Vegas, baby! That’s where we want to send the best and brightest young diesel technician in the industry—and a guest—this November for SEMA/AAPEX 2026. We will pick up the airfare and a two-night hotel stay, and this paragon of repair excellence will pick up the first ever Best Young Diesel Tech Award. The award’s fine sponsors, including ASE, Litens, Wix Filters, and Worldpac, will provide a little something special as well.
If that’s not enough, we will immortalize the winner via a profile in our October issue.
You’re probably wondering what one would have to do to be showered with such prizes and recognition. It’s simple. First, get someone to nominate you by filling out our online form. The nominee must be under 35 years of age as of May 15, 2026, when our nomination period ends. (And for all those out there saying 35 isn’t young, you’re wrong and I am envious of your youthful ignorance.)
And with “diesel” in the award name, the nominee should spend a majority of their time maintaining and repairing diesel-powered commercial vehicles so make sure to tick that box on the form. Some ag and heavy equipment is fine, but basically we’re trying to recognize someone who works on trucks. They should also be ASE-certified.
If you are reading this and know an awesome auto tech, the online form will enter you in Motor Age’s Best Young Tech Award program if you say “no” to the diesel question.
The question portion is where the nominator has a chance to impress our judges, which include the discerning Fleet Maintenance staff and our editorial board comprising some of the most respected voices in heavy-duty repair.
We want to know:
- How the nominee got to their current role (a.k.a. the hero’s journey)
- How the nominee has impacted the shop (give us real examples and hard data)
- Any accolades, awards, certifications that show their technical skill level and commitment to the trade
- About the nominee’s character, work ethic, teamwork, integrity, and soft skills
- And for the kicker, what makes this nominee most deserving
I don’t expect flowery prose and every detail of the tech’s life, but think of it like a work order. We need to diagnose who is most deserving, so the more accurate you are, the better the chance your nominee will be selected.
And please remember “best” doesn’t necessarily mean who can overhaul an engine the fastest or has the most certifications or highest throughput. Let us know that stuff, but also consider who stays late to fix someone else’s mistakes, or even has to leave early to perform some community service. This is a business magazine, so they also earn points for innovating a new workflow or finding a way to generate more revenue or cut costs.
In short, who among your qualifying colleagues do you most want to be like?
As a real example of who has a great shot to meet us in Las Vegas, I present to you last year’s Best Young Tech winner, Cawens Fleurilus. The auto tech was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti and came to the U.S. after the catastrophic 2010 earthquake. Living in Florida, he quickly learned English and earned his GED. Two years later he enrolled in Toyota’s T-TEN Advanced Automotive Program, not even knowing how to do an oil change. But within six years he worked his way up to Toyota Master ASE Technician.
Fleurilus would go on to take leadership roles, continue his education, and become an automotive repair instructor for the Broward County School Board. Currently he develops and delivers advanced technical training curriculum for Southeast Toyota Distributors.
In his off time, the married father of two volunteers helping low-income families as a board member for the Broward Community and Family Health Centers.
I witnessed Fleurilus receive his award at the Venetian Expo and Caesars Forum last year, where what seemed like a dozen or so of his family members were on hand to see him get the award, all as happy as if he just won millions on a slot machine. I’ve become quite cynical in my old age (mid-40s), but I’ll be damned if it wasn’t the most purely good thing that went down in Sin City that week, if not whole year. I don’t know. I heard the Wizard of Oz show at the Sphere was pretty nice, too, but my money is on the Fleurilus family.
Don’t worry if your nominee can’t compare to that. Most techs in the industry have had to work hard and overcome challenges. The hardest part is sitting down and putting it all into words. My advice as someone who does this stuff for a living: Just talk to the person you want to nominate with the questions in mind, take some notes, and put them on the form.
Have Claude or ChatGPT help if you need. All it takes is spending 10 minutes with your best tech, or ideally, you already know enough about them to knock it out right away.
But most of all, when one tech in your shop wins an award like this, it’s a giant morale boost to your entire company and tells customers and partners you take “best” practices seriously. It may even help other techs in the shop strive to be better and attract new hires who want to work with the top-tier techs.
The only thing to ask yourself now is what have you got to lose? They might even take you as the plus one.
About the Author
John Hitch
Editor-in-chief, Fleet Maintenance
John Hitch is the award-winning editor-in-chief of Fleet Maintenance, where his mission is to provide maintenance leaders and technicians with the the latest information on tools, strategies, and best practices to keep their fleets' commercial vehicles moving.
He is based out of Cleveland, Ohio, and has worked in the B2B journalism space for more than a decade. Hitch was previously senior editor for FleetOwner and before that was technology editor for IndustryWeek and and managing editor of New Equipment Digest.
Hitch graduated from Kent State University and was editor of the student magazine The Burr in 2009.
The former sonar technician served honorably aboard the fast-attack submarine USS Oklahoma City (SSN-723), where he participated in counter-drug ops, an under-ice expedition, and other missions he's not allowed to talk about for several more decades.