City mechanics to compete for Castrol Golden Spanner Award

Release date: 16 January 2009

The second Castrol Golden Spanner Awards – a search for India’s Best Car Mechanic, kicked off in Pune today, with over 250 local car mechanics participating in this exciting and unique event.

The Castrol Golden Spanner Awards were instituted in 2008 with the objective of recognising and honouring the most skilled and knowledgeable ‘Ustaad’ car mechanics across India. Over 5000 mechanics participated in the competition last year and more than 200 mechanics emerged as members of this elite ‘Ustaad’ group in 2008.

This year, the contest will be held in 17 cities and will reach out to over 10,000 mechanics. There are three stages in the competition. In the first stage, local non-franchised workshop mechanics will be contacted in each city and invited to attend the launch of this competition and enrol for it, at a Mechanic Mahasammellan. Besides understanding the rules and format of the competition, the mechanics will also have the opportunity to undergo a health check-up, gain knowledge about the latest technologies and enhance their soft skills on customer relations. The programme will also include an entertainment programme for the mechanics.

Stage II will include the City level semi-finals and finals which will be a test of knowledge, hands-on-skills and customer centricity. The winner of the City level competition will represent the City at the National Finals. This year’s finals will evaluate the mechanics’ real life, practical, diagnostic and repair skills on actual cars, besides testing their theoretical knowledge as well.

Today’s event in Pune drew large crowds and besides first-timers, most mechanics who had participated last year were also present to enrol in the contest. They included last year’s Pune Champion – Mr. Sanjay Ghanekar, who was very excited about getting another opportunity to participate in the competition. Commenting on the event, Mr Ghanekar said, “The Castrol Golden Spanner Mechanic Award has given me recognition in society. No other company offers such a platform to mechanics and I was indeed delighted to have won the Castrol Golden Spanner Award for Pune in 2008. My status within the mechanic fraternity and society has been enhanced and it has also positively impacted my business. I am looking forward to the challenge this year as well. I am confident that with last year’s experience behind me, I will do as well and win again. Last year, the Castrol Golden Spanner Training Academy gave me training on engines, driving safety and customer handling, all of which greatly benefited me in upgrading my skills and keeping me updated with the changing technology in cars.”

According to Ms. Anuradha Bambawale – Marketing Manager, Passenger Car Oils, Castrol India Limited, “The event offers us an opportunity to recognise mechanics who are our key customers. It also gives us a platform to interact with them and share our knowledge about lubricants, vehicles and customer relationship management. We are delighted with the response that we got for the Castrol Golden Spanner Awards in 2008 and this year’s edition promises to be even bigger and better with a grand finale event.”

Over 200 mechanics were enrolled in the Pune leg of the competition and will now have an opportunity to be recognized as the Pune City Winner of the Castrol Golden Spanner Award 2009, at the City Finals to be held in May this year. They will also get a chance to contest in the National Finals to be held in June 2009.