Aftermarket November 2022

32 AFTERMARKET NOVEMBER 2022 TOP TECHNICIAN AND TOP GARAGE www.toptechnicianonline.co.uk SINGING WHEN YOU’RE WINNING? After months of hard work for techs and businesses, Top Technician and Top Garage 2022 reached their collective crescendo in October F inalists for both Top Technician and Top Garage 2022 headed to the Delphi Technologies Training Centre in Warwickshire on Saturday 1 October. It was relatively balmy for the time of year. However, not many of those gathering will have been thinking much about the weather, with a challenging day with the judges ahead of them. Top Technician’s final follows a time-honoured format. Five techs undertake a number of diagnostic and mechanical tasks, and at the end of it, one of them is named champion, with another as runner-up. Asked what his feeling was about being at the Top Technician 2022 final, Andrew West observed: “Hopefully this will be the last time.” John Hall said: “I think it will be good fun, and an education. It’s nothing we don’t do every day, just under more pressure. I don’t mind being on the clock, and I don’t mind people watching me, but I’m not so keen on both things together.” Nigel Yardley noted: “This must be my third or fourth final. You know what to expect but it does not make it easier or less nerve-wracking.” These three had all been in the finals before. We wondered how the neophytes were faring. Gary Birse admitted: “I’m nervous, but I am prepared as I can be.” Oliver Hayward added: “I did not expect to get here. It is a shock. I entered this year with the intention of making the semi-final, and anything above that is a bonus.” Judges and tasks The judges this year included a number of former Top Technician winners and contestants, as well as leading trainers from across the industry. From the former camp, there was 2013 winner Steve Smith from Pico, 2017 winner and garage proprietor Karl Weaver, 2021 winner Kevin Toms and previous contestant Rob Lewis, who is best known now as Worldwide Technical Training Specialist for Jaguar-Land Rover. From the latter camp we had Technical Topics’ Wilfred Goodman and Premier MOT Training’s Kevin Gallagher. Keeping them all in line was project manager Ian Gillgrass, with a pep-talk that was even shorter than usual. “Try not to think about it” was his suggestion. The tasks and challenges were set up on and around the following vehicles: Volkswagen ID3 Jaguar iPace Toyota Prius Nissan Leaf Volkswagen Golf The fact that most of the tasks were built around electric vehicles and hybrids provided a new level of scrutiny on the abilities of the finalists. With a ring of the bell from the organising team from Aftermarket, the first 50-minute task was running. Reflections After the end of the last task Andrew had this to say: “I’m so tired, but relieved. It’s like the weight of the world has been lifted. All credit to the judges, I don’t know how they do it.” Then Gary said: “I am exhausted. I think it went well. I am happy with what I did. Good faults as well.” John said: “It is educational. A wise man will find a lot to take away from this.” Nigel said: “You don’t know what you don’t know until you try.” Oliver added: “I am glad that is over. It was challenging.” Andrew ruefully Above: Awards evening featuring keynote speaker James Dillion from Technical Topics Sponsored by: