Rockland Auto Tech Students Win State Finals

ROCKLAND COUNTY, NY — Two Rockland County students won the New York State Automotive Technology Competition, taking home thousands of dollars in scholarships and winning a chance to compete for some $3 million in prizes at the 2020 New York International Auto Show national championship in April.

Peter Moger and Luis Pinto-Samayoa, seniors at Rockland BOCES, coached by Frank Pipolo, took home the gold against 11 other teams from throughout the state, diagnosing and fixing pre-programmed bugs in a Lexus operating system and engine in the shortest time.

The timed competition featured teams from New York City, Westchester, Rockland, Nassau and Suffolk counties. Competitors attend Career Technical Education (CTE) and BOCES programs.

The competition was held Feb. 11 at the Center for Automotive Education and Training in Whitestone, New York.

The Rockland team advanced to the state finals by placing first in their division in the regional round in January. In April, they will represent New York State against some 29 other teams from throughout North America.

Each student was awarded $2,000 in scholarships by the Greater New York Automobile Dealers Association, which sponsored the competition, and scholarship offers from technical training schools ranging from $7,000 to $10,000. They were also awarded a set of tools.

Students worked on a variety of car makes and models after years of training in school and at local and regional franchise new car dealerships following the January competition.

There are tens of thousands of auto tech jobs coming open in the coming years and New York’s franchise new car dealers fund the competition to identify auto tech stars of the future. This year was the 30th annual competition sponsored by GNYADA.

GNYADA officials said that the curriculum for the competition is adjusted annually to respond to changing automotive technology. The skills the competitors displayed will help them as they embark on careers as auto technicians, who can earn $100,000 or more working at dealerships throughout the region.