Stephani Motors service manager Stan Viersen is proud of his team.
And he has reason to because recently four of the service technicians in his shop qualified for Chrysler Canada’s Master Tech provincial competition in Red Deer, on May 31.
Not only did they qualify but two of them came back with the hardware, Andrew Willcock placed first while Allan Lyslo placed third. Scott McBeth and Viersen were the technicians who qualified but opted out of the event.
Chrysler introduced the Master Tech program in 1947 to train dealership technicians on repair procedures and how to diagnose issues.
Originally the material featured filmstrips and audios recording featuring “Tech” a small wooden puppet with a gruff voice.
Since then the training has morphed into monthly online courses.
“A lot of it is technical information on new technology that is being developed or has just been released and we’ll soon be encountering,” Viersen said.
To qualify for the provincial competition, technicians have to complete 11 out of the 12 monthly training courses after which they complete a comprehensive written test.
The ten technicians with the highest scores in this test then go on to compete in the Master Tech Challenge.
“Just qualifying for the competition itself is a feat and then to have them do as well as they did ... we really are proud of them,” Viersen said.
Andrew Willcock
Willock, a Linaria native, said he has always had an interest in automobiles and mechanics, however, he wasn’t sure if he wanted to pursue it as a career until he took the automotive course at R.F. Staples Secondary School.
After graduating, he decided to work towards getting his journeyman certification through NAIT and working at the Neerlandia Co-op Service Centre.
“This is when it was still in the hamlet,” he said.
From there Willcock moved to Brown’s Chrysler in Westlock before eventually taking a job at Stephani Motors where he has been for the last 12 years.
The competition itself is short and sweet, Willcock said, noting the technicians are given 10-minutes to troubleshoot and hopefully solve a mechanical or electrical issue on a vehicle.
In Willcock and Lyslo’s case, a customer had come in with a 2019 Jeep Cherokee, with a seemly faulty power seat.
“Whether you solve the problem or not is almost inconsequential, given the short amount of time,” Willcock said. “They focus more on whether you know your procedures and know how to use the diagnostic tools and service information, how to check service bulletins and wiring diagrams things like that will eventually help solve the problem.”
Competitors wait together in a room and go to the service centre separately to complete the challenge. Willcock went sixth.
“Sometimes it can be a little nervewracking waiting there, but I have been there a few times now, so I’m wasn’t too nervous,” he said.
It’s in the genes
Ever since he could remember Lyslo had an interest and aptitude in anything mechanical.
“I come by it naturally, my dad was a mechanic and when I was growing up in Ryley, I was always taking apart and fixing lawnmowers, things like that since I was seven years old,” he said.
However, Lyslo officially has been in the automotive trade since 1989 when he started his apprenticeship in nearby Tofield.
From there he moved on to Brown’s Chrysler in Westlock and about a year and a half ago Lyslo joined Stephani Motors.
This year will make the fourth time Lyslo qualified for the provincial Master Tech competition. Two years ago he won it.
Like Willcock, the problem he faced was a 2019 Jeep Cherokee with an electric seat that wouldn’t move.
Lyslo agreed with Willcock saying the trick of doing well at these competitions is to work the problem by following the proper diagnostic procedure.
“You know they’ve done something to bug the car and the mistake a lot of people make is trying to figure out what they’ve done rather than go through the actual diagnostic process,” he said, adding by working the problem he was able to determine the issue was a communication with the seat module caused by a grounded communication line.
The other key to doing well in the competition is to verbalize everything you are doing.
“[The judges] they can’t read your mind so you have to get in the habit of talking, basically telling them what you are doing and why you are doing it. A lot of guys get tripped up on that because it is something that doesn’t come naturally to them,” Lyslo said.
He added it isn’t something that is comes to him naturally either, but it is something he has been working on because in the future he hopes to move past the provincial level. Chrysler Canada divides the country into regions. The next step from provincials is the company’s Western Canada Master Tech Challenge. Unfortunately, although he won the provincial competition two years ago, he like Willcock this year didn’t score well enough to make it to the next level.
“But there’s always next year,” he said. “We got a pretty good group of guys and we get along well and we all help and push each other so you never know.”
In 2014, then Stephani Motors mechanic Arnold Viersen (now Peace River - Westlock MP) was crowned western Canadian champion.
