Penske Truck Leasing has named its 15 finalists for the 2012-2013 National Technical Challenge, an in-house competition for its truck maintenance technician workforce.

These Penske employees are bound for the Tech Challenge finals in Winston-Salem, N.C., on Jan. 16, 2013. There were 1,252 Penske associates competing in this voluntary event.

The company holds the event every other year. It is designed to provide maintenance techs with skills testing through hands-on and written assessments.

There are two components: a two-person vehicle systems competition, which measures knowledge of electrical and diagnostics systems, among others; and a solo preventive maintenance event, testing that a truck’s operations are running correctly and that various parts are still functioning properly.

“I’m looking forward to seeing these talented technicians compete for top honors at the Tech Challenge finals in a few weeks,” stated Bill Jacobelli, Penske senior vice president of maintenance. “This is a competition that Penske takes great pride in hosting.”

Here are the Tech Challenge regional champions:

VS denotes vehicle systems, a two-person competition. PM denotes preventive maintenance, a one-person event.

Northeast Region

VS: Bruno Dube (Laval, Quebec) and Mario Castagnier (Saint-Laurent, Quebec)

PM: Michael Murphy (Framingham, Mass.)

Southeast Region

VS: Charles Schley (Mobile, Ala.) and Thomas Coxon (Pensacola, Fla.)

PM: Brandon Costner (Charlotte, N.C.)

North Central Region

VS: Bob Shaw (Canton, Ohio) and John Crawford (Oakwood, Ohio)

PM: Chris Bringman (Brookpark, Ohio)

South Central Region

VS: David Rosko and Daniel Bialowas (both of Pittsburgh)

PM: Dylan Wyrick (Austin, Texas)

Western Region

VS: Mike Edmonds and James Gage (both of West Valley City, Utah)

PM: David Bridgeman (Portland, Ore.)

By Alen Beljin