‘A lot of bragging going on’: Jake, Spike plan their own parallel parking showdown after Portland’s viral competition

Portland’s second annual Parallel Parking Competition drew hundreds of spectators and roughly 80 competitors to the corner of SE Pine Street and SE 29th Avenue on Sunday. Drivers reversed into a single coned-off space between two parked cars, with no backup cameras allowed, and were scored on time, distance from the curb, and spacing.

The event doubled in size from last year’s inaugural competition and earned an appearance on “Good Morning America.” This year, the Portland Bureau of Transportation sponsored prizes including parking vouchers.

Jake Skorheim and Spike O’Neill, co-hosts of “The Jake and Spike Show” on KIRO Newsradio, along with KIRO producer Laura Scott, heard about the competition and immediately started planning their own.

All three on the show are convinced they’d win

The segment started with a confession: there had been “a lot of bragging” during the pre-show meeting about who was the best parallel parker.

Laura fired first.

“I’m the best parallel parker in my entire family,” Laura said. “People will get out of the car to let me parallel park. I’ve photographed, and I have photographic evidence of how close, within, like, inches, I can get. And I think it’s because I grew up parking in downtown Seattle, where parking is limited. In a rush. Trained under fire, as they say.”

Spike was not impressed.

“I’m not only the best parker in my family, but I’m also the best parker, ironically, in Laura’s family,” Spike said.

Jake, meanwhile, leaned on raw instinct over technique.

“For me, it’s all about feel, man,” Jake said. “None of this — it’s all about angles and vision for me.”

The rules are set, now they need a car

Jake proposed that none of them use their own vehicles, arguing it would be unfair since they all drive different-sized cars and have built up muscle memory with their own dimensions.

“I don’t think it’s fair for us to use our individual vehicles,” Jake said. “This needs to be like gut instinct. Raw skill. Like an athlete who can walk up to any soccer ball and they don’t bring their own ball.”

They agreed on a scoring system borrowed from the Portland competition: time, distance from the curb, and spacing between front and rear cones. Lowest score wins. No backup cameras. And Spike insisted the video team film it.

“We should definitely do this,” Spike said. “We should film this and share it with the audience.”

Laura agreed to the terms.

“I can agree to these rules,” Laura said.

“Spike, do you agree?” Jake asked.

“I’m in,” Spike said.

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

Listen to “The Jake and Spike Show” weekdays from noon to 3 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio 97.3