The day after Thanksgiving, each year, Orlando SpeedWorld holds their semi-annual Crash-A-Rama event. Imagine normal round track races, with a twist.
Instead of simply racing, each race has variables added to them to make it more difficult for the drivers, and more entertaining for the spectators. For instance…
75 Lap, no yellow Race – If a car wrecks, it stays.
- Flying Elvis – Stuntman who jumps a bus, then lands on top of/in a camper
- Motorcycle Demolition Derby – Really, not kidding. They took six brand new Hondas and trashed them
- Figure-Eight School Bus Races
- Push Car Races – Teams of two cars have to work together to “push” the third, non-powered car through the finish line
- Flagpole Race – Normal race around the track, but the drivers have to loop the flagpole (in this case Elvis’ camper) after each lap
- Sled Car Races – Front-wheel drive cars have their back wheels removed and replaced with metal sleds. Talk about “drifting”.
- Front Wheel Drive Demolition Derby
- Full Size Demolition Derby
- Camper/Boat Trailer Race – The highlight of the evening.
The event coordinators do an excellent job of planning the evening, so that there is a minimum gap between events. Additionally, the events are planned so that they are progressively more destructive. Which, by the end of the night, causes the entire race track to look like a war zone.
The highlight of the evening, by far, is the Camper/Boat trailer races. There is everything from boats without trailers to full airstream campers on the track. The only rule is that the winner, must be pulling “something” at the end of the race. Check out the video below.
Jennifer was not feeling good, so I took the boys. A few family and friends joined along. After the event, we all agreed, this is definitely going to be a new Thanksgiving tradition. Next year we are getting more people to come, and we are going to make more of an event of it, by tailgating beforehand.
If you are like me, and could honestly care less about racing, you will still have a blast. It is an event, that is easily worth the $20 admission price. See you next year, at Crash-A-Rama.