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Teens tackle competition Mail Tribune / Drew Fleming Ashland High School seniors Brian Anders, left, and Andy Howe examine the engine of a 2001 3.8-liter, V-6 Ford Mustang Friday at Butler Ford. The pair will represent Southern Oregon Friday in a statewide competition testing their skill at diagnosing and repairing deliberately broken cars in the fastest time possible. Student mechanics will test their repair skills By MARK FREEMAN ASHLAND - So, how many Ashland High School auto-tech students does it take to change a light bulb on a 2001 Mustang? Just two, if they are seniors Andy Howe and Brian Anders. But they also may have to find a broken spark plug that triggers emissions breakdowns, a faulty fuel injector or some other diagnostic dilemma that has real dealership mechanics scratching their noggins. And if these two auto engineers-to-be can find more such mechanical meltdowns than nine other two-person teams poring over similarly "bugged" Mustangs, then they will win the right to call themselves Oregon's best high school gear-heads. Anders and Howe alone will represent Southern Oregon in the statewide FORD/AAA Student Auto Skills competition Friday near Portland. The team judged best at diagnosing and repairing deliberately broken cars in the fastest time possible will go on to compete in nationals in Washington, D.C. Anders and Howe will use everything from sophisticated diagnostic computers to wrenches and screwdrivers to isolate, diagnose and repair all the bugs that are keeping the competition car - this year a new Mustang - from running like it was built to. "There may even be, like, two shorted-out wires in the keyless entry," Anders says. "And, yeah, probably a light bulb." Anders and Howe are not your typical high school grease-monkeys who seek the competition as a stepping stone to lucrative auto-repair jobs that now can pull up to $75,000 a year. They instead aspire to be design engineers, creating the machines that perhaps will be bugged in future competitions. "Doing modifications for performance," says Anders, who proudly drives a 1963 Chevy Nova, "that really interests me." While Ashland High has sent a team to the competition every three or four years since the mid-1980s, none have won. Auto-tech instructor Mike Titus believes his kids will fare well this year not because they spend so much time under a car's hood but because they have a lot under their own hoods. "When you take kids who can analyze, troubleshoot and be good problem-solvers, they can be successful in any area they go into," Titus says. "Brian and Andy are that way." The pair qualified via a written test, which all area auto-shop kids take. The top two scores from each school constitute a team, and the top 10 teams statewide qualify for the Oregon finals. Howe and Anders have been cramming for the contest by working with technicians at Butler Ford in Ashland, which on Friday lent the tandem a bright-yellow version of the new Mustang they will work on in the competition. Like regular teenagers, the first thing they did was roll down the windows and crank up the stereo. But more serious practice sessions on becoming familiar with the fuse panels, the fuel-injector system and other aspects of the car followed. Such hands-on experience with the 3.8-liter, V-6 Mustang sometimes can be more frustrating than fun, however. "Even though they let us take it apart and fix it, the school won't let us drive it," Howe says. Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 776-4470, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.