Student Techs Compete for National Honors

Motor,  Aug 2004  by Nash, Tom

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The nation's top high school automotive technology students met at Ford's Dearborn, Michigan, headquarters in late June to vie for national honors in the 2004 Ford/AAA Student Auto Skills competition. At stake was more than $5 million in prizes and scholarships. The annual event is cosponsored by The Ford Motor Company and The Automobile Association of America (AAA) to encourage students to continue their education and pursue careers in the automotive field.

"Millions of vehicle owners depend on well-trained auto technicians to care for the maintenance and repair needs of their cars," said John Nielsen, director of AAA's Approved Auto Repair program. "Cosponsoring the Auto Skills contest is one way AAA continues to make sure consumers can have complete confidence they and their vehicles will be properly cared for when visiting an AAA-inspected and approved repair facility."

"Careers in automotive service have never been more attractive than they are now," said Steve DeAngelis, Manager of Ford's Technical Support Operations. "Ford and its dealer network are offering these contestants and other young people unparalleled opportunities to become trained for a career in a high-tech, well-compensated field."

This year, more than 6000 high school juniors and seniors enrolled in automotive technology programs took part in local and statewide contests to determine the team that would represent their state at the national event. State winners are determined by a combination of written exam, plus diagnosis and repair of a purposely "bugged" Ford vehicle. The 50 states sent their whining two-person teams to square off in the final competition.

With a starting call of "Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines, if you can," each two-person team raced to the Ford Escape with the same deliberately installed mechanical problems. Once the hood was popped, they had 90 minutes to diagnose and fix any number of "bugs" in the starting, charging, ignition, cooling, electrical, lighting, braking, climate control and powertrain systems.

Aspiring auto technicians Garrett Johnson and Jacob Tilley of Cy Fair High School in Cypress, Texas, needed only 39 minutes, 37 seconds to repair their vehicle and drive it across the finish line. The pair, who spent months preparing for the competition with their instructor, Donald Kessler, took home nearly $94,000 in scholarships and prizes.

Second place went to Drew Friede and Kyle Miller of Rolla Technical Institute in Rolla, Missouri. Don Lew-is and Matt Huston of Capital High School in Helena, Montana, took third place.

Copyright Hearst Business Publishing Aug 2004
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