AUBURN – Ten student teams of two students each will compete at the annual Ford/AAA Student Auto Skills Contest from 10 to 11:30 a.m. Friday, May 18, at Central Maine Community College. An awards ceremony will be held from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m.

This year’s grand marshal will be Jeremie Whooff, winning driver of the 2006 Oxford 250.

Qualifying teams came from seven tech high schools. The schools represented are: Capital Area Tech Center, Augusta; United Technologies Center, Bangor; Biddeford Regional Center of Technology in Biddeford; Lewiston Regional Tech Center in Lewiston; Lake Regional Tech Center in Naples; the Portland Arts and Technical High School; and Westbrook Regional Vocational Center.

The original skills challenge in the statewide competition for all technical high schools involved a written examination. The seven teams that scored highest on that test are those who will have a hands-on competition.

The teams will diagnose and repair uniformly “bugged” Ford vehicles, in this case Mercury Grand Marquis. Teams are scored on a combination of written score and performance on the hands-on portion.

The winners will represent the state in the national automotive skills championship to be held in Detroit on June 24.