 Team Motive Gear from Loara High School in Anaheim, California, won the 4th annual "Showdown at SEMA." |
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The team from Loara High School in Anaheim, California—also known as Team MOTIVE GEAR—won the 4th annual "Showdown at SEMA," with the average time of 21:24 minutes. The teams kept the times close, with top-three teams ending up less than three minutes apart.
The "Showdown at SEMA" is the title of the Hot Rodders of Tomorrow Engine Challenge National Championship at the SEMA Show in Las Vegas. This year, 13 high school auto tech teams competed in the engine teardown and rebuild contest in front of thousands of spectators at the entrance of the 2012 SEMA Show.
The event itself resembles the tear down between rounds at a drag race. The engines are identically prepared small block Chevys complete with all the goodies. Students must properly disassemble the engine down to just crank, cam, and block using hand tools only with proper detorque and disassembly procedure. The team then returns behind their work bench, and when approved by the judges, teams begin working to reassemble once again with correct assembly procedure and torque specs, all while being viewed by judges and spectators.
Time-added penalties are assessed for dropped components, improper disassembly/assembly, poor sportsmanship, etc. All procedural penalties are in the Hot Rodders of Tomorrow rule book provided to the high schools at the start of the school year. The team with the fastest time including penalty minutes wins.
Event Winners and Wildcard Teams Compete
The 13 teams earned their way to the "Showdown at SEMA" national championship. Eight teams that won their events straight out and five additional teams that had the next best qualifying times in the Nation were invited to compete.
Time Averaged Playoff Format
During the normal event competitions through the year, all teams compete once. The best time wins the event and that team has the opportunity to compete at SEMA.
But during the national championship "Showdown at SEMA" all the teams competed a total of 4 times during the SEMA show starting Monday. At the end of the fourth day each team's highest time was thrown out and the remaining three times were averaged.
2012 National Champion: Team MOTIVE GEAR (Loara High School from Anaheim, California.) was determined the winner with the best average time of 21:24. Trophies and scholarships were given out on Friday morning at the Hot Rodders of Tomorrow award presentation.
- Second Place: Team ENERGY SUSPENSION - Eastern Oklahoma County Tech Ctr., Choctaw, OK - Average Time - 21:54
- Third Place: Team MR. GASKET - East Ridge High School from Chattanooga, TN - Average Time - 22:19
- Fourth Place: Team AEROMOTIVE – Burton Center for Arts & Technology, Salem, VA - Average Time - 24:46
- Fifth Place: Team MAGNAFLOW - North Orange County ROP, Anaheim, CA - Average Time - 25:35
- Sixth Place: Team ROYAL PURPLE - Elkhart Area Career Center #1 - Average Time - 25:50
- Seventh Place: Team ARP- Elkhart Area Career Center #2- Average Time - 25:53
- Eighth Place: Team PROFORM - Peach County High School Fort Valley, GA - Average Time - 26:14
- Ninth Place: Team THERMO-TEC –Thomas County Central High School, Thomasville, GA - Average Time - 27:40
- Tenth Place: Team EDELBROCK - Fremd High School, Palatine, IL - Average Time - 28:50
- Eleventh Place: Team HEDMAN HEDDERS - Belvidere North High School, Belvidere, IL - Average Time - 31:04
- Twelfth Place: Team MSD - Joliet Central High School, Joliet, IL - Average Time - 32:31
- Thirteenth Place: Team PAINLESS PERFORMANCE - Sequoyah High School, Soddy Daisy, TN - Average Time - 33:46
A total of $1.2 million awarded to the participants in scholarship money.
Three Auto Technological Colleges—Ohio Technical College (OTC), University of Northwestern Ohio (UNOH) and School of Automotive Machinists (SAM)—are presenting all the participating high school students scholarship money.
Each College is awarding the following:
$10,000 to each first place team member,
$9,000 to each second place team member,
$8,000 to each third place team member,
$7,000 to each fourth place team member,
$6,000 to each fifth place team member and
$5,000 to each sixth thru thirteenth place team member.