By Hannah Ryder Ross

Three automotive tech schools competed in the inaugural Student Engine Build Competition at AAPEX 2025 on Wednesday, November 5th in Las Vegas. The featured schools were Advanced Training Institute Automotive Technician Program, College of Southern Nevada Automotive Program (both colleges that are local to the Las Vegas area), and North Kansas City School Automotive Tech Program, a high school from the Kansas City, MO area. AAPEX’s Student Engine Build Competition has already garnered much interest and momentum, locally and even internationally for entries for next year.

Starting off with a bang, the techs seemed to communicate virtually silently between themselves as they efficiently began their takedowns of the 1980s Camaro engines they were placed with. Each team approached their pieces with determination, immediately making clear that the audience was not about to witness just one sole technique and approach to the challenge.

Each school’s instructor stood by to support and supervise, with minimal comment and interference. (In this competition, Instructors are permitted to step in for quick assistance with limits.)

The hostess commented several times on the markedly calm demeanour and organized workspace of the North Kansas City team-two high school juniors and the youngest contestants by a fair margin- for their entire build, as their progress blew ahead of the other teams. They completed the first step of removing the engine covers in 9 and a half minutes, less than half the time of the next team- and completed the full disassembly of the engine in 31 minutes- also dramatically ahead of the second team by nearly double.

North Kansas City School, from left: Instructor Jack Stow, ASE Certified Master Tech; junior Automotive Technology students Taem Aljallad and Adrian Madinger

The hosts, visibly impressed by the time stamp of the NKC team, still made sure to encourage and praise each competitor- and adding that the real pressure and skill test is the rebuild stage. This proved correct, as some troubleshooting for NKC’s engine allowed the other two teams to catch up slightly.

(above) The Advanced Training Institute team.

With attention on the shared momentum and impressive skill of the other teams, the same trickier steps soon hit CSN and ATI as well, growing the gap in the race once again. CSN was unfortunately impacted by a minor injury during disassembly- a small cut that was needed quick attention and inevitably slowed them down. ‘This is all part of the work, this is real life,’ commented the host (once it was determined the tech wasn’t seriously injured).

(above) The College of Southern Nevada team.

NKC finally completed their build while the other teams were still fitting their valves and/or cylinders, declaring them the race’s winners. The final turnaround time stamp on the build was 1 hour, 44 minutes, to jubilance from the whole audience, especially their classmates who had come to support. ATI was in second place with CSN to follow- and congratulations and praise followed for these teams and their instructors as well.

When asked what the winning team felt they owed their success to, instructor and veteran tech Jack Stow praised the pair’s exceptional dedication and teamwork.

“They were focused, they worked hard- together. They put in the work outside of school. They learned the process, learned to trust each other. They just work well together- that’s it.”

The hostess praised the instructor as well- ‘And they had a great teacher- it’s those adults that venture out in the workforce to make a difference in our industry and in the world- and I’m so grateful to you and all of our instructors here.’

In a fun additional detail, one of the members of the winning pair, Taem, celebrated his 17th birthday today with this win- the hostess commented on the boys’ youth coupled with their skills- saying ‘You know, everyone- I’m thinking that if this is the future of our industry- we’re gonna be okay.’