Small engines roared and riding lawn mowers sped down the driveway Tuesday outside the Lawrence High School auto mechanics shop.

With the school year drawing to a close, the shop students were putting their mechanical skills to the test.

“We put a bungee cord on the governor so we could give it more gas,” sophomore Matthew Howell said after his team put its modified mower through its paces.

Team members said they thought they had a good chance to walk away with one of the trophies sitting on a nearby table.

The teams spent three weeks preparing their mowers for the contests, which included short drag races and tractor pulls.

“We pulled eight or 10 guys 56 inches,” Howell bragged.

Junior Theresa Little had a hard time bringing her team’s machine to a stop at the end of one drag race.

“I’m not used to the brakes,” she said.

Students got their mowers “anywhere they wanted,” instructor Luke Lang said. The contests were an end-of-the-year exercise in fun and learning, he said.

Atop souped-up lawn mowers, Lawrence High School sophomore Devon Griffin, foreground, outmaneuvers junior Theresa Little during a 10-lap race around the ball field south of the school. Although Griffin kept one hand on a rope for his throttle, he won the race Tuesday at LHS, 1901 La. Students had the competition to celebrate the last week of school.

“I pretty much turned them loose to do what they wanted,” said Lang, who teaches power mechanics.

Sophomore Joshua Hearn and his teammates worked in the shop fine-tuning and making last-minute adjustments before taking their mower back out for another run.

“We basically just cleaned it up a little,” Hearn said of his team’s lawn tractor to which members had added extreme exhaust pipes. They also fixed the carburetor and installed a new starter.

Lang watched as another team scrambled to fix the ailing engine on another mower.

“That’s what I like about this: You have to think on your feet,” he said.