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CNN Live At Daybreak

Student Mechanics Discuss National Car Repair Competition

Aired June 18, 2001 - 08:25   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Well the nation recently crowned a new spelling bee champ. And there's a winner of a geography bee.

COLLEEN MCEDWARDS, CNN ANCHOR: Soon we'll know who is the cream of the shop -- that's the auto auto shop.

The countries leading high school mechanics are in Washington today, and CNN's Patty Davis is on the National Mall, where competition's about to rev up.

LIN: Good morning -- Patty.

PATTY DAVIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol and Colleen.

This is the auto mechanics dream or nightmare, however you want to look at it -- something deliberately wrong with each car here. There are 51 cars. And high school mechanics -- the best of them from all over the country -- have to figure out exactly what's wrong with them.

Starting at about 9:15 Eastern, each of these teams -- there are 51 teams for the states plus the District of Columbia -- will have 90 minutes once that gun goes off to diagnose what's wrong with the cars and fix them. And that along with a written test that they took on Sunday will determine whether or not they are top dog auto mechanic across the country.

We're joined by two of these contestants here: Luke Keller of Oregon and Christina Miller of North Carolina.

Now, butterflies in your stomach this morning over this contest?

LUKE KELLER, STUDENT MECHANIC: Not over the contest. This interview is a little difficult, though.

DAVIS: Butterflies over that.

What about you?

CHRISTINA MILLER, STUDENT MECHANIC: Not really butterflies over the contest itself. We've trained quite a bit, so we feel pretty confident.

DAVIS: Let's talk about the training. What have you guys done to train here for this contest today? This is the top challenge for high school students all across the country.

MILLER: Myself, personally, the North Carolina team -- myself and my teammate, Josh Shoemaker (ph) -- we have worked for about two or three weeks now on a Ford Focus. Our instructor deliberately bugged them there at the Automotive Technology Center in Statesville, North Carolina, and we, basically, went through everything to do find the bugs and fix them, and we've worked on cutting our time down, and we just pretty much practice, practice, practice.

DAVIS: Now, Luke, how do you practice for something like this? What do you do? You don't know what's going to be wrong.

KELLER: Well, our instructor's been here before, and he has an idea of what's going on, what kind of bugs they use, and he bugs a car like that, and we go through it, get done, and talk about what we did and how we did it so the next time we can do it faster and more efficient.

DAVIS: Now, Christina, you are only one of three women here. How does that feel?

KELLER: Well, personally, I don't really have any feelings towards it. I just look at it this way: I've always been taught you want something bad enough, you reach out and get it, be man or woman. I know I'm just as good as any of the guys here, because I'm standing here. So all we can do is just try our best, and that's it.

DAVIS: How do your nails look? Got to look at those nails there.

KELLER: They're clean, for now.

DAVIS: The top prize here once this contest is over, the two students who win from one state will get a $1,000 scholarship. Both of these students here are high school seniors who have just graduated, so it could go to very good use.

Back to you, Colleen.

MCEDWARDS: Thanks, Patty.

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