Northern Tool + Equipment has wrapped the third installment of its Build Series, a program designed to promote careers in the skilled trades by giving high school students hands-on experience with complex mechanical projects. This year, 15 students from Laverne High School in Oklahoma took on a significant challenge: converting a 2025 Harley-Davidson Nightster motorcycle into a flat-track racing bike. The work involved modifying the tires, brakes, controls, and suspension to meet racing specifications.
The completed bike didn’t just sit in a shop.
Racing legend Chris Carr, a seven-time winner of the A.M.A. Grand National Championship, rode it in a celebratory lap on June 6th during the opening ceremonies of the American Flat Track Sons of Speed National Short Track race in Hohenwald, Tennessee. For the students, seeing their work race around a real track was the payoff.
Building Skills with Racing Royalty
Northern Tool + Equipment, a retailer and distributor with more than 120 locations across 20 states, launched the Build Series in 2024 with a group of Minnesota students who built rat rod go-karts.
The second installment took place in Texas, where students built a one-third-scale Monster Jam truck. This third project marks the first time the program has focused on a motorcycle conversion.
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To drive interest, the company brought in big names from the racing world.
Chris Carr served as a mentor, sharing his decades of experience. “I don’t really like calling myself a legend—I’m just a guy who grew up racing motorcycles,” Carr said. “I brought my experience from more than 50 years in motorcycle racing to help the students on the details of flat track motorcycles.”
That meant working on ergonomics—where to place hand controls, foot controls, and the seat—and overcoming challenges presented by the bike’s large engine.
Stock car racer Kyle Petty, son of the late Richard Petty, also lent a hand.
“My dad had done a couple of these projects before, and when Northern Tool reached out about this one being a motorcycle build, I was immediately interested,” Petty said.
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He noted the transformation he saw in the students over the course of the project. “Their confidence today is completely different from where it was when they started. You can see it in their faces and in the way they carry themselves.”
Petty emphasized that the skills being taught remain relevant even as technology advances.
“In racing, people talk all the time about technology and artificial intelligence,” he said, “but race cars are still built by hand. You still use tools. You still get underneath them and work on them.”
Frank Crowson, Chief Commercial Officer at Northern Tool + Equipment, said the program was created with a specific goal.
“We created the Build Series platform with a very intentional goal of getting more young people excited about future careers in the skilled trades,” Crowson said. “Our customers are tradespeople, so it’s important for us to help build and grow the future community of professional tradespeople.”
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