The 2009 Kinetic Grand Championship on California’s north coast was held on Memorial Day weekend, the 40th time this race has taken place since its modest beginnings in 1969. We were there with friends to watch the beginning of the race, and it’s difficlut to imagine a more fun way to spend a few hours. Its forty year history is rich with anecdotes, beginning with how this event originated:
On that momentous day, Hobart Brown, a Ferndale sculptor and art gallery owner now known to kinetic racers as “Our Glorious Founder,” decided to try to fix his son’s broken tricycle. When the repairs didn’t work out as planned, Brown opted to weld random bits and pieces of scrap metal to the bike. When he finished, the tricycle was more than six feet tall, and Brown had to add three extra wheels to the bright red, wobbly piece of art to stop it from falling over. Shortly afterward, while recovering from his creative frenzy in a local bar with a refreshing beverage, Brown got into a heated conversation with local metal sculptor Jack Mays, who claimed he could weld together a customized tricycle that both looked better and moved faster than Brown’s bike. Mays then challenged Brown to a race down Ferndale’s Main Street on Mother’s Day, the last day of the week-long seventh annual Ferndale Arts Festival. - Wired.com
Below is the Hippypotamas, 1st place winner for engineering in 2009′s race.
The official Spectator’s Guide, full of both useless and entertaining information, is a must buy for any first-time race watcher.
For a true sense of this wonderful race, a phot0graphic history is available for viewing at the Kinetic Kingdom, where immediately you see the words “Transforming the Ordinary into the Sublime since 1969″. The very first race in 1969 featured the entries of the creator of the race, Hobart Brown and a fellow competitor Bob Brown, both pictured below.
The technology may not have changed much in over the past forty years, the the art has certainly become more sophisticated.
But even with all the fun, there’s always a message. And it’s delivery comes via a very convincing messanger.
For more on this “wild and crazy” event, visit our friends at The News Cafe.
