Even though they won about $4,000 in scholarships and took fifth place in the AAA/Ford Student Auto Skills contest in Sparks on Thursday, Cody Crosetti and Matt Nielsen said there were things they woulda, coulda, shoulda done.
"We missed two lights," said Nielsen. "I only checked to see if the brake lights were working."
"I wish I would have checked the lights," said Crosetti. "It was just stupid stuff we missed."
The Douglas High School auto skills team said they now follow a mantra of "lights, brights, left and rights."
Auto skills instructor Cade Baligad said he was extremely happy with how Crosetti and Nielsen performed in the competition where 10 teams from all over Nevada raced to see which could get a disabled car running.
The teams were judged not only on how fast they got the cars running but on how many problems were corrected.
"They were the first ones to get their car cranking," said Baligad. "It took them eight minutes from no start to running engine. The next team was 10 minutes behind them, but the coil pack hung them up and they missed two lights."
The Churchill High School team from Fallon went on to win in the state competition to go on to nationals in Dearborn, Mich.
"You should have seen them - they really stuck to their game plan," said Baligad.
"Missing the lights will bother me for a while," said Neilsen.
