Students From Hempstead High School Win State Auto Skills Contest: Help Fill Growing Need for Auto Techs

BURNSVILLE, Minn., June 14, 2004; A two-student team from Hempstead High School overcame the best in the state to win the Iowa finals of the FORD/AAA Student Auto Skills contest. The competition is designed to find the most talented young auto technicians in the United States.

Justin Doran and Corey Gansen now advance to the national finals at Ford World Headquarters on June 29 in Dearborn, Michigan. The Iowa contest was one of 50 state competitions held during the past two months. The Student Auto Skills contest will award more than $5 million in scholarships and prizes nationwide and is held to encourage students to pursue rewarding career opportunities in automotive service. The team's instructor is Wayne Siebert.

The state championship was determined by the combination of a written qualifying exam and the team's performance in a hands-on competition to quickly and accurately repair a deliberately disabled Ford vehicle. The contest illustrates the need for more students to enter the automotive technology field. As the population of the United States ages, it is estimated that 10 technicians are retiring for every two young people choosing the career.

To learn more about the Ford/AAA Student Auto Skills Competition on June 29, please visit the website at http://www.autoskills.com .

AAA Minnesota/Iowa, which includes more than 700,000 members, offers automotive, travel, insurance and financial services. It is part of The Auto Club Group (ACG), the largest affiliation of AAA clubs in the Midwest, with 4.1 million members in eight states. ACG clubs belong to the national AAA federation, a not-for-profit organization, with more than 45 million members in the United States and Canada.