Great mechanics and machinists did not learn their skills over night. While many of the greatest are self taught, just as many have been through the excellent schools and programs that teach both the basic and advanced techniques of build a car and engine. The School of Automotive Machinists is bringing six high school teams to the 2010 SEMA show for the Hot Rodders of Tomorrow National Championship. These teens will compete for a scholarship package worth $202,000 by disassembling and then reassembling an engine correctly in the fastest time. Even if they don’t win though, the trip to SEMA is a prize in and of itself.

Official Release

The School of Automotive Machinists, SAM, will award $202,000 in scholarships to the Hot Rodders of Tomorrow National Championship at the SEMA Show.

The School of Automotive Machinists will award $202,000 in scholarships to six high school automotive teams competing at the Hot Rodders of Tomorrow National Championship at the SEMA Show.  Team MSD from Eastern Oklahoma Tech Center, Team Auto Meter from Loara High School, Team ARP from East Ridge High School, Team PRW from Fremd High School, Team Edelbrock from North Orange County ROP and Team Painless from Lakeshore High School will all be competing in the National Championship Playoffs November 2 –5, 2010 in Las Vegas.

“SAM is happy to support high school automotive students who are excited about the automotive industry,” said Judson Massingill, Founder and Director of Education at SAM.   “This competition is about engine building and that’s what we teach our students to do – build engines that make a lot of horsepower and stay together to win races.  We hope these students will continue their automotive training and go on to work in the high performance and racing industry,” said Judson.

Students must properly disassemble the engine using only hand tools, utilizing proper detorque and disassembly procedure. The air cleaner, carb, distributor, plug wires, spark plugs, manifold, headers, heads, lifters, rocker arms, push rods, timing chain and cover. Then the oil filter, oil pan, oil pump, plus all eight pistons are then removed. The cam and crank remain in the block. The team then returns behind their bench and wait for the judges to call them back, teams then begin working to reassemble once again with correct assembly procedure and torque specs, all while being viewed by judges and spectators. Time added penalties for dropped components, improper disassembly, assembly, sportsmanship, etc. will be added to ensure correct assembly. All procedure penalties are in the rule book provided to the schools at the start of the school year. The engines when reassembled would fire up and run if gas, water, and oil were added. The team with the fastest time including penalty minutes wins.

Many thanks to Hot Rodders of Tomorrow for organizing this automotive competition, the sponsors that support the various events throughout the year and SEMA for hosting the National Championship.  We would also like to thank the countless volunteers for donating their time to make the division and national competitions a success.

The School of Automotive Machinists was founded in 1985 by Linda and Judson Massingill. SAM is accredited by the ACCSC and is approved by the Department of Education.  The School’s curriculum focuses on the design, theory, machining, building and testing of high performance engines.  The students are taught by experienced instructors and are trained on industry standard machines. Graduates from the School of Automotive Machinists go on to work for race industry leaders like Penske Racing, Warren Johnson Enterprises Inc., Hendrick Motorsports, John Force Racing, Roush Fenway Racing, Joe Gibbs Racing, and Dart Machinery just to name a few.  For more information about SAM and how to start a career in the high performance motorsports industry contact us at 713-683-3817 or visit www.samracing.com .

• School of Automotive Machinists bringing six high school teams to SEMA 2010
• Teams will compete in the Hot Rodders of Tomorrow Nationa Championship
• The team that can disassemble and reassemble an engine in the least time wins a $202,000 scholarship