Race car driving helps Warner High School students learn life skills

Warner High School has a program to help kids learn outside the classroom by building, maintaining, and marketing race cars.

School leaders say the Warner Race Team is the first of its kind in the state, and they’re hoping to inspire other schools to make one too.

Some students at Warner High School spend part of their school day here, working on the school’s race car team.

"I just thought it was really interesting, so I asked my counselor if I could be in it,” said Roman Carter, a Senior at Warner High School. “From there, I fell in love with racing. It's something I definitely want to do after high school."

Carter has been part of the program since he was a Sophomore.

He and his teammates make sure the cars are up to speed.

"Maintain the car, do body work,” said Carter. “We'll swap the engines. If one goes flat, we have an extra one. We'll work on the brakes. We'll change the rear and change the gears and stuff.”

One of the things that makes this racing program so unique is that the cars are driven by both the racing instructor and the Superintendent, and they compete against professional drivers and their teams.

The team has two trophies that they proudly display.

"Not very many places you go get to teach a class of race cars,” said Luke Leatherman, the Racing Instructor and Program Director. “So it's kind of a combining of two different passions."

Leatherman is in his first year as the instructor and says this is his dream job.

"I think the coolest part about this program is education can be done in so many different ways,” said Leatherman.

His goal is to teach the kids on and off the track skills they can use in their next chapter.

"They're learning math,” said Leatherman. “They're learning science. They're learning geometry. They're learning business and accounting. They're learning real-life skills. That's what I think the coolest part about this program is, they're getting education while developing a passion for something."

The program has been growing each year, with nearly fifty kids signing up this year.

The hope is for other schools to create a team, too, so the students can one day get behind the wheel.

Right now, the students do not race because of liability concerns.

"It's created a lot of real-life, real-world experience for me,” said Carter. “There's a whole bunch of new kids in here, and we're expanding, and a lot of kids are learning, and it's awesome."

To follow along with the Warner Racing Team, you can find them on Facebook or their website.