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| Six high school automotive teams competing at the Hot Rodders of Tomorrow National Championship at the 2010 SEMA Show will be awarded $202,000 in scholarships. |
The School of Automotive Machinists (SAM) will award $202,000 in scholarships to six high school automotive teams competing at the Hot Rodders of Tomorrow National Championship at the 2010 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 industries,” said Judson.
Students must properly disassemble the engine using only hand tools, utilizing proper detorque and disassembly procedure, including 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 removed. The cam and crank remain in the block. The team then returns behind their bench and waits for the judges to call them back. Teams then begin working to reassemble once again with the 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.
SAM was founded in 1985 by Linda and Judson Massingill. SAM is accredited by the Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges (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 trained on industry-standard machines.
SAM graduates go on to work for race industry leaders, including 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, call 713/683-3817 or visit www.samracing.com.