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VGCC Helps Prepare High School Auto Students For National Competition

March 18, 2005 | by VGCC Staff

Northern Vance High School seniors Phillip Brewer and J.C. Poythress III took first place in early March in the Fourth Annual North Carolina Automotive Technology Competition.

Their victory earned them a trip to New York City to compete in the national competition March 28-31. Vance-Granville Community College is helping the high school students prepare for the national contest.

Fred Brewer, VGCC’s program head and instructor for Automotive Technology, has been training Phillip Brewer, Fred’s son, and Poythress in wheel alignment and supplemental restraint systems.

The students will have to perform wheel alignment and angle adjustments at the national competition using the Hunter wireless WinAlign system. Northern Vance does not have this equipment, which the college has in its Automotive Technology training garage. So Fred Brewer volunteered to train the students on the VGCC equipment.

An understanding of the Supplemental Restraint System and air bag service procedures will also be required of the students in New York. This is one of the functions taught at Vance-Granville so Phillip Brewer and Poythress are getting training on it at VGCC.

Jeff Coleman, the Northern Vance automotive instructor, also teaches Automotive Technology classes in evenings at VGCC so he knew where to go for help for his students preparing for the national competition.

Fred Brewer said he was happy to lend assistance with the high school students’ efforts. “Vance-Granville Community College works with area high schools in many cooperative training programs, and this is just another example of how we can work together for everyone’s benefit,” he said.

Fred Brewer, right, Automotive Technology program head/instructor at Vance-Granville Community College, familiarizes Northern Vance High School students Phillip Brewer, left, and J.C. Poythress on the Hunter wheel alignment equipment in the VGCC auto shop. Fred Brewer is helping the students prepare for national automotive trouble-shooting competition in New York City.