Hot Rodders of Tomorrow: Helping to Bring New Blood into the Aftermarket

SEMA News—December 2011

EVENTS
By Chad Simon

Up for the Challenge

Hot Rodders of Tomorrow: Helping to Bring New Blood into the Aftermarket

Providing young automotive enthusiasts with an opportunity to develop and showcase their talents while being exposed to the automotive aftermarket industry, Hot Rodders of Tomorrow launched in 2008 at the Race & Performance Expo in St. Charles, Illinois, and has been invited to compete at the SEMA Show every year since its inception. The organization’s goal is to reach out to high-school students before they graduate in order to provide much-needed future talent for the automotive specialty-equipment market.
“My primary concern is that the people at the racetrack and in this industry as a whole are getting older,” said 40-year industry veteran Jim Bingham, chairman of Hot Rodders of Tomorrow and also president and CEO of Winner’s Circle Speed & Custom and a SEMA Board of Directors member. “You don’t see much young blood, and I wanted to create an avenue for bringing youth into the automotive aftermarket.”
The purpose of the competition, the finals of which are held annually at the SEMA Show, is to offer opportunities for students to build and develop teamwork, demonstrate their enthusiasm and ingenuity and build their confidence and commitment to excellence. Teams of five auto technology students and an instructor from invited high schools across the country compete to properly disassemble and reassemble a small-block Chevrolet engine with aftermarket components in the least amount of time. The team with the quickest total time, including added penalties, wins. The competition engines have been built to replicate the real-world, high-performance engines found in today’s musclecars and hot rods.

The idea for the organization came to life during the first year of a local consumer show called the Race & Performance Expo. Tim Freeman, an area businessman, asked Bingham to help him put together an engine challenge for the show. So, after Freeman successfully recruited five local high schools for the engine challenge, Vic Edelbrock, with Bingham’s help, decided that he wanted to expand the concept across the country, starting with the first Hot Rodders of Tomorrow Engine Challenge held at the Race & Performance Expo in 2008.
A total of five teams competed during the 2008 season. The series has since grown to 70 teams in 2011, with six divisional winners and four wildcards that were invited to compete at the third annual “Showdown at SEMA” national championship in Las Vegas.

Edelbrock was initially responsible for getting the organization invited to the SEMA Show in 2009. Four teams were invited the first year. That grew to six in the second year, and Hot Rodders of Tomorrow came to the SEMA Show with 10 teams this year, the most ever.

Qualifying teams typically finish the challenge in the 35-minute time frame. All teams are encouraged to finish the engine build, regardless of time; however, once a team hits the 60-minute range, the instructor may help.

Time-added penalties are assessed when participants commit errors, which include dropping components, improper disassembly and poor sportsmanship. There are five judges, each following an individual student, and they score everything from the use of torque wrenches to proper assembly.

Hot Rodders of Tomorrow Sponsoring Companies
• Accel
• Aeroquip Performance Products
• Airaid
• A Plus Distributing
• ARP Automotive Racing Products
• Auto Meter
• Be Cool
• Begler’s Performance
• Carlisle All-GM Nationals
• COMP Cams
• Dart
• Dee Zee
• Edelbrock
• Edge
• Energy Suspension
• Fel-Pro Performance Gaskets
• Hawk Performance
• Hedman Hedders,
• K&N
• Moroso
• Motive Gear
• Motor State Distributing
• Mr. Gasket Co.
• MSD Ignition
• Painless Performance Products
• Parts Pro Performance Centers
• Proform
• PRW
• Race & Performance Expo
• Royal Purple
• Russell
• Speed Pro
• Tennessee Speed Sport
• Trans Dapt Performance Products
• Winner’s Circle Speed & Custom

READ MORE

Staff PowerandPlay.com