Illinois High School Students to Compete in 2004 Ford/AAA Auto Skills Competition

AURORA, Ill., May 3 -- Ten teams of two students from Illinois high schools will compete in the 2003 Ford/AAA Auto Skills hands-on Competition on Friday, May 7, 2004. The students are competing for thousands of dollars in scholarship money.

Students will race against the clock as they try and repair deliberately disabled 2004 Ford vehicles. The winners will have corrected the most problems in the least amount of time and will go on to compete in the national competition in Washington, D.C.

In order to compete in the hands-on competition, these students received top scores on a written exam that was taken by hundreds of students in the state of Illinois.

The Ford/AAA Auto Skills competition is designed to promote careers in auto mechanics.

  WHEN:  Friday, May 7, 2003.  The contest starts at 9:00 a.m.

  WHO:   This year's teams include:
  * Technical Center of DuPage - Christopher Feid, Medinah, Ill. & Bill
    Sticksel, West Chicago, Ill. and Paul Aleman, Warrenville, Ill. &
    Stephen Yuen, Chicago.
  * JB Conant High School - Matt Rogers, Schaumburg, Ill., & Joe Tullo,
    Schaumburg, Ill.
  * Litchfield High School - Dustin Bryant, Litchfield, Ill. & Adam Burger,
    Litchfield, Ill.
  * Grundy Area Vocational Center - Justin Bauer, Morris, Ill. & Daniel
    Tribble, Braceville, Ill.
  * Palatine High School - Gerardo Galvin, Palatine, Ill. & Kyle Siebert,
    Palatine, Ill. and Justin Bobus, Palatine, Ill. & Francis Zangara,
    Palatine, Ill.
  * Livingston Area Vocational Center - Dan Legner, Odell, Ill. & Cody
    Laborence, Pontiac, Ill.
  * Quincy Area Vocational Center - Ryan Newbrough, Clayton, Ill. & Cody
    Peter, Quincy, Ill.
  * Willowbrook High School - Sam Mrofcaz, Lombard, Ill. & Peter Spencer,
    Villa Park, Ill.

  WHERE:
    AAA Chicago Corporate Headquarters
    975 Meridian Lake Drive
    Aurora, Ill. 60504