Racing Enthusiast Teaches With Enthusiasm
NOVA’s Applied Technologies programs offer career-related courses designed to allow students to master technical skills that lead directly to employment in high-demand fields. Among those programs is Automotive Technology.
The curriculum offers an Associate of Applied Science degree and several Career Studies Certificates. Offered at both the Alexandria and Manassas campuses, it is designed to train technicians for the automotive industry.
NOVA is fortunate to have dedicated and experienced faculty members with hands-on experience in the industry. Among them is Gary Phares. He has worked in NOVA’s automotive technology program since 1978 after earning multiple automotive certificates and degrees with honors.
“When I was going through the program, I thought how cool it would be to work here,” Phares said, “and that dream came true.” He is certified as a Master Technician by the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence and is a certified machinist. A lifelong learner, Phares has also taken numerous welding and engineering classes at NOVA.
“I still love my job,” Phares said after 44 years as a lab assistant and adjunct instructor. “I perform maintenance and repair of all the equipment in our automotive, diesel and welding labs. I also do recruitment for our programs.”
A race car driver for over 35 years, his best recruitment tool is his dragster. “It is amazing to see students come into our program, sometimes years later, that became really enthused about the industry after seeing my race car and hearing about my experiences at NOVA,” he said.
“I actually have two drag race cars,” Phares said. “The first one, a 1968 Chevy Camaro we built here in the automotive program back in 1983.” He has won several track championships in the Super Pro class at Sumerduck Dragway driving that car.
“In 1993, I purchased a rear engine dragster minus the engine and transmission,” he added. “We built an engine and transmission here, and I won a race the first day out with the car. The car runs the 1/8-mile track at 5.51 seconds at just under 130 miles per hour.”
On June 18, he won six rounds of competition at the dragstrip and lost in the final round of competition. “Not bad for an old guy in an old car,” Phares said. “Drag racing has given me knowledge in the world of high-performance engine and transmission building. I pass this knowledge along to students, as well.”
“I feel that our automotive program is the best deal for the money anywhere,” he added. “Students can live at home and that is a huge savings compared to the costs of other programs. I feel that the only way we could improve our program would be to build another building so that we could offer more classes.”
He tells potential students that they can earn a lot of money if they go through the NOVA program and apply themselves. “I warn them that they will only get out of their education what they actually put into it,” Phares said. “The automotive industry is the original pay-for-performance industry.”
He added that he also warns students that “if they don’t like learning new things, then this is not the field for them. I have worked in the automotive field for 50 years now and I still learn new things about vehicles every day.”
Submitted by:
Dana Kauffman, Director of Govt. Affairs, TKauffman@nvcc.edu