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6.1.10 The 42nd Annual Kinetic Grand Championship aka Kinetic Sculpture Race took place this Memorial Day weekend, and the Rio Dell Times was there to take photos for anyone that missed out. Kinetic Sculpture racing first began in Ferndale, CA in 1969. Local sculpture Hobart Brown challenged fellow artist Jack Mays to a race down Main Street, and the rest is history. Kinetic Sculpture racing has spread to all parts of the country, and our 42 mile Kinetic Grand Championship through sand, water and land has become the "Triathlon of the Art World." The race route begins in Arcata and Day 1 is all about the Manila dunes and the infamous Deadman's Drop. Day 2 begins with a trek through Humboldt Bay from the Wharfinger building to the Samoa Bridge, and then continues through Eureka and up Hookton Hill before cruising down Highway 101 and into Loleta. Day 3 sees the sculptures crossing Morgan slough and rolling across the finish line in Ferndale. Pageantry, Speed, Art and Engineering are each awarded. Other awards include the Biggest Splash, They Came From Out Of Town, Best Pit Crew, Most Improved, Golden Flipper, You Klever Rascal, 2nd to Last, Poor Pitiful Me and One For The Little Guy. Each Kinetic Sculpture has its own theme and they are all completely people powered. Any equipment that will be required for the sculptures at any point of the race (such as paddles, special tires, etc) must be on board at all times while racing. These simple rules weed out the meek and ensure lots of triumphs and catastrophes for everyone involved. There were many great sculptures this year. The trek up and down the dunes was a long one, but many sculptures survived to cruise alongside the ocean in Manila. There were some technical difficulties for various teams through the Humboldt Bay portion of the course, including a seaweed jam for the "Classical Nudes" machine. McKinleyville High School's "Betty's Rub-a-Dub-Duck" required flipper power to make it across the water. Duane Flatmo's "Crustation Wagon" is shown zooming past the Madaket in the picture above. The Rita's Cafe Taco Truck made good time in water and on land, which was especially impressive given the skeleton sitting in the driver's seat. The first machine to come down Main Street, Ferndale was "Woody" at 3:30pm, and they were awarded Grand Champions for their efforts. Eureka High School's EAST Program raced for glory again this year with their "Speed Demon", which crossed the finish line smoking. It makes sense that they took the Speed Award, clocking in at 8 hours and 3 minutes. "Speed Demon" also won the Engineering award. Though the 10 person powered behemoth "Classical Nudes" did not cross the finish line until late in the evening, they earned the Spirit of the Glorious Founder Award for their creativity (Note: They are wearing realistic nude body suits, but I assure you the nudity was fake). We watched "Banana Slug", "Black Tie Affair", "Horseless Carriage" and "Bubblicious" cross the finish along with many others. The Kinetic Sculpture Race was a blast, and there were many creative, unique and awesome contraptions cruising through Humboldt this holiday weekend. Below are links for photo slideshows for each day of the race. Photos were taken by Marylynn and Craig Wolff. Enjoy! -Marylynn
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