States Finals 2013

State Finals 2013

Teams from Iredell-Statesville Schools Automotive Technology Program finished first, second, fourth and fifth in the 2013 Ford/AAA Auto Skills Competition recently held at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The winning team will advance to the National Finals in Dearborn, Michigan June 9-12, 2013. The Ford/AAA Auto Skills Competition is the nation's oldest and most prestigious high school auto skills competition. Teams are judged on a written test score, quality of repair, speed of repair, and workmanship. Quality of repair and workmanship are the most important judging criteria.

The competition pitted the top ten teams from both North and South Carolina in a race against the clock to properly repair identically "bugged" 2013 Ford Fusions. The finalists earned their trip to the "hands on" competition by being one of the top ten scoring teams on a written test from high school's automotive programs in their state.

The winning team was Dylan Gido, a senior at Lake Norman High School, Grant Daubenmire, a senior at West Iredell High School and Instructor Ashley Pope. This team was the first to finish their repairs, had a perfectly repaired vehicle, no workmanship demerits and scored the highest on the written test to sweep the competition. The students from this team won a total of $46,000 in scholarship offers as well as other prizes. This team will travel to Dearborn, Michigan in June to compete in the National Competition with the chance to win thousands of dollars in additional scholarships and prizes.

The second place team, with instructor Rusty Parker, included Nick Marlow, a senior at North Iredell High School and Bryan Sanchez, a senior at Statesville High School. This second place team won a total of $28,000 in scholarship offers as well as other prizes. Nick and Bryan also had a perfectly repaired vehicle with no workmanship demerits.

The fourth place team of Andrew Bocker and Colby McElveen, both seniors at Lake Norman High School, won $4,000 in scholarship offers. Dwayne Troutman was the team's instructor.

The fifth place team of Kyle Degenhart and Nick Mauro, both seniors at Lake Norman High School, also won $4,000 in scholarship offers. Preston Frye was the team's instructor.

The Automotive Technology Program is housed at Iredell-Statesville Schools Career Academy and Technical School in Troutman, North Carolina. The Career Academy serves students from all five of the county's high schools. The Iredell County Automotive Programs have won twenty Auto Skills State Championships in the last twenty-two years. According to the program's competition director, Dwayne Troutman, students from the program have won over three million dollars in scholarship offers and thousands of dollars in prizes since the county's automotive programs merged in 1996.

Ford AAA Scholarships

1st Dylan Gido

Universal Technical Institute $10,000
Ohio Technical Institute $10,000
Ford Asset/Fact $3,000

1st Grant Daubenmire

Universal Technical Institute $10,000

Ohio Technical Institute $10,000

Ford Asset/Fact $3,000

2nd Nick Marlowe

Universal Technical Institute $5,000

Ohio Technical Institute $7,5000

Ford Asset/Fact $1,500

2nd Bryan Sanchez