A $14,400 jackpot, one winner, absolute carnage — a perfect Crash to Pass

“I’ve never seen a car race, but I can see why people love this; it’s fun carnage.”

That’s from a crowd member seeing their first-ever Bob Willson Memorial Crash to Pass race on Thursday, July 16.

A total of 38 vehicles registered for this year’s race; however, the Crash to Pass is a battle of attrition, and only 22 vehicles rolled across the Start/Finish line in the main event.

More than 4,000 people crowded the hill of the Goldpan Speedway

The races started with Qualifying runs, consisting of one warm-up lap followed by a flyer per driver. Followed by a “Best Appearance” that went to the Udder Chaos Moo-Van.

The races themselves were pure carnage and perfection. With five red flags during the Main Event, and multiple cars catching fire after they were Dead in the Water.

Multiple cars had to limp across the Finish Lines during their respective Dashes and Heats.

Car, or rather Truck 30, the Tam-Mater, driven by Tanner Thayer, took himself out of the race during his Dash. After harrying his competition during the warm-up lap, Thayer only managed to get one lap around the track before a bump with another car he caused, followed by a bump on the track surface, snapped the Tam-Mater’s drivetrain and axis. Which sadly meant a fan favourite character car was out before the Main Event.

Car 67, the Princess Peach Kart, driven by Makiya Neadow, the sole female driver this year, crunched another car so hard that her ride had some issues during the main event that made her have to retire. But she had a great drive in her first-ever Crash to Pass.

There was one brutal rollover during the Car Heat race with Car 077 driven by Patrick Foley. Foley was able to walk out of the vehicle and, after being checked, had no major injuries, thankfully. He, of course, made sure to give a wave to the crowd to show he was okay.

During the Main Event, last year’s winner, Kyle Syversten, driving his number 15 Truck, was one of the main targets. Syversten completed around seven laps during the main event before being driven into the new addition of the Goldpan Speedway, the 750-foot concrete wall.

As promised by coordinator Dustin Brown, the new wall caused some great new carnage and a good challenge for the drivers. The wall forced drivers to either commit into Turn 1, hit someone, or hit the wall.

In the Main Event, the surviving cars were eliminated one by one until the finale.

Car 95, driven by Clarke O’Flynn, had an absolute flying race and made it into the final four cars on track. O’Flynn ended six drivers’ races before finally being taken out by the new wall.

In the end, only two cars were left: Car 17, Oscar the Grouch, driven by Matthew McAbee, and the 777x Cow Truck, driven by Brandon Crowe.

The two had to spin around and run the track in reverse sometimes to be able to try and hit each other. At one point, they front-end to front-end and tried to burn each other out. The battle was so fierce that both of their cars’ engines stalled and then burned out, nearly ending in a foot race as Crowe and McAbee desperately tried to get the engines re-fired. Finally, McAbee was able to ignite Oscar the Car and quite literally limped his car through the final laps of the race to the Checkered Flag and the win.

“Yeah, it’s just awesome,” McAbee said on his win. “Just love it and love the crowd. You know, once I was in the car I just drove until the car gave out.”

There was a 50/50 Jackpot of $14,400, split between two winners, each taking home $7,200. The other half of the 50/50 will be going towards the Quesnel Volunteer Fire Department.

A special thanks was asked to be written to go out to the volunteers and Firefighters that provided coordination, medical, and emergency services throughout the race. They were fast and responsive at getting the drivers out of the damaged cars safely.