(Morrisville, NY – May 2015) The best and brightest eleventh- and twelfth-grade student automotive technicians from across the state will race against the clock to correctly identify and fix vehicles that have been “bugged” on purpose.
When it is all said and done, one team will drive away the winner of the FORD/AAA Student Auto Skills Competition being held at Morrisville State on May 8.
The 10 competing teams, from vocational schools across New York State, will face off in the parking lot of the Automotive Technology Building from 10 to11:30 a.m. Teams earned a spot in the competition by scoring highest on a qualifying exam.
In the hands-on competition, students in teams of two will be diagnosing and repairing identical new Ford Motor Company vehicles (2015 Ford Fiestas) which have been uniformly “bugged” so that each team has identical malfunctions to diagnose and repair. The competition requires repairs to be made with the highest quality workmanship in the shortest total time.
After properly diagnosing and repairing the vehicle, teammates must drive across the finish line where their accuracy and workmanship will be judged by Morrisville State automotive faculty and staff.
The winning two-person team and their instructor will advance to the national finals in Michigan, June 7-9 for the chance to compete for additional scholarship dollars and the opportunity to kick-start their automotive careers. At the national competition, each member of the 50 state teams will take a written exam. Errors on the written exams are converted into time demerits that are added to the team’s time for the “hands-on” mechanical competition in both the state and national competitions.
The names of the contestants are submitted to AAA affiliated service facilities, Ford Motor Company dealers, and many other sponsoring organizations in need of automotive technicians and service specialists.
The competition is cosponsored by AAA and Ford Motor Company.