Maui High School students Mitchell Borge and Lawrence Paet captured fifth place in the national 2013 Ford/AAA Student Auto Skills Finals in Dearborn, Mich. Tuesday.

Borge and Paet repaired a 2013 Ford Explorer XLT in 73 minutes, 58 seconds, turning in a "perfect SUV."

Only the top five teams turned in perfectly repaired vehicles, said Shannon Rowe, the team’s instructor at Maui High, himself a former Hawaii state champion and national second-place finisher of the Ford/AAA competition from 1996.

A written test was part of the competition, and the lads scored 126 of 200 possible points, said Rowe. Each incorrect answer added an "18-second penalty" to their total time, he said, even though all the repairs were perfect.

The two-student team from Oregon reprised that state’s 2012 first-place win by finishing in 55 minutes, 57 seconds. That team’s written score was unavailable, but it coupled with its perfect repair time to clinch the national title for Oregon for the second year.

All the vehicles in the competition were identically "bugged," to start the contest fairly.

Teams from Maui High have represented Hawaii at the national finals for at least 17 years and have placed in the top 10 in 11 of those years. Maui High also won national titles in 1995 and 2000, and this is Rowe’s second consecutive top-five win, as his team took second place last year.

Borge and Paet "did a great job," AAA Hawaii General Manager Liane Sumida said in a statement. They "upheld the tradition of Maui High finishing well in the national final … an outstanding achievement."

The guys are equally stoked.

Between graduation and training for the nationals, life has been "busy, but it’s all worth it," Paet told TheBuzz.

Borge said he "feels great now" after all the stress of training for competition, first at the state level and more recently the nationals.

The problem they had to diagnose and repair "was pretty tough, but we did what we could," Borge said, which was to turn in a perfect repair, completed under the stress of a timed competition among other top teams.

The vehicle problems they had to find and fix included bad fuses, an unplugged alternator, an air-conditioner vent needing repair.

More than $11 million in prizes and scholarships were up for grabs in the national competition, and the Valley Islanders won a $10,000 scholarship per student to Automotive Training Center; a $1,000 scholarship per student to Lincoln Educational Services; a $1,000 scholarship per student to Universal Technical Institute; and an $8,500 scholarship per student to the University of Northwestern Ohio.

Both young men have been taking auto shop "since Day One" in high school, each said.

Borge likely will attend the Universal Technical Institute, as did his auto mechanic father, so he can continue following in his footsteps.

Auto mechanics as a career "wasn’t really a goal at first," Paet said. "It was just something I had a passion for." But now it’s both, he said.

Upon returning home he will discuss his educational options with his parents, who "totally support me, wherever I want to go," he said.

In the meantime, following Tuesday’s competition they looked forward to a post-competition banquet, and were able to let the specialness of their trip to Ford Motor Co. headquarters sink in.

"It’s pretty awesome," said Paet.

They toured the facility and were able to go places "they don’t allow regular visitors to see — we got special access."

Neither he nor Borge had ever seen an automotive manufacturing line, nor had they even seen buildings quite so large.

They also got to meet AAA and Ford executives as well as NASCAR driver Trevor Bayne.

"I’ll remember it for the rest of my life," said Paet.

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Reach Erika Engle at 529-4303, erika@staradvertiser.com or on Twitter as @erikaengle.