Drivers showed off their parallel parking chops in Pittsburgh. The winner did it in 6 seconds

Clay Hartley won the 2026 Pittsburgh Parallel Parking Championship. He parked his vehicle in just six seconds impressing the judges. (Submitted by Dan Leber)Social SharingLISTEN | Parallel parking competitions are a thing:As It Happens5:30Drivers showed off their parallel parking chops in Pittsburgh. The winner did it in 6 secondsParallel parking is perhaps among many people’s least favourite part about driving. But Dan Leber loves it.

So much so, that he founded and organized the Pittsburgh Parallel Parking Championship. His first event in 2021 drew around 30 participants. This year, nearly 200 people competed.

The idea of watching other people park might sound mundane, but Leber says it’s more exciting than it seems. At the event, participants drive their vehicles into a parallel-parking space and are assigned points for accuracy, speed, and style.

To make things more interesting, Leber and his wife's vehicles are used as markers for drivers to park between. They've been damaged before, but Leber says he's not precious about it.

Hate parallel parking? Here's how the pros do it

Other cities have got in on the action as well, with competitions taking place in Portland and Philadelphia.

Leber says he’s proud he helped create a low-stakes, but fun way for adults to compete against each other. He spoke to As It Happens host Nil Köksal about why he’s passionate about parallel parking. 

Dan, what did Clay Hartley do to make him this year's Pittsburgh parallel parking champ?

He did a great job at parallel parking. The space is 20 feet, I think he parked in six seconds, which is remarkably quick. I feel like it was something like 10 or 12 centimetres to the curb, so it was an impressive job.

I thought I was pretty good, but six seconds is fast. Is that the fastest you've ever seen in all your years doing this?

No, six seconds isn't the fastest. I feel like the fastest is under four or five seconds.

Clay Hartley beat some 200 drivers to claim top spot at the 2026 Pittsburgh Parallel Parking Championship. (Submitted by Dan Leber)The formula someone told me ages ago when I was first learning to drive made it much easier for me. If you can stay calm and the space is a little bit roomy. Do you have a formula that you tell people who are still nervous?

Not really. If people are interested, I kind of give away the secret to winning the contest, which is you have to be lined up and you get one shot. Like you need to whip the car in there, hope that you're within, say six or seven inches of the curb, and then stop. There are so many people who get close and then they put the car in drive and pull up a foot and try to turn in and it's like you just lost it. 

You mentioned how long your championship has been around. There are competitors now and I want to read you a quote from a recent article in Rodent Track. “Pittsburgh's championship is arguably the loosest run event, as it falls short of banning back-up cameras and parking sensors.” How do you respond to that description?

I think that's hilarious that you bring that quote up because I saw that. I am so proud that we are the first to do this and it kind of originated in Pittsburgh. It's really fun to see how it evolves in other cities because each competition is different. But truthfully, I totally disagree with that sentiment. One of the comments we get most often is people talking about technology in cars, like self-parking and back-up sensors and cameras, and the reality is, when you've seen 700 nearly cars park and you understand the flow of how that works.

Enthusiastic volunteers helped Pittsburgh’s Parallel Parking Championship go on without speedbumps. (Submitted by Dan Leber)It's so clear that the folks who rely on those car aids they don't do well, they don't win, they don't come in second place. It's because they just don't feel the car well enough to do it quickly enough. Certainly you can park well, but it's not gonna take you to the top. The extra time it would take and the efficiency that we would lose in having to cover cameras and explain to [competitors] turn all the stuff off is not worth it, and the truth is that it just doesn't help you. 

It’s not an unfair advantage is what you’re saying. What is it that makes you love parallel parking so much? How do you explain that when people ask you why you would start this in the first place? 

I think it's interesting for a couple reasons. First of all, it's so low consequence and it doesn't matter. It’s not whether you're good or not, it has no bearing on anybody as a person.

I don't know. Some people use it as a major point of pride.

Yeah, sure, certain people can. But also it's something that most people do a lot and as an adult, I feel like you are less apt to be involved in sports and competitive things. And it's a really silly competitive thing that I think at an individual level, everybody feels and acknowledges alone in a car when they do it. So the idea of taking it to a place where it's a competition among others is really interesting and fun. And again, it's just silly, it doesn't mean anything. 

Any damage done to cars in the course of your six years of this competition?

Yeah, I mean damage is relative. We use my wife and my own car, front and back. Everybody comes in a good spirit and certainly some people go for it and the car has been hit, but not to cause any damage. Actually, this year was probably the wildest example of that. There was some guy in a mid-70s blue eight-foot Ford F-150 that was going for it and he somehow hit the curb and my van at the exact same time, which has never happened before.

And you're OK with that? Damage to your cars?

Yeah, they're not precious. Everything's fine.

Marcus Medford is an award-winning multimedia journalist based in Toronto. He's worked as a digital producer, chase producer and senior writer for CBC. He's also written for CTV News Channel and been a reporter for ByBlacks.com and NewCanadianMedia.ca. His interests include current affairs, politics, soccer and social issues. You can reach him with story ideas at Marcus.Medford-Kerr@cbc.ca.