AASP/NJ’s Third Annual NORTHEAST Bodywork Bowl Brings Out the Best

The third iteration of the fun and friendly competition once again drew crowds of spectators to watch as collision repair professionals jumped into the ring to test their skills in the areas of estimating, painting and welding.

“It’s encouraging to see this event become a highlight on the NORTHEAST floor in such a short amount of time,” states AASP/NJ President Ken Miller. “It’s a fun test of skills and our winners this year got to take home some pretty great prizes! This year’s event exceeded expectations, drawing the most competitors to date and spectators crowded around the Bodywork Bowl arena to cheer on the competitors. It’s become a staple that is here to stay.”

Winners of the Bodywork Bowl Collision Repair Skills Competition are as follows:

Estimating – First place: Tyler McNee; Second place: Doug Begin; Third place: Kelly Bauer

Painting – First place: Riki Ventura; Second place (tied): Avihash Budram and Matthew Spicer

Body/Welding – First place: Hugo Morales; Second place: Phil Hendrickson; Third place: Mike Keenan

Various vendors took part in the competition by providing equipment and prizes, helping to make the event a huge success! CCC Intelligent Solutions and Enterprise Rent-A-Car provided the materials for the estimating competition. Prizes included $500 in cash for the first place winner, $200 and a swag bag for the second place winner, and the third place recipient received a $100 cash award. AkzoNobel sponsored the painting competition with the first place winner receiving a paint gun set, the two winners who tied for second and third place received swag bags. Chief Collision Technology/Collision Equipment Consulting, Metropolitan Car-o-liner, Nitrol Innovations and Solidus contributed to the body/welding competition. The first place winner of the body/welding category received a brand new mig welder from Chief Collision Technology/Collision Equipment Consulting, second received a fender stand and third place took home a welding jacket.

Plans are already underway for NORTHEAST 2026 set for March 20-22, 2026 at the Meadowlands Exposition Center in Secaucus, NJ. Be sure to visit aaspnjnortheast.com for details once they become available.

Check out the full recap on NORTHEAST 2025 in the April edition of New Jersey Automotive, available via grecopublishing.com. For more information about AASP/NJ, visit aaspnj.org.