By Eric Stock

NORMAL – There’s an unlikely link between the two teens who have won new cars through Tri-County Operation Cool in the last two years.

University High School junior Logan Wolf and last year’s winner, Jacob Day of Heyworth, go way back.

“We’ve been best friends since preschool,” Wolf said to Susan Saunders on WBNQ. “Coming out of the place last night my mom called his mom and his mom was ecstatic”

Logan recalled Jacob encountered a similar obstacle when he tried to start the car with what he hoped was the winning key.

“I remember last year, Jacob said his key didn’t work, so he told me to keep trying this year if I got the chance to do it,” Wolf said.

Logan was among nearly 250 students from 19 high schools in McLean, Livingston and DeWitt counties who were awarded prizes at Wednesday’s event at Normal West High School. He also won a portable DVD player.

He joked the new Outlander is cooler than what his parents drive.

“They got a brand new van, but yeah, I do have the best vehicle right now,”Wolf said.

Mitsubishi and State Farm sponsor Operation Cool as a teen safe driving initiative. Former DeWitt County Sheriff Roger Massey helped create Operation Cool after his daughter was killed in a car crash in 1997.

Eric Stock can be reached at [email protected].