Team Moroso Wins Third Annual "Showdown at SEMA"

	Team Moroso—Loara High School from Anaheim California—won the third annual "Showdown at SEMA" with a record-breaking time of 21:08 minutes.

This year's Hot Rodders of Tomorrow Engine Challenge teams finished their builds in the fastest times ever recorded in the event's three-year history. All 10 teams competing at the 2011 SEMA Show, November 1–4, in Las Vegas, finished faster than the 2009 champion and the top six teams would have beaten the 2010 champion. But it was Team Moroso—Loara High School from Anaheim, California—that won the third annual "Showdown at SEMA" with a record-breaking time of 21:08 minutes.

Providing young automotive enthusiasts an opportunity to develop and showcase their talents while being exposed to the automotive aftermarket industry, Hot Rodders of Tomorrow has been invited to compete at the SEMA Show every year since its inception in 2008. The organization’s goal is to reach out to high school students before they graduate in order to provide much-needed future talent for the automotive aftermarket.

The purpose of the competition, held annually at the SEMA Show, is to offer opportunities for students to build and develop teamwork, demonstrate their enthusiasm and ingenuity and build their confidence and commitment to excellence. Teams of five auto technology students and an instructor from invited high schools across the country compete to properly disassemble and reassemble a small-block Chevrolet engine with aftermarket components in the least amount of time possible. The team with the quickest total time, including added penalties, wins. The competition engines have been built to replicate real-world, high-performance engines found in today's muscle cars and hot rods.

This year, 10 teams earned their way to the "Showdown at SEMA" national championship—six teams by winning their division heats straight out and four additional wildcard teams that had the next best qualifying times in the nation.

The ultimate prize for each member of the winning team is $10,000 in scholarship money provided by Ohio Technical College (OTC), School of Automotive Machinists (SAM) and University of Northwest Ohio (UNOH). Hot Rodders of Tomorrow judges and staff are 100% volunteer.

This year's winners included:

Team		Overall Average		Place
Moroso Loara High School, Anaheim California – Division 7 Winner		21.08		1st
Painless Performance Products Eastern Oklahoma County Tech Center, Choctaw, Oklahoma – Division 4 Winner		24.36		2nd
COMP Cams East Ridge High School, Chattanooga, Tennessee #1 – Division 2 Wildcard		28.52		3rd
ARP East Ridge High School, Chattanooga, Tennessee #2 – Division 2 Winner		28.60		4th
Fel-Pro Joliet Central High School, Joliet, Illinois – Division 3 Winner		29.10		5th
Motive Gear Belvidere North High School, Belvidere, Illinois – Division 8 Winner		29.17		6th
Royal Purple Burton Center for Arts & Technology, Salem, Virginia – Division 1 Winner		32.65		7th
Hawk Performance Elkhart Area Career Center #1, Elkhart, Indiana – Division 8 Wildcard		35.38		8th
Auto Meter Elkhart Area Career Center #2, Elkhart, Indiana – Division 8 Wildcard		36.40		9th
K&N Filters North Orange County ROP, Anaheim, California – Division 7 Wildcard		36.72		10th