Tennessee Speed & Sport Hosts First Division 2 “Hot Rodders of Tomorrow Engine Challenge” Championship

Team members race the clock during one of the competition heats.

Nashville, TN – Performance parts retailer Tennessee Speed & Sport held their first “Hot Rodders of Tomorrow Engine Challenge” Division 2 Championship Sunday February 28, 2010 at the Nashville Municipal Auditorium.  Tennessee Speed and Sport is a sister company of P&E Distributors. The “Hot Rodders of Tomorrow Engine Challenge” was featured on the show floor at P&E’s Show 2010 held in the historic Nashville Municipal Auditorium.

A total of 9 High School Auto Tech teams participated. The teams are made up of invited auto technology classes from local high schools. Each team consists of five students and the instructor/coach. The individual schools set standards and guidelines for involvement. Grades, attendance and skill are all part of the making of a team. Through this event these students get an opportunity to showcase their talents and knowledge gained during classroom sessions and workshops. It provides opportunities for students to develop and build teamwork, demonstrate their skills, enthusiasm, and ingenuity, build their confidence and commitment to excellence.

P&E's Donnie Eatherly (L) and Jim Bingham, 1st Performance Warehouse, paused for a 12voltnews.com photo op during the competition. Both companies are strong supporters of the high school competition.

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.

Tim Freeman, Director of Ops for the "Hot Rodders of Tomorrow", lays down the ground rules to a team getting ready to compete.

East Ridge High School from Chattanooga, TN. sponsored by Automotive Racing Products (ARP) took first place with the fastest time of 43 minutes and 23 seconds and will be representing Division 2 at the National Championship dubbed “Showdown at SEMA” (Specialty Equipment Market Association) at the SEMA Show in Las Vegas in November. There, they will be competing against Division 3 (Race & Performance Expo March 6-7, 2010 in St. Charles, IL.)  Division 7 (Edelbrock’s Rev’ved up 4 Kidz Charity Car Show April, 24-25, 2010) Division 4 (Painless Performance Open House May, 8, 2010) and Division 8 (Lane Automotive Car Show May, 29, 2010) winners plus the1st place national runner up.

The large competition area on the P&E show floor allowed several teams to race the clock at the same time.

DIVISION 2 HOT RODDERS OF TOMORROW ENGINE CHALLENGE RESULTS:

1^st Place – Team ARP – East Ridge High School – Chattanooga, TN. – 43:23

2^nd Place – Team MSD – Morristown High School – Morristown, TN. – 68:00

3^rd Place – Team MOROSO – Cleveland High School – Cleveland, TN. – 68:52

4^th Place – Team Comp Cams – Bolton High School – Arlington, TN. – 77:35

5^th Place – Team Speed-Pro – Mt. Pleasant High School – Mt. Pleasant, TN. – 99:26

6^th Place – Team Be Cool – Sequoyah Tech. Center – Soddy Daisy, TN. – 106:00

7^th Place – Team Auto Meter – Morgan County Career & Tech Ctr. – Wartburg, TN. – 107:10

8^th Place – Team Edelbrock – Central High School – Shelbyville, TN. – 113:25

9^th Place – Team PRW – Volunteer High School – Church Hill, TN. – 125:52

Started at the inaugural Race & Performance Expo in 2008 under the supervision of Tim Freeman, The Hot Rodders of Tomorrow Engine Challenge has quickly grown into a nationwide engine challenge with more Schools and Sponsors supporting this exciting event. For further information visit: www.hotroddersoftomorrow.com.