FOUNTAIN VALLEY, Calif. - On January 23rd, 2010, the Orange County Automotive Dealers Association (OCADA) will host its 17th annual automotive technology competition. This exciting event will be held at the Hyundai Motor America headquarters in Fountain Valley. Twelve high school seniors will represent the best-of-the-best in the OCADA Automotive Technology Competition with the winners receiving college scholarships to several local community and national technical colleges.
Brian Haggerty, WyoTech Field Service Admissions Representative for the Orange County region, has been actively involved with the event for the past nine years.
"This competition connects WyoTech to the industry and validates our school to students who want to build a solid career in the auto mechanics field," said Haggerty.
This year, WyoTech donated branded fender covers, hats, T-Shirts, and safety glasses for the participants of the competition. WyoTech is one of the leading providers of vocational and career training in the field of automotive technology at its spacious facilities, which include many of the modern tools and diagnostic equipment found in a real-world job environment.
“OCADA is very proud to sponsor and organize this event that highlights the incredible talents of these students and brings awareness to the excellent opportunities in the automotive technology field,” said John Sackrison Executive Director of the Orange County Automobile Dealers Association (OCADA), in a news release. “We are excited that once again we will be awarding each participating student college scholarships to further their automotive technology studies.”
The competition began in early October 2009 with a 100-question written exam for 71 seniors from 12 participating Orange County high schools. The six highest-scoring, two-person teams advanced to the hands-on competition and have been paired with a local Orange County new vehicle dealership to train for the January 23rd competition. While preparing for this competition the students work closely with the sponsoring dealerships allowing them to take this career for a test drive.
Each dealer and dealer technician will invest a great deal of time training and preparing these students for the competition and provide a car that the students will “debug” during the event. The Saturday event represents the culmination of long training sessions with the vehicles and gives students an opportunity to showcase their problem solving and technical skills.
For the competition, each team will be given 90 minutes to detect and repair vehicle “bugs,” with each correctly restored malfunction earning points. The winning team will be sponsored by OCADA to compete in the National Automotive Technology Competition held in New York City in April.
The sponsoring dealerships include:
- Allen Hyundai, Laguna Niguel – San Clemente High School
- Guaranty Chevrolet, Santa Ana – Savanna High School
- Hardin Honda, Anaheim, - Buena Park High School
- Mullahey Chevrolet Kia, Fullerton – Sunny Hills High School
- Park Place Lexus, Mission Viejo – Mission Viejo High School
- Toyota of Orange, Orange – Loara High School
The competitors and their instructors are:
- Buena Park – Students Kyle Barrick and Eduardo Flores - Instructor James Williamson
- Loara – Students Ben Hicks and Jonathan Greenhalgh- Instructor Russell Bacarella
- Mission Viejo – Students Evan Cortes and Mark Azeltine - Instructor Ken Welch
- San Clemente – Students Daniel Lussier and Oliver Poei - Instructor Josh Wish
- Savanna – Students Ryan McLaughlin and Justin Ames – Instructor Mike Russell
- Sunny Hills – Students Cesar Padilla and Colin Lamontagne - Instructor Charlie Zepeda
For more information about the contest, contact OCADA at 1-949-428-5050.
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