Following months of preliminary training and testing, Ford/AAA and New Jersey SkillsUSA both held their State Final automotive competitions, where the State’s best automotive technician students competed against each other. The Ford/AAA New Jersey State Finals, held at ATCO Raceway, crowned Jake Kneute and Kyle Studd, both students at the Monmouth County Vocational School, as the winners.Jake, Kyle and their instructor, Dan Portaleos, received support from Rittenhouse-Kerr Ford in Red Bank and will proceed to the Ford/AAA Student Auto Skills National Finals being held in Washington, D.C., on June 27.NJ CAR wishes them good luck and thanks George Wall Lincoln Mercury for their positive involvement. The New Jersey State Finals of the SkillsUSA Automotive Competition, which began as local competitions involving hundreds of New Jersey vocational high school automotive students, was held at the Somerset County Vocational School in Bridgewater, NJ.The best students from each of the State’s 21 County Vocational Schools competed for Gold, Silver and Bronze Medals in Automotive Service Technology and Automotive Maintenance.Brodie Flynn and Daniel Cravel, both students from Hunterdon County Polytech in Annandale, NJ, were awarded first place in their respective categories. Last summer, Brodie completed an AYES internship at Clinton Honda, under the supervision of Mark Diana.MaryJane Salvato, of Colonial Motors GMC, served as State coordinator for the SkillsUSA automotive competition and coordinated the judges’ participation of industry experts.