Submitted by All Star Ford
Teams from North Thurston High School (Lacey) and the New Market Skills Center (Tumwater) will compete against eight other Washington State teams for the chance to represent the state in the national 2013 Ford/AAA Student Auto Skills Challenge this summer.
The two teams, one from each school, completed an initial online exam earlier this year that qualified them to advance to the hands-on state competition, scheduled for Tuesday, May 7, at Renton Technical College. The top team from that challenge will go on to the national competition in June in Dearborn, Mich., where it will showcase its automotive problem-solving capabilities by resolving “real-world” repair challenges in a timed, head-to-head match-up of top teams representing all 50 states.
The vehicle used in this year’s challenge is the 2013 Ford Focus SE. Each team will be provided a deliberately bugged model to repair.
* North Thurston High School team: Scott Harn and Kestin Kincaid. Team instructor is Brian Stretch.
* New Market Skill Center team: Rich Morris and Jacob Hjorten. Team instructor is Mark Emmons.
All Star Ford in Olympia is helping the teams prepare for competition by providing practice vehicles, equipment and expert advice.
“North Thurston has qualified for the state competition 19 years and qualified for Nationals five of those years,” said Brian Stretch, the North Thurston team instructor. “Many of our school’s former competitors are now technicians or instructors in the automotive repair field.”
“New Market has qualified for state five times out of five,” said Mark Emmons, the New Market Skills team instructor. “The first year we got the award for highest test scores in the state and in 2010 we earned a 2nd place at the state competition.”
The Ford/AAA Student Auto Skills Challenge is a nationwide automotive technology competition that offers nearly $12 million in scholarships and prizes to high school juniors and seniors interested in pursuing careers as automotive service technicians. More than 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.
The challenge enables many of its participants to embark on promising careers in the automotive repair industry to help fuel the rising demand for well-trained technicians who can repair both computer and mechanical components in today’s advanced vehicles.
This is the 64th year of the Ford/AAA Student Auto Skills Competition.
