Pat Jones presents David Fitzpatrick with a Young Enterprise of the Year nomination at the Greater Dandenong Premier Regional Business Awards yesterday.Sarah Schwager
A NEW design for car gearboxes has earned David Fitzpatrick a nomination for the Young Enterprise of the Year.
Mr Fitzpatrick was presented to local businesses at the Premier Regional Business Awards breakfast in Dandenong yesterday (Wednesday).
The 25yearold Seaford resident came up with the idea for the ‘sequential shifter’, which is attached to a gear box and allows the driver to move the gear shifter back and forwards rather than in the usual ‘H’ pattern.
Pat Jones from Chisholm TAFE, who presented the award, said the fourwheel drive enthusiast had progressed in leaps and bounds since finishing his engineering degree at Monash University in 2003.
Mr Jones said Mr Fitzpatrick, who was born in Brazil and grew up in Colorado in the United States, started work as a machine operator and was promoted to production engineer at DAIR Industries within a year.
Mr Fitzpatrick said he had been nominated by Geoff Hodgens and was quite surprised.
“It feels good,” he said.
“I feel proud that he actually nominated me.”
Mr Jones said it was great to see the modifications Mr Fitzpatrick made to the original cell he had worked on to make it easier to operate.
