Service Lane: Racing to Graduate

by Mark Phelan
AutoExec, October 2002

What's good for NASCAR may be good for dealers. A new, $12 million facility recently opened to train technicians to work in dealerships and with NASAR and other racing organizations. The NASCAR Technical Institute in Mooresville, NC, is a partnership between NASCAR and United Technical Institute Inc. (UTI), which operates four tech-training centers in Phoenix, Houston, Glendale Heights, IL, and Rancho Cucamonga, CA.

Dealership service managers who have hired graduates from UTI's other facilities are enthusiastic about NASCAR Tech.

"We no longer even interview techs that aren't UTI grads," says Dan Berry, director of operations, Chapman BMW, Scottsdale, AZ. Chapman hired its first UTI graduate four years ago and now has 14 grads among its 21 techs.

Gary Long, service director of Leaf Inc., which operates 28 — mostly high-line — franchises in North Carolina, has recruited UTI grads in Phoenix and Houston. "They are head and shoulders above what we get off the street," he says. "I'm looking forward to recruiting them locally."

Courses at NASCAR Tech began in July. The program lasts 57 weeks; 39 focus on core automotive repair and 18 on NASCAR training. The 146,000-square-foot facility will graduate about 1,900 techs annually, with the first class of some 100 set to graduate next summer. After that, classes will graduate every three weeks. Courses are sold out through February 2003, says school director Dennis Hendrix.

More than 75 percent of NASCAR teams are based near Mooresville, giving students access to team techs and engineers for the specialized training that meets NASCAR requirements, says Hendrix. And the facility includes 49,000 square feet of shop-training space; shock, transmission, and engine labs with dynamometers; and two areas for manufacturer-specific training. Students pay $24,350 for the course — "slightly higher" than tuition at UTI centers without the NASCAR affiliation, Hendrix says.

The institute will also offer an additional 12-week program to meet the requirements of Ford's FACT technician-training program. FACT training raises tuition to $29,100.

Berry and long have hired graduates from other automaker-sponsored programs similar to Ford's FACT. Automakers pay for the additional schooling, and dealers pay the automakers $5,800 to $8,500 for the certified techs, who agree to work at the dealerships for at least two years.

"Productivity goes through the roof" with the graduates, Berry says. "They allow us to increase our service work without adding real estate to our shop."

Other experienced techs also become more efficient working with the graduates, Long says. And turnover among the grads is very low: only 1 UTI grad out of 24 hired has left.