DEARBORN, Mich., PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Racing against the clock and 49 other two-person teams from high schools in every state, aspiring auto technicians Austin Castro and Daniel Lehmkuhl, 2007 graduates of San Luis Obispo High School, San Luis Obispo, California, accurately diagnosed the problems and repaired their Ford Fusion in only 49 minutes and six seconds to win the 2007 FORD/AAA STUDENT AUTO SKILLS national finals at Ford World Headquarters this morning.
Months of preparation with their instructor, Jeff Lehmkuhl, Daniel's father, paid off for the pair, as they took home thousands of dollars in prizes and scholarships to a number of the nation's top auto technology colleges. In an effort to encourage students to pursue automotive careers, Ford and AAA handed out a total of more than $6 million in prizes to competition participants.
"Daniel and Austin today proved to be the best of the best high school automotive technicians in the United States," said Allan Stanley, manager of Ford/AAA Student Auto Skills. "These auto-savvy teens typify the determination and work ethic of all 100 finalists. It's essential to the motoring public that the automotive industry attract such driven and dedicated young men and women to keep America's vehicles operating safely and trouble free."
Alex Dobroy and Zachary Hastings, seniors at Saline High School in Saline, Michigan, captured second place in today's competition. Third place went to Eric Hess and Christopher Wu of Doherty High School in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Teams that finished second through 10th in the Ford/AAA contest received general education scholarships valued from $2,000 to $400 from Ford Motor Co. and AAA in addition to full and partial scholarships to some of the top colleges and universities offering automotive programs.
The 100 students who competed in the national finals earned their way to Dearborn from a total of more than 7,500 high school students who enrolled in the competition last fall.
After winning their state championships in April and May, the finalists faced a two-part test for the title of America's savviest auto techs. Following a written exam counting towards 40 percent of their overall score, all 50 two-person teams -- one per state -- gathered this morning on the front lawn of Ford World Headquarters for the timed, hands-on portion, worth 60 percent of their total score.
At 9:15 a.m., after the announcer encouraged them to "Start your engines, if you can," the teams raced to 50 Ford Fusions deliberately "bugged" with identical mechanical problems. They had 90 minutes to diagnose and repair the problems in the starting, charging, ignition, electrical, lighting, braking, climate control and/or power train systems. The California team drove their car across the finish line and were announced as the winners after judges determined they had removed all the bugs.
"Professionally trained auto technicians maintain and repair the vehicles of millions of drivers every year," said John Nielsen, director of the AAA Approved Auto Repair program. "AAA has been co-sponsoring this Auto Skills contest annually since 1984 to provide motorists with the confidence that their vehicles will be properly serviced at all AAA-inspected and approved repair facilities."
Darryl Hazel, senior vice president of Ford Motor Company and president, Ford Customer Service Division, said, "Ford and its dealer network offer these contestants and other talented young people unparalleled opportunities to train for a high-tech career with excellent salaries and great benefits, such as insurance coverage, paid vacations, and retirement savings programs.
"Co-sponsoring the Auto Skills competition enables us to continue to attract the best young technicians to Ford's professional technician training programs and to careers in our dealer network," Hazel said.
For the seventh year in a row, 11 Ford-certified Master Technicians competed in the Ford Ultimate Master Technician Challenge, a similar hands-on contest adjacent to the students, to win $350,000 in cash and prizes.
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