Top high school automotive technicians will challenge their technical skills and stretch their innovative minds at the Washington Ford/AAA Student Auto Skills State competition on Tuesday, April 28. Twenty high school students from across Washington, including two students from Bellevue High School, will compete for thousands of dollars’ worth of scholarships and a chance to advance to the National Finals. The state competition will be held at Renton Technical College, 3000 NE Fourth Ave., Automotive Quad (building K), from 10:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday, April 28. Awards ceremony directly following.
The Ford/AAA Student Auto Skills competition is targeted to support students looking to jumpstart a career as an automotive service technician. A total of 21 schools and 364 students took the online exam in Washington state this year. Of those, only 20 students qualified to advance to the state finals, representing the top five percent of all students who took the test. On a national scale, a total of 13,753 students registered for the online state qualifying exam.
Each two-student team in the State Finals will compete against each other and the clock to diagnose and repair a deliberately “bugged” 2015 Ford Fiesta SE vehicle. Top ranked schools that qualified to compete in this year’s Washington state finals include:
- Bellevue High School – Pete Mccue, Automotive Instructor
- Clark County Skills Center – Justin Flick, Automotive Instructor
- Decatur High School – Tim Kelly, Automotive Instructor
- Kentridge High School – George Sichting, Automotive Instructor
- Marysville-Pilchuck High School – Chuck Nichols, Automotive Instructor
- New Market Vocational Skills Center – Mark Emmons, Automotive Instructor
- North Thurston High School – Brian Stretch, Automotive Instructor
- Puyallup Senior High School – Larry Turner, Automotive Instructor
- Sno-Isle Technology Skills Center – Gary Holboy, Automotive Instructor
- Tri-Tech Skills Center – Larry Brookes, Automotive Instructor
Qualifying teams were selected based on their scores in the online exam which tests overall automotive knowledge. The team with the highest combined score from the hands-on competition and written exam will win the state competition.
The winning two-student team will advance to represent Washington state at the national finals at Ford World Headquarters in Dearborn, Mich., June 7-9, 2015. At the national finals, champions from each state will vie for millions of dollars in scholarships, automotive equipment and a trip to the Wood Brothers Racing facility where the students and instructor will work on race cars and learn from top automotive engineers.
Both the national and the state-wide competitions have been organized with the support of AAA and Ford personnel, local automotive instructors and the AAA Approved Auto Repair program, a free public service AAA performs to identify quality repair facilities throughout the country. For additional details on 2015 State Hands-On Competition locations and dates, visit AutoSkills.AAA.com.
About Ford/AAA Student Auto Skills
The Ford/AAA Student Auto Skills is a nationwide automotive technology competition that offers millions of dollars in scholarships and prizes to high school juniors and seniors interested in pursuing careers as automotive service technicians. Nearly 13,000 students from across the U.S. compete for the chance to represent their school and state in the National Finals. The competition tests students’ automotive knowledge, workmanship and problem-solving abilities. For additional information on the competition, visithttp://autoskills.aaa.com/