While GM Goodwrench is known to NASCAR fans mostly as the longtime sponsor of Richard Childress' No. 29 -- and before that, that famed No. 3 driven by Dale Earnhardt -- it follows that Goodwrench is a thriving company in its own right.

Part of the vast General Motors empire, General Motors Service Parts Organization (GMSPO) runs the Goodwrench brand, and during May in Charlotte, the company announced an initiative to recruit automotive technicians for its outlets all across the country.
Dubbed the Goodwrench Expertise Challenge, the program is designed to increase awareness of being an automotive technician as a career. What spurred this recruiting drive?

Statistics.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the auto industry needs more than 35,000 new technicians every year for the next five to continue to meet demands.

"Historically, being an automotive technician has been depicted as a dirty, dead-end kind of job," said Peter Lord, executive director, GM Service Operations. "That old stereotype could not be further from the truth. Today's cars and trucks are very sophisticated -- the computer technology in them alone, for example, is nearly 1,000 times more powerful than what took the Apollo mission to the moon."

And the pay isn't chump change, either. An automotive technician with sufficient training, in a good labor market, can earn between $30,000 and $70,000 per year. So much for the days of the shade-tree mechanic; it's kind of hard to plug in sophisticated diagnostic machinery in the back yard.

"GM Goodwrench dealerships need trained, qualified technicians because they know that satisfaction with vehicle service and repair work is closely tied to how customers view their vehicles and the dealership," Lord said. "Being an automotive technician isn't just a 'job,' it's a career."

Here's how the No. 29 Goodwrench Expertise Challenge works.

• Should Kevin Harvick, driver of the No. 29 Goodwrench Chevrolet, win two of 12 select Nextel Cup events -- the first was the May 28 Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe's Motor Speedway -- GM Goodwrench will endow a $200,000 scholarship fund to encourage Automotive Youth Educational Systems high-school students to continue their automotive technical education by attending GM Automotive Service Educational Program colleges.

While that's kind of a mouthful, it's really good business. By hooking the main marketing force -- Harvick and the Goodwrench Chevy -- to an educational endeavor, GM gains not only exposure, it gains qualified technicians down the road.

AYES is a nonprofit business and education partnership that creates automotive technology career opportunities for promising young men and women at automotive dealerships. It was founded in 1995 by former GM chairman Jack Smith as a way to address the growing need for technicians.

"There are thousands of NASCAR fans -- and others -- who are ideal candidates for a career as an automotive technician," said Larry Cummings, CEO of AYES. "The No. 29 Goodwrench Expertise Challenge is a fun and engaging way to help spread the word about these great career opportunities."

Students enrolled in GM ASEP two-year programs earn while they learn, rotating their time between classes and interning at GM dealerships and other GM service centers. There are 66 GM ASEP participating schools in 38 U.S. states, 15 in Canada and one in the People's Republic of China.

Successful students graduate with an associate's degree, and either are ready for or have passed their National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence (ASE) certification test. More than 2,000 students are currently enrolled in the program, and there are more than 14,000 graduates.

• Should Harvick hold up his end of the deal by winning two of the 12 races, GM Goodwrench will award 29 grand prizes which consist of an all-new 2007 Chevy Avalanche, a $1,000 GM vehicle maintenance certificate, and a trunk full of Reese's products.

• If only one race is won during the promotion, GM Goodwrench will award to two lucky winners an all-new 2007 Chevy Avalanche, a $1,000 GM vehicle maintenance certificate, and a trunk full of Reese's products. They also will donate $25,000 to the GM Goodwrench Scholarship Fund.

• If no races are won during the promotion, GM Goodwrench still will give away an all-new 2007 Chevy Avalanche, a $1,000 GM vehicle maintenance certificate, and a trunk full of Reese's products to one lucky winner, and provide a $25,000 donation to the GM Goodwrench Scholarship fund.

"The entire Goodwrench No. 29 team and I are ready for this challenge, and we hope to make GM Goodwrench give away all 29 grand prizes," Harvick said. "I'm also happy that my victories will send some well-deserving students to school for a career as automotive service technicians. It's a great way to keep the expertise of GM Goodwrench strong for the next generation."
Fans can join the challenge by visiting a Chevrolet dealership or a Chevy display at select NASCAR events to get a promotion ticket with an official promotion code. They then visit the Web site, enter the promotion code and submit the registration form to receive a sweepstakes entry. They can also visit Goodwrench.com/expert to get a promotion code (limit one online code per person or e-mail address), and complete the registration process. Each person can enter up to seven times, once during each entry period as defined in the Official Rules. There is no purchase necessary to enter or win.

• Besides the Coca-Cola 600, which Harvick did not win, the other races on the schedule include the spring race at Dover, the USG Sheetrock 400 at Chicagoland, the New England 300 at New Hampshire, the GFS Marketplace 400 at Michigan, Bristol's Sharpie 500, the Chevy Rock and Roll 400 at Richmond, the Banquet 400 at Kansas, the Bank of America 500 at Lowe's, the Dickies 500 at Texas, the Checker Auto Parts 500 at Phoenix and the season-ending Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

"We urge men and women looking for a challenging, high-demand career that pays well and offers solid job security to consider being an automotive service technician," Lord said. "Good technicians are sure to land themselves on the fast track."

GM Goodwrench services vehicles across the spectrum of General Motors products, from Chevrolet and Pontiac to Hummer and Cadillac, and operates nationwide. More than 60,000 service personnel make Goodwrench one of the largest full-service automotive providers in the world.

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