their originality.” 

Students not headed for college also gained something from the event. A four-student team representing Carter Vocational High School helped assemble and paint a sleek blue go-kart modified to run on methanol. Their vehicle achieved one of the fastest times of the competition. 

Teacher Scott Farmer said the event enabled his students with disabilities to mingle with their peers in the general population.  

“None of our students will go to college,” Farmer said. “The way I make it relevant to them is for them to learn good use of simple hand tools. They also get to learn team work.”