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| Rick Ballard |
Rick G. Ballard from Hurricane, Utah, received the Technician of the Future award, sponsored by Mitchell 1 and the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence (ASE), Ballard earned the honor from a candidate pool of more than 185,000 qualifiers. Ballard has been an automotive technician for three years and an ASE Master Technician for one year. He is employed as an automotive technician at Cache Valley Advantage Automotive, located in Logan, Utah. Ballard took courses at Dixie State College in St. George, Utah in the automotive repair program as a high school student, which included electric car conversion. He graduated from the Toyota T-Ten program through Weber State University in Ogden, Utah, in May 2009.
Advanstar Communications announced that Auto Body World of Tolleson, Arizona, is the Automotive Body Repair News (ABRN) Top Shop for 2009. This year marked the first time the competition was held by ABRN magazine to honor the top 10 collision repair facilities in the United States. Auto Body World of Tolleson, is one of six shops in the Phoenix area operated by the company under the leadership of David Fait, CEO, and Mark Turner, president. Fait’s father, Warren, launched the company in 1962, and they now have 130 employees.
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| The 2009 SCCA Pro Racing Volkswagen Jetta TDI Cup series will air on Speed-TV beginning December 6. |
Beginning December 6, the 2009 SCCA Pro Racing Volkswagen Jetta TDI Cup series—the country’s only professional clean diesel racing series—will begin airing on Speed TV. The broadcast schedule for the first seven races of the season has been announced, and the final dates will be released at a later date. Each of the races will air in an edited 30-minute broadcast. Check local cable listings for channel information and www.speedtv.com for broadcast schedule updates.
DuPont announced that silver, black and white are the top colors in the first-ever ranking of worldwide vehicle color popularity. The Top 10 Global Vehicle Colors according to DuPont are: silver (25%), black (23%), white (16%), gray (13%), blue (9%), red (8%), brown/beige (4%), green (1%), yellow/gold (1%), others (less than 1%). The information is part of the annual DuPont Global Automotive Color Popularity Report, now in its 57th year. Read the complete release from DuPont.
After being away from the Motorsports show for several years, Miller Beer will return as an associate sponsor for Motorsports 2010 presented by StreetBlaze 100. The 25th anniversary edition of the show is set for Friday–Sunday, January 22–24, at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in Oaks, Pennsylvania.
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| Yokohama's headquarters in Fullerton, California. |
The Yokohama Tire Corporation (YTC) is celebrating its 40th anniversary in the United States. Some highlights of the company’s 40 years in the United States include: YTC introduces the A008 asymmetric tread pattern to the United States in 1982; YTC acquires the Mohawk Rubber Company, providing an essential manufacturing facility in the United States; YTC opens a distribution center in Auburn, Georgia, in 2000; and, in 2008, the company’s Orange oil-infused dB Super E-spec wins Popular Mechanics Editor’s Choice Award. For more information, visit www.yokohamatire.com.
McCullough Public Relations Inc. was selected as the public relations firm of record for Prolong Super Lubricants, a brand of GoldenWest Lubricants Inc. McCullough PR will coordinate all of Prolong's media relations, including press release writing, feature-story coordination and onsite trade show representation.