The black shirts: Playing for keeps

Dec. 17, 2015

Everyone's serious at a national-level competition, but it's the finals where all the stops get pulled out. At the Rush Truck Centers Tech Skills Rodeo, here are some scenes from the second and final day of competition.

Aaron Marsh

SAN ANTONIO, TX. Everyone's serious at a national-level competition, but it's the finals where all the stops get pulled out. At the Rush Truck Centers Tech Skills Rodeo, these are scenes from the second and final day of competition, where top techs wore the black shirts they'd earned.

This was a competition not only for bragging rights to see who's best this year in each category — including a "Rush Rising Star" competition for level 1 and 2 techs that was new this time around — but there were real money and drool-worthy prizes on the line for the winners. And we'll have more to show from that very soon. Have a look, though, at some of the guys as they were doing all they could to earn it.

About the Author

Aaron Marsh

Before computerization had fully taken hold and automotive work took someone who speaks engine, Aaron grew up in Upstate New York taking cars apart and fixing and rewiring them, keeping more than a few great jalopies (classics) on the road that probably didn't deserve to be. He spent a decade inside the Beltway covering Congress and the intricacies of the health care system before a stint in local New England news, picking up awards for both pen and camera.

He wrote about you-name-it, from transportation and law and the courts to events of all kinds and telecommunications, and landed in trucking when he joined FleetOwner in July 2015. Long an editorial leader, he was a keeper of knowledge at FleetOwner ready to dive in on the technical and the topical inside and all-around trucking—and still turned a wrench or two. Or three.

Aaron previously wrote for FleetOwner.