The Hot Rodders of Tomorrow competition, which now includes hundreds of students from across the US, came from humble roots. In 2008, Jim Bingham, owner of Winners Circle Speed & Custom in Joliet, Illinois, put on the inaugural Race and Performance Expo in St. Charles, Illinois, a SEMA Show-like event for the greater Chicagoland area. Within the Expo was The Engine Challenge, where 35 students from five high schools competed to build four junkyard engines.
Vic Edelbrock Jr. was among the Expo's attendees that year. He recognized The Engine Challenge as a way to engage and encourage young enthusiasts in the automotive industry. Edelbrock shared that vision with Bingham, who ran with the idea and created Hot Rodders of Tomorrow (HROT). In just a year, the competition grew to 35 teams participating at three events.
Today, Bingham's son Rodney oversees the program, which has expanded to include qualifying events from coast to coast. Winner's Circle Speed & Custom is HROT's base of operation.
The Essence of Motorsports
As Edelbrock envisioned, HROT functions as one of the best programs to get students involved in the automotive industry. At the heart of the program is the essence of motorsports—competition.
HROT is a disassembly and reassembly style of competition. The engine is "all together at the beginning," Bingham explained. "They have to take everything down to the cam and the crank. All their tools and all the components have to be disassembled. Their area has to be cleaned. Then they run behind the counter. Once they're cleared by the judges, they can start building. That starts the reassembly phase."
Teams initially race the clock, but as the competition progresses, they eventually compete against other school teams. The competition has penalties. "If a student were to get under the engine, that's a safety zone infraction," Bingham said. "They'll get pulled out and assessed a time penalty. Dropping certain parts of the engine—for example, the carburetor and stuff that could break—has heavier time penalties." If a pushrod is dropped, for example, a team member must pick it up, wipe it, and re-oil it.
There are typically five students competing on a team, with an alternate student if necessary. A student behind the 8-foot by 3-foot workbench prepares components for the other four students tasked with reassembly.
To ensure the highest levels of competition, standards are applied for all students and school districts involved in the program. Each team trains and competes using a 350-cubic inch small block Chevy equipped with hydraulic rollers.
"It's a 1986 through 1993-ish block," said Bingham. "The small block Chevy works really well when we're trying to teach the basic core principles of the engine and working as a team."
Qualifying events typically begin in February and run through July. "We partner with different shows, different schools, and we have qualifiers where the teams show up. They have to run 33 minutes, with time penalties, and they're being judged to qualify to get to the finals," Bingham explained.
Finals take place at the SEMA Show or PRI Show. There can be some logistical difficulties due to the participating teams' school schedules. "Currently, teams are practicing and getting ready for next year's finals [in 2026]," Bingham said. "As soon as we finish this year's finals in December, we will jump right into our season because the school year is going on.
"We have eight qualifiers this year. They're strictly against the clock because they only have to hit that qualifying time. When they get to the PRI Show, they're head-to-head. Whoever is the fastest is going to be the national champion."
Passionate Stakeholders
Lack of school funding is an unfortunate reality for the HROT program. Bingham and others involved with HROT work constantly to expand the program so it can include as many students who want to participate as possible. Fortunately, there are stakeholders in the program who feel just as passionately about the opportunities HROT provides its student competitors.
"Many of these instructors use money out of their own pocket to make this event happen in the first place," Bingham said.
Aftermarket manufacturing companies have also embraced the Bingham family vision of student empowerment.
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