Skinned, split knuckles and aching arms are badges of honour for Canberra's newest winning team in the grand prix of engine building.
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The cream of Canberra's third year automotive apprentices have returned from Melbourne after successfully defending their "Flying Spanners" title as the fastest engine-building team at the annual MotorEx competition.
The winning Canberra Institute of Technology pairing of Kyle Macpherson and Oliver Kwong clocked 17mins 50secs for their V8 engine rebuild, which included three 30-second time penalties for incorrect nut or bolt tension.
In a close-run thing for the minor places against Melbourne's Kangan Institute, the second Canberra team of Riley Hunter and Brad Elliott finished in third place with two tension penalties.
Richard Lindsay and Adrian Gibbons were proud teachers on the long drive home to Canberra, the boot filled with two complete new sets of tools for the tired but happy winners.
"Our guys were in the crosshairs right from the start even though our apprentices this year are not the same as last year," Mr Lindsay said.
"Flying spanners is a difficult competition because to be the fastest requires excellent teamwork, cool heads, attention to detail and to have a very strict process."
Two apprentices race-build each identical engine, which starts as a stripped and bare block and crankshaft on a stand with all the complicated internal mechanical parts such as pistons, bearing caps and valves, sitting on a bench nearby.
Teams race the clock and each other, with the the spanners literally flying.
"I couldn't be prouder of our students and all their employers feel exactly the same way," Mr Lindsay said.
"There was a big audience watching live and online, and lots of pressure in the final."
He said the speed comes from working as a team; each member of the team knowing the process and picking up the right tool and reaching for the right part at the right time.
"A lot of the assembly tasks need two sets of hands almost working like one," he said.
"There's no shortcuts because at the end, the tensions are all checked and penalties added accordingly."
And the bigger picture of competitions such as these, he said, can't be ignored. Mr Lindsay was on the spanners for 22 years before he switched to teaching and he sees part of his role as finding ways to inspire and motivate the next generation of automotive mechanics.
"In today's environment where it's getting tough to recruit young people who want to be mechanics, events such as this are really important student motivators," he said.
"Not many apprentices get to work on high performance engines so this is challenging and very different."