Seven two-person teams from around the state gather in Sioux Falls for the South Dakota State Finals Auto Skills Competition. A written test brought the contestants to this point of the contest, making each duo a winner already. The teams are vying for a wide range of prizes, including a chance to compete at the national auto skills competition in Michigan.
"Maybe take out a fuze, take a 9 or 10 out and put it in there." "The very bottom one?" "The very bottom left one, it's a 10," Michael Geidel and Nate Wahlen discuss.
They are trying to fix a 2014 Ford Focus.
The contestants in this contest take on the role of auto mechanics. The pairs hail from Brookings, Mitchell, Sioux Falls, Vermillion and Yankton.
Marilyn Buskohl is the Director of Administration for AAA in South Dakota. AAA is one of the main sponsors of the contest.
"These schools come and compete at Southeast Tech. The cars are bugged with twelve different bugs basically and the students have 90 minutes to try and un-bug the cars and get them running," Buskohl says.
The goal is to repair the car as accurately and as efficiently as possible.
"The students or the team that does that the quickest, and is able to close their hood and get the car running, they're the winners," Buskohl says.
Competitors are up against a 90-minute clock. But it’s a two day experience.
Mark Moral is the Computation Coordinator.
"When they come, the kids get treated royally. They got a free dinner last night, they get a free breakfast this morning, they get a free lunch this afternoon. Plus, they get the chance to go to Detroit for the Nationals," Moral says.
Just one team from each state qualifies for the national competition.
Ben Kozak is a judge at this year's state-wide contest. He competed at nationals, and he says the experience was life changing. Kozak says being a judge is completely different then competing.
"I guess I kind of wanted to see how students handled the situation because I didn't get to see what other kids were doing when I was competing, I know I was nervous. It's just cool. We went to nationals, I figured I owed it back to the program to do it again, just judge," Kozak says.
Students have raced to fix the cars in this contest at Southeast Tech in Sioux Falls for thirty years.
Patrick Amor is the Automotive Instructor for this year’s event. He says every contestant walks out with some sort of reward.
"They're looking at some great scholarships. Even at this level, Ford will have asset program scholarships to the first place winners that's typically a free ride to that two year program. At Southeast here, we're offering scholarship money too to get them into post-secondary (programs) and I think when you get to the national level, it just gets bigger and bigger from there on out," Amor says.
Amor says some contestants receive professional tools and other high quality instruments used in the automotive field. He says he hopes the competition sparks interest in automotive careers.
"What we're looking at from a technical level, is getting kids interested in the automotive field. So, that's our big push and with Ford and AAA being sponsors into it, we want to see these guys get into the field and hopefully this sparks some interest in it," Amor says.
After an hour and a half, no team manages to back the car out of the garage to the finish line. So judges go back to the written exams to declare a winning team.
Malik Leacraft and Michael Kramer-Hermanson of the Sioux Falls Career and Technical Education Academy are going to nationals. Kramer-Hermanson says he plans to prepare for the nationals immediately.
"Gotta prep for it, gotta work, gotta do my history, look up some stuff, make sure I'm doing it all right. Try to find out some information and stuff, I'm looking forward to it," Kramer-Hermanson says.
Kramer-Hermanson says he wants to be the national champion. Even if that doesn't happen, he says it's an experience he'll take with him throughout his automotive career.
FULL CONTEST RESULTS
1st Place - Malik Leacraft and Michael Kramer-Hermanson of Sioux Falls
2nd Place - Nathan Braun and Ian Greer of Brookings
3rd Place - Weston Moysis and Brandon Pavel of Yankton
4th Place - Alex Osborne and Josh Manning of Vermillion
5th Place - Blake Swensen and Steven Tacke of Yankton
6th Place - Enrigue San MIguel and Nathanael Jensen of Sioux Falls
7th Place - Michael Geidel and Nate Wahlen of Mitchell.
