“I used to race go-karts. I ran methanol “
hmmmm. So methanol made you go faster?
It was what the class ran. It was called the STAR class. Stood for STAbilized Racing. It started with a 10-HP Tecumseh motor and it was set up to run methanol. Yes, I do think methanol in that particular engine was faster than gasoline, but it was more expensive, and it took more maintenance than gasoline at the time.
But, we also had kids classes running gasoline, and several two-stroke classes, some with transmissions (like regular motorcycle engines with built-in transmissions) and one class that ran a screaming banshee of a two-stroke that was a direct drive with no transmission. I can't remember if they had clutches, but I'm guessing they did. This was 20 years ago, and I'm certain classes have changed.