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Student Auto Skills contest

AUTOMOTIVE—Over the weekend of May 16–17, the Ford Motor Company and AAA Colorado will sponsor the annual Student Auto Skills competition. The annual event is open to 11th and 12th grade students enrolled in a high school automotive technology course and aims to encourage talented young people to pursue careers as automotive service technicians.

This year more than 100 Colorado students took the preliminary written exam. The 20 top scorers were selected to represent their schools at the hands-on competition in May.

Ten teams of two students each will attempt to diagnose and repair a deliberately "bugged" new Ford vehicle. Each team's vehicle will have identical faults. Scores are based on how long it takes a team to repair their vehicle, and on a final judging by a panel of industry representatives who will check that the repairs were done correctly and professionally. The event is very challenging—more than one team has been disappointed in previous years after getting their vehicle repaired first, but then losing points for one reason or another in the final judging.

This year's event will again be held at the NAPA Distribution Center located at 2101 Highway 224 in Denver. The winning team will go on to the national competition in June at the Ford Motor Company headquarters in Michigan.