Wow – impressive. Really impressive.
This phrase comes to mind over and over again after learning that Oxford High School 2004 graduates Nathan Lamothe and Devon Hickmott lost the Ford/AAA National Student Auto Skills Competition because they were just too good.
The Auto Skills Competition was held June 28-29 for the first time at Ford World Headquarters in Dearborn. Lamothe and Hickmott represented Michigan against 49 other teams, one from each state, after winning the Michigan title. At the competition, teams were required to complete a written test and a hands-on, timed ‘debugging? of a 2005 Ford Escape.
At the competition, Lamothe and Hickmott finished 16th, but not because there were 15 teams better than them. The OHS team simply completed more repairs than any of the others.
‘It was a pretty tough day,? explained Lamothe. ‘There was a factory defect with our car that wasn’t suppose to be there. It took us about an hour to figure that problem out and then repair it.?
Lamothe and Hickmott had examined their contest vehicle the day before and found nothing wrong. The day of the hands-on portion, the team took about 25 minutes to complete the six different ‘bugs? on the vehicle, but while working, they found a short in the wiring harness that kept blowing out fuses. The Oxford graduates spent most of the next hour repairing the problem.
‘We kept seeing all these other teams finishing and we couldn’t figure it out,? said Lamothe. ‘The judges couldn’t figure it out either. They realized it was a defect finally.?
What the Michigan team didn’t know while working on their vehicle was that the line judge, who keeps track of when the team’s complete a repair, had already notified the timers with a flag at the 25 minutes mark, but the two technicians didn’t notice the flag and continued working for the next hour.
‘We take out broken parts to him after we repair the problem,? explained Hickmott. ‘He knew we were finished, but we didn’t.?
A competition rule states that because of the inherent nature of all technology, defects do occur and are seen as uncontrollable. All contestants in the competition are required to accept this fact, and therefore no steps of recourse will be taken. This rule meant that even though the Michigan team completed one extra repair, which was more difficult than any of the other teams, no time could be removed from their final score.
In the end, the Oxford team still managed to out perform 34 other teams, including their additional time and efforts into the final score. The team’s line judge informed them that with their test score and completion time of the actual debugging, which was about 15 minutes shorter than the winning team’s, the Oxford youths would have taken first or second place. Also, they were told that this is the first factory defect found in the competition in the past 10 years.
‘We were pretty upset at the point,? said Hickmott, ‘but it turned form being disappointment in ourselves to wanting to find the factory worker out there.
‘The head organizer for the competition spoke with us afterwards and told us that we didn’t need to win the competition, he could see the skill we had out there with the work we did? Hickmott later explained. ‘He told us that ‘This competition isn’t everything.??
Lamothe and Hickmott will both be continuing their educations in auto mechanics this coming fall. Lamothe said he’s not certain where he will be attending school yet, and Hickmott is hoping to attend Universal Technical Institute in Indiana.
‘They seemed like they had the most doors to open for me,? Hickmott stated. ‘They have several programs to choose from.?
Hickmott, who is working for Oxford Ace Hardware this summer, said he eventually wants to get into the engineering aspect of automobiles. He added that he enjoys improving on the pieces of a vehicle that cause the ‘bugs? in the first place.
‘You never know where you’ll end up though,? he cautioned openly.
Lamothe was not sure where he would end up either, all he knew was that anyone looking for a good technician could find him at Complete Auto Repair in Oxford this summer.
So what advice does the Michigan team have for up and coming technicians looking to compete?
‘The whole day was a great day,? concluded Hickmott. ‘Just check your car. Inspect it as if you are doing the competition at that very moment.?
‘It was a lot of fun,? said Lamothe. ‘We met a lot of people from all over, Texas, Utah, Hawaii, everywhere. It was great.?