Contact: Tammy Lane • First Posted: Monday, May 17, 2010

Zach Dailey and Austin Robinette of Eastside Technical Center earned first place in the state finals of the Ford/AAA Student Auto Skills Competition, held May 7 in Louisville.

Each senior received a total of $53,000 in scholarship offers, a $150 tool set from Snap-on and a $250 credit from NAPA Tools.  

“It was like watching a movie. Those guys were just smoking that contest!” said automotive instructor Bobby Riddle, who said Zach and Austin fixed everything, made no mistakes and finished a half-hour ahead of the next team.

“They worked a lot of hours after school and did a lot of studying at home (to prepare),” he said, noting that Paul Miller Ford loaned Eastside Tech a Fusion for the teens to practice on for about three weeks.

In most states, the 10 teams scoring highest on the qualifying exam advance to the hands-on finals in the spring. In that head-to-head competition, new Ford Motor Co. vehicles are uniformly bugged so that each team has identical malfunctions to diagnose and repair. The winners make repairs with the highest quality workmanship in the lowest total time.

Statewide, about 400 students took the written test, and 20 advanced to the finals. This is the first time Eastside Tech has produced the top pair to represent Kentucky in the nationals.

Zach, Austin and Riddle get an all-expense-paid trip to the June 13-15 competition in Dearborn, Mich.