Jim Gauthier Collision Centre claimed gold and $7,000 at the fourth Collision Olympics, topping a field of 12 teams at the Automotive Trades Association of Manitoba’s Oct. 23 trade show.
Eastside Moray finished second, earning $2,000, while Fairway Autobody took bronze and $1,000.
Eastside Moray Collision and Glass had won gold in 2024, when St. Claude Autobody finished second and Eastside Collision placed third. The $7,000, $2,000 and $1,000 prizes were the same that year.
Business owner Jim Gauthier congratulated the winning team in a social media post.
“This is a well-deserved achievement that reflects the skill, hard work, and dedication our team brings to their work every day,” Gauthier wrote.
“Thank you to everyone involved for representing Jim Gauthier Collision Centre so well.”
Denis Cloutier, executive director of the Automotive Trades Association of Manitoba, said 15 teams had registered before three last-minute withdrawals reduced the field.
The association introduced the competition to give technicians another reason to attend its trade show.
“We were looking for a way to attract technicians to come to a trade show,” Cloutier said.
Each team contributed competitors for three challenges: virtual painting, virtual welding and estimating.
For the painting challenge, a participant used a virtual reality headset to paint a vehicle hood and received a digital score. A second team member completed a virtual welding exercise, also scored digitally.
The estimator received photographs of a damaged vehicle and had 15 minutes to prepare an estimate. Organizers compared that submission with a reference estimate and assigned a percentage score.
The three results were combined to determine the finalists. The top four teams then repeated the competition, with a different estimating assignment, to decide the winners.
Cloutier emphasized the competition’s recreational nature, cautioning against treating performance with the virtual equipment as a verdict on a technician’s repair skills.
The evening trade show ran from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m., allowing technicians to attend after work.
A separate afternoon training session focused on advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS). An instructor from the British Columbia Institute of Technology led the training, while Hunter Canada supplied a complete calibration system and a new vehicle for live demonstrations.
The equipment remained in place for the evening trade show, giving attendees another opportunity to see the system.
Previous editions have also introduced students to collision repair careers. In 2024, organizers hosted 365 high school and college-level students from Winnipeg, Selkirk, Steinbach and Brandon. Students met representatives from paint companies, training providers and equipment suppliers and tried collision repair activities.
That year, Steinbach Regional Secondary School teacher Jesse Unrau brought 25 Grade 11 and 12 students.
“I’m trying to make them aware that there are so many options in the automotive trades,” Unrau said at the 2024 event.
