NPSS Go-Kart Club placed third at 2026 Edison Motors Electric Go-Kart Challenge

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — The North Peace Secondary School’s (NPSS) Go-Kart club placed third in the summary race during the 2026 Edison Motors Electric Go-Kart Challenge. 

This year, the challenge was held in Golden, B.C., on June 6th. 

Ian Zackodnik, the school’s metal shop programming and math teacher and the club’s teacher sponsor, said the club has been part of this challenge for the last three years. 

He said: “Edison Motors started this whole go-kart competition, where they came up and said, ‘Hey, we’re going to give high school teams a kit, all the instructions and said what happens.’”

“This is kind of a great big project where they can showcase and put all those skills into one big project, show off [and] make it a little bit fun.” 

Although the club did not win any of the main events, it placed third in the teacher or summary race. 

“While they’re tallying up the score, they [got] all the teacher sponsors in their carts and they all race,” he noted. 

Zackodnik added: “For the last two years, we had issues, either mechanical or design-wise.” 

“This year, the design worked really well. We made [the kart] much wider, more sturdy and it held up to the punishment we went through [on the] course.” 

He said the club’s kart lost just one bolt in the steering rack during the entire competition. 

He explained the club was a way to get mostly non-shop kids into the shop. 

“It gave kids [who] weren’t into sports or anything else, it gave us a field trip we could do at the end of the year, which was really exciting for them and fun,” he said. 

“Most of the shop kids don’t normally get as many opportunities to leave the community, go out, explore and try these different events.” 

This year, the club built a fully functional go-kart, which was the club’s “best performing” cart over the last three years. 

When asked how being a part of this club helps students, he said: “It really gives them an idea of what manufacturing or outside of school producing [looks like].” 

“It’s not just, you make one little thing [and] it’s well, you’re fixing stuff on the fly, you’re coming up with solutions to weird and not really straightforward problems.” 

Zackodnik believes it gives students the freedom to try something new and play around with things they don’t normally get to do at home. 

Once the club fixes the kart’s axle, it will be open for teachers at the high school to try it out. 

“I know Kearney [Dr. Kearney Middle School] was trying to get their own go karts, like an [interdistrict] competition going as well, so we’ll probably partner up with them and show up over there and show off each other’s carts, which would be fun,” he said. 

The club has already purchased a kit and is ready to make a kart for next year’s competition.