Kinetic Grand Championship - Humboldt County, California - - started in 1969 by Hobart Brown when challenged to a race down Ferndale's historic Main Street by Jack Mays. Due to two official championship races to settle massive and fractitous challenges associated with the early days of cross-country kinetic sculpture racing in 1975, the 2008 race will be the 40th running of a Championship race in Humboldt County; a factoid usually abbreviated to "40th Annual Kinetic Grand Championship." Either that or the Man-Eating Clams are using their "Hippie-no-tizer" to play with people's memories again! A three day, 41 mile cross water, land, sand, freeway and whatever else gets in the way, an event so big, it takes 3 websites to encompass all the details:
The Rutabaga Queen Website - has forms and instructions for those wishing to become Queen of the Kinetic Grand Championship. Rutabaga Queens - indeed all Rutabaga Royalty - are Kinetic Royalty for life, not merely the year of their reigns.
JUNE
Klamath Falls, Oregon -
4th Annual Klamath Kinetic Sculpture Race - June 28, 2008 - founded 2005 by Denise Currin in 2004.
JULY
Clearlake, California 4th Annual Kinetic Race - July 5, 2008 - founded 2004 by Elliot Naess in 2004.
Corvallis, Oregon - 16th Annual Kinetic Challenge - July 18-20, 2008 as part of the annual DaVinci Days celebration, founded 1992.
AUGUST
Black Rock City, Nevada - Burning Man Festival - Kinetic Camp, Kinetic Sculpture demonstrations and parades - Camp Founder 2007 Elliot Naess.
SEPTEMBER
Prescott Valley, Arizona - 3rd Annual Kinetic Sculpture Race - September 13, 2008, founded 2005.
Online gallery from Cyclops,
who piloted a unicycle kinetic sculpture, crossing Humboldt Bay and the
Eel River in a tiny inflatable dingy he carried in his backpack. Not
only did he have enough energy at the finish to do a wheelie, he and
his friends took pictures of it all! Many pictures of other machines here as well.
The Carnivale Fantaveicoli
sixth of February - the eighth annual "competitive parade of fantastic
vehicles... 35 participants." A full update will be posted as soon as
the competition is over.
The Ferndale Museum has historical displays and a dollhouse of the Glorious Founder Hobart Brown's gallery and home on Main Street.
2004 photos taken on board the machine by a pilot who had just arrived here by air through San Francisco from a business trip to Beijing. Talk about culture shock!
Corporate Raiders from Team Y Knot. Third time's the charm, they aced in 2004. The site has a great quicktime movie of Corporate Raiders going down Dead Man's Drop.
Kinetic Pilgrimage from Baltimore to Humboldt County
Online galleries by Karen Wallace.
Karen, Tom and mechanic-nut Dave arrived from Baltimore the evening
before the start, visited the Lab, helped take trophies to Hobart's,
grabbed a few hours sleep, volunteered at the start, and followed the
race on borrowed mountain bikes over the next three days, leaving
minutes after the awards. Exhausted, driving to Sacramento to catch
their flight east, they resolved to return next year. For the Glory!
Duane Flatmo's innovative and beautiful sculptures have run and aced the World Championship over the years. Ten of 20 Flatmo Kinetic Sculptures are in this online gallery from North Coast Journal.
June Moxon's "Wild Ride" website
lets you follow the construction of "Sparkles" in this innovative
website by a World Championship multi-Ace and the first woman to build
Kinetic Sculpture singlehandedly.
San Francisco Chronicle, May 11, 2003Behind the Redwood Curtain:
Humboldt a separate world of misty groves, offbeat towns and protected wildlife -- and one wild race
It Will Have Blinking Eyes, homepage for China Blue which produced this 1993 documentary film about Kinetic Sculpture Racing and the people who live it.
Over the past thirty-five years, the Grand Championship has
been covered by Canadian, Japanese, and U.S. television shows including
Good Morning America, Associated Press, United Press
International, National Public Radio, The Osgood Files, Eureka
Times-Standard, North Coast Journal and many others. Some video and
press material is available at the Kinetic Sculpture Museum in
Ferndale, California while more is archived by Hobart Brown.
Books
Hobart Tells All
by John Wilson and Hobart Brown
ISBN: 1879312077 is occasionally available through the Clarke Museum in Eureka (707-443-1947), Amazon or eBay.
Crazy Contraptions: A light-hearted look at Ferndale's Kinetic Sculpture Race.
by Stan Bennett. 1975. Low Tide Lumber Company Publishers. 96 pages, paperbound. Cover photo by Duane Martin. Supported by Viola Russ McBride. No ISBN. Occasionally available on eBay and Amazon through used book dealers.
Perth, Australia - A delightful Kinetic Sculpture Race was sponsored by Rotary from 1999 to 2006, the race benefitted the Princess Margaret Hospital and includes a juried art exhibition, a search for genius and another for goddess, as well as an interesting through town
and across the Swan River course. This year's race is the sixth annual
and was held March 6th, 2004.
Warsaw, Poland - The 1996 Kinetic Sculpture Race was attended by Hobart who was called "Sir Hobartski" by locals.
Allentown, Pennsylvania - held its first KSR in 2002 and the last one in 2004?
