Automotive technology students Ethan Walker and Christopher Colasurdo, both of Milford, entered the Greater Lehigh Valley Auto Dealers Association’s (GLVADA) annual Auto-Tech Competition for high schoolers as the only juniors; they drove away as champions.
The keys to their success: a highly focused curriculum, a knowledgeable instructor and a classroom space resembling a real-world shop – all courtesy of Hunterdon County Polytech Career & Technical High School. They also benefited from a local dealer, Fred Beans, who lent a car for them to practice on and their innate drive that pushed them to put in the extra time preparing.
Held on Feb. 12 at Northampton Community College, the GLVADA Auto-Tech Competition brought four teams together from area vocational-technical schools to compete against one another in a series of technical challenges.
“Our students were the only juniors competing against seniors, and we were the only New Jersey school,” said automotive technology instructor Chris Scheuerman.
“Even as the only juniors, we were really confident because we began the competition with brake measurement, and we do that all the time in class,” added Walker. “Doing that first took all the nerves away. It was kind of cool. We were really prepared.”
The annual competition had teams working together at four different stations to find bugs and technical deficiencies in their specific car. Areas to be examined by the student teams included engine measurement, brake measurement, basic electrical, waveform interpretation, electrical wiring repair, engine performance, information retrieval and more.
Fred Beans Toyota of Flemington lent Polytech’s automotive technology program a Toyota Corolla for Walker and Colasurdo to use in the competition and to practice on leading up to the event.
GLVADA’s auto-tech competition was split into two parts. First, the students were given 15 minutes at each station to figure out electrical system errors. Second, they had the on-car task with a designated hour and a half to complete it.
Students simply (or not so simply) had to discover every problem in their automobile and fix it.
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