TCTC team places first in Cleveland in contest on automotive abilities

It was the second consecutive Cleveland first-place finish for a TCTC team.

WARREN — The guys at The Trumbull Career & Technical Center really know their cars.

Jake Moon and Darren Bever, both seniors, proved it when they took first place at the 2008 Automotive Technical Contest for high school students held at the Cleveland Auto Show on Sunday.

The competition involved the students’ technical, mechanical, electrical and diagnostic abilities working on a 2008 Pontiac G-6, and the TCTC duo beat five other teams to take top honors.

Moon, from LaBrae, and Bever, from Newton Falls, now advance to the Big Apple to compete in the national Automotive Technical Competition at the New York Auto Show where they compete for scholarships, prizes and new cars in the Super Bowl of Auto Technology.

The competitors will again work on a Pontiac G6 in New York.

This is the second consecutive first-place finish for a TCTC team at the Cleveland Auto Show, said David Gillies, the school’s automotive instructor.

Last year’s team went on to finish ninth in the New York competition and earned a total of about $260,000 in scholarship funds, Gillies said. Those students graduated and are now in college, he said.

Moon and Bever earned $15,200 scholarships from the Greater Cleveland Automobile Dealers’ Association to the University of Northwestern Ohio, Cuyahoga Community College, Stark State College or Ohio Technical College.

Gillies said Moon and Bever have already signed up to enroll at the University of Northwestern Ohio after graduation, and they stand to earn a lot more in scholarship funds at the New York event.

A team from Valley Forge High School in Parma Heights took second place, and a team from Lakewood High School in Lakewood took third.

The Cleveland Auto Show runs through Sunday. For more information, please call toll-free (888) 740-2886 or visit www.clevelandautoshow.com.