It was 115 degrees in the shade when Arlington's three most competitive mechanics began to prove themselves.
Frank Colon, Scott McCombie and Tim Stein, mechanics in Arlington's support services division, found themselves in California last September, cobbling together an off-road vehicle, a truck to climb the side of a mountain, under the watchful eye of television cameras, in blistering hot weather.
But the trio, calling themselves the Pit Crew, proved themselves the equals of the task, with a win on the June 5 edition of Junkyard Wars. The reality-TV competition, on cable's The Learning Channel, pits two teams against one another in a competition to create complex machines out of flotsam and jetsam scrap metal in a California junkyard over the course of 10 hours, with the help of an expert in whatever field they need. The next day, the teams pit their machines against one another in competition.
In the past, competitors have built air pumps for underwater diving suits, land yachts and hovercrafts. Colon, McCombie and Stein found themselves with a relatively easy task: create a car that will travel up a rough track on a steep, off-road slope.
"Junkyard Wars" began its life in England as "Scrapheap Challenge," airing on the BBC, before jumping to TLC in America. In the states, it gained a whole new edge, perhaps stemming from the name.
But the Pit Crew, Colon said, took the show to a whole new level of competition.
<b>BUILDING AND REBUILDING</b> cars and trucks is nothing new for the three, Arlington employees for almost two years. McCombie, 35, and Stein, 37, work on the county's heaviest vehicles, repairing Arlington's fire trucks, garbage trucks and bulldozers, and team captain Colon, 44, is one of the chief welders working on county owned vehicles.
They were working with a Chris Adamson, an expert picked, and the Pit Crew had its own ace in the hole: McCombie grew up in North Carolina, cutting his teeth working on monster trucks and farm tractors.
All three brought some special experience, added knowledge to their mechanical skills, that helped them win in the first round of competition. Stein has worked as a mechanic and locksmith, and is training his dog for search and rescue operations. Colon grew up in Brownsville, a Brooklyn, N.Y., neighborhood, before becoming a welder, building nuclear submarines and working for developer Til Hazell before coming to Arlington.
Their competition, a trio of airplane pilots from California, seemed to have come up with a lightweight vehicle that could lap the Pit Crew's heavier car on the side of the mountain. But in the end, the Arlington employees won out, advancing to the "Junkyard Wars" semi-finals, set to air this Wednesday, June 19.
The secret to Pit Crew machines was simplicity.
"We kept it simple, and junk," Colon said. "We had a blast."
The real competition was the heat. "It was so hot, heat stroke was a real possibility," said Stein. "We drank three gallons of water apiece, and never had to go to the bathroom that day."
Winning was the whole point, according to Colon. "We went out to win," he said. "Because who ever remembers who came in second place?"
<b>SITTING AROUND A CONFERENCE</b> table after their "Junkyard" appearances, the Pit Crew members are a rowdy bunch, swapping stories about the competition, and about hitting bars on the Los Angeles Strip with the show’s crew after hours.
At first, the camera crew wasn’t ready for the Pit Crew, and there was no sitting around conference tables. "They didn’t know how to take us," Colon said. "They tried to keep the camera on all three of us, and we’re very spontaneous."
The culture clashes started when the Arlington employees touched down at the LA airport, picked up by a young woman, a production assistant for the show. They decided to play up their own distinctive qualities: "a Puerto Rican guy from Brooklyn, Hillbilly Jim and Sergeant Slaughter," Colon said.
To that end, on the drive from the airport, McCombie said, he began cleaning his fingernails with a pocketknife and asking embarrassing questions of the demure assistant.
In the end, though, they said that Cathy Rogers, the British creator of Junkyard Wars, gave them credit where it was due.
"She said, ‘You guys are real characters, and that’s what we need on TV,’" Colon said.
<b>IN THE SEMI-FINALS</b> the Pit Crew found themselves facing a new challenge: a fire-fighting boat, and an expert they couldn’t stand.
"He wasn’t an expert, and he didn’t have an idea for a pump," McCombie said.
In addition, they had to deal with infighting, brought on, they said, by their poorly conceived fire-fighting boat. "We had some tough moments," Colon said. "There was tension between us."
They faced a team of undergraduates from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the favorites to win, McCombie said. Both teams created designs based on motorcycle engines, and the game took a turn for the underhanded after the MIT team, "The Geeks" found all of the working motorcycles in the junkyard.
Whichever team wins, whether Arlington’s own Pit Crew or The Geeks, end up on the Junkyard Wars championship, airing on June 26.
While the Pit Crew went to win, they also said they were happy just to be in the competition. "Out of 1,700 videos, Arlington County was one of the teams selected," said Stein. The three of us got what we need."
"It was full tilt," McCombie said. "There was no time. It was either a blast, wrenching frustration of blistering heat."
Colon summed up their time on the show. "The Pit Crew got dirt," he said. "We were down in the pit