Discovery Ford technician brings home national title

John Roman has proud family, 'mellow' co-workers

It still hasn't sunk in for John Roman that, for this year at least, he's the best of the best.

Roman, a technician at Discovery Ford, recently took first place at the national competition for the Ultimate Master Technician.

"The competition is a joint venture between Ford and (American Automobile Association, or) AAA," Roman said, explaining that the best two high school students from each state go to the national event and compete for the AAA side. "On the Ford side of it, it's the Ultimate Master Technician Challenge, which starts with an online exam and then out of the online exam, they take the best five scores for each region. Those guys go to regionals and compete, and whoever wins regional competition goes to the nationals to compete."

A total of 18 technicians competes at the national level out of about 3420 who took the online exam, Roman said.

"The competition is a hands-on deal where they actually put bugs in the vehicle," he said. "They have somebody that actually breaks the vehicle, and what they do is give you a repair order that gives you a vague idea of what's wrong with the vehicle, and you get an hour and a half to diagnose and repair the vehicle."

Roman said there was no secret to how he achieved victory, although he said that there was definitely some pressure.

"Just do what I do every day," he said. "I think the hardest part was dealing with the stress. If you can just relax and do your job, it's actually fairly easy on the hands on."

Once a person competes at the regional level, they can never compete again, Roman said.

"You get one shot; I think that's where all the pressure comes from," he said.

Roman said he is constantly getting calls from Dearborn to get his photo in the national advertisements, and that he will be in all Ford-distributed papers.

"It's a big deal with the Ford Motor Company," he said. "As far as (they are) concerned, I'm the number one guy this year. The best of the best that are out there."

Roman has lived in Moses Lake since 1976, worked for a Ford dealership since 1988 and has been at Discovery Ford since 1991.

"I enjoy what I do," he said. "I get great satisfaction out of repairing vehicles. I just kind of fell into it, actually. I started working at a Ford dealership for a part-time job before I went to college. I just started making more money and found out that I really enjoyed it. Then I trained and put it on the line and went all the way through apprentice technician, then senior technician, then senior master technician. Right now I've got the highest certification you can get from Ford Motor Company."

"Discovery Ford is proud to have helped John Roman win first place in the Ford National Ultimate Master Technician Challenge," said Peter Drake, services manager. "We have supported John by providing many years of technical training. His accomplishment reflects our commitment to providing the community of Moses Lake with a service department capable of repairing today's high-tech vehicles."

Roman said that his co-workers have been pretty mellow about the whole thing.

"After the national event, I don't know, maybe they just expected it; they haven't said anything," he said. "After regionals, one guy was really funny. He started calling me basically the Messiah: 'We're not worthy,' 'Forgive me Father, but I need your help,' and all kinds of other stupid stuff. The typical razz."

His family is a little more pleased.

"My kids are still a little young; I have two daughters, four and five," he said. "So they just think, 'Oh yay, Dad won again.' It's no big deal to them. My wife has been great. She's been supporting me through the whole thing; she's ecstatic. All my family members think it's great."