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Indiana Students Finish 12th in National Ford/AAA
Student Auto Skills Contest
Indianapolis, IN (July 1,
2008) – Indiana
student auto technicians Derek Mehringer and David
Pennington, a pair of seniors from Pike Central High School
(Petersburg, IN), recently finished 12th among 50
state-representing teams in the 59th annual
Ford/AAA Student Auto Skills national finals, which took
place June 24 in Dearborn, MI.
Even though scholarships
were only awarded to the top-10 teams at Nationals, the Pike
Central duo each received a starter tool kit (estimated
value - $400-$500), a national finalist medallion and
several other Auto Skills-related items and keepsakes,
including apparel, in recognition of their accomplishments.
Mehringer and Pennington
proved themselves worthy of being called Indiana’s best
student auto technicians and, in the process, qualified for
the national competition Apr. 25 by winning the state level
Ford/AAA Student Auto Skills contest, which took place at
the Holiday Inn Select – Airport in Indianapolis. As a
result of placing first in that competition, which featured
the top 10 teams in the state, Mehringer and Pennington each
received either full or partial scholarship offers from the
Ford Asset Program, Ohio Technical College, the University
of Northwestern Ohio, Lincoln College of Technology,
Nashville Auto-Diesel College, Universal Technical
Institute, Baran Institute of Technology and Wyo Tech.
Overall,
the national contest
provided the “best of the best” an opportunity to showcase
their knowledge and capabilities by resolving the same types
of automotive challenges that would be encountered in
real-world situations. As an incentive for students to
pursue automotive careers, Ford and AAA awarded $7 million
in scholarships at this year’s state and national
competitions—a $1 million increase over 2007.
The 50, two-person teams
that gathered June 24 on the front lawn of Ford World
Headquarters in Michigan had already triumphed over more
than 8,000 auto tech students who initially entered the
competition last fall at high schools across the country.
Following an online exam, the highest-scorers advanced to
their states’ hands-on competition, then onto Dearborn,
where the 100 finalists sat for another written exam worth
40 percent of their overall score.
The national hands-on
contest, valued at 60 percent of the competitors’ total
score, began at 9:15 a.m. with the announcement, “Start your
engines, if you can.” After racing to their assigned cars,
the competitors had 90 minutes to accurately diagnose and
correctly repair the deliberate “bugs” placed in the Ford
Focuses -- two engine performance problems, six malfunctions
in the electrical system, and a problem with the air
conditioning system.
The top-10 teams in the 2008
Ford/AAA Student Auto Skills Competition were:
1st Place – Wisconsin
2nd Place – Maryland
3rd Place – North Dakota
4th Place – Idaho
5th Place – Hawaii
6th Place – Missouri
7th Place – Pennsylvania
8th Place – Oregon
9th Place – Ohio
10th Place – Iowa
AAA
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