Gearing Up With Gay: Auto teacher Brian Gay uses his knowledge as a former BMW Master Tech and current race car driver to teach students

Hidden in a corner of the basement that might be mistaken for a storage room, you’ll find yourself in a car wonderland — Room 102. Inside, there’s a teal Volkswagen bus to your right, an old green Jaguar on a car lift above and auto tech teacher Brian Gay, standing next to his vintage Lotus Formula.

He stands with a broken engine surrounded by eight senior boys in his Auto Technology 2 class going through yet another checklist about how to use the impact wrench to loosen its bolts.

Outside of lesson plans and changing tires on the class’ most recently donated car, he goes from high school teacher to a Porsche Club and vintage car racer, a scrutineer, a race official for Porsche club racing, and Porsche Club driving instructor.

He races Porsche sports cars and his favorite Lotus. As a driving instructor, he instructs drivers on the race track about how to race and provides training. He also checks cars for safety and legality such as engine sizes or suspensions while scrutineering.

However, his main priority is teaching — he saves all of his hobbies and side hustles for the weekends.

“Fortunately the racing stuff is usually on the weekends,” Gay said. “Occasionally, I’m gone on a Friday, but in general it eats up my weekends. Although, I can’t think of a better way to spend the weekends than racing.”

And before balancing all these jobs and hobbies, he was a BMW Master Tech  — the highest level of BMW mechanic. However, he applied to be a teacher after 10 years as a BMW Master Tech.

“I had gone as far as I could go with the master tech level knowledge,” Gay said. “I wanted a new challenge, and this [teaching job] opened up and I’ve never had a boring experience here at the school like I did at the dealerships.”

He’s brought in his knowledge from BMW and his current jobs or hobbies into his class by teaching real-world experiences and things you can’t see in a textbook.

“On the car side, I use my experiences as a mechanic to train the new students on the proper ways to do things or the lessons I’ve learned,” Gay said. “On the job side, it teaches the importance of showing up on time, every time. Also, teaching real-world expectations in the job market that not only help you keep a job but make you successful or get you promoted. Teach you how to get a career out of what you thought was a simple job.”

Auto Technology 1 and 2 student and senior Maddux Ohlund notices that Gay is adamant about teaching his students skills they can use later in life.

“He just knows how to help his students [in the real world] unlike other teachers can,” Ohlund said.

He teaches students everything they need to know to maintain and purchase a car in the intro class Auto Essentials, how cars work and identifying parts in Auto Tech 1, and in the highest classes, Auto Tech 2, actually restoring or fixing.

Gay’s knowledge from past jobs allows students who are uncertain if they want to explore future career paths as a car mechanic to decide which is right for them.

“[My classes] give you a chance to get a feel for what it’s really like to turn a wrench on a car on an everyday basis,” Gay said. “That way [students] can decide now in high school if they want to go on and do that in college and you’ve made the choice now as opposed to wasting your time in college.”