While the kinetic sculpture race is filled with the spirit of it all being in good fun, there are more thantwenty awards given out each year at the awards dinner.
The main prize – grand champion– went to HumBULLdt Pie Factory. not just any teams can win this – as there are two ways to participate – to race, which is purely for fun, and to ace the race, which is more difficult.
“There’s a lot of rules involved in ace-ing,” Malia Matsumoto, who has been racing since 2008, told Redwood News, “which includes carrying all the gear that you need for the whole weekend. So your flotation, your pumps, your sleeping bag, your toothbrush, all these things that you’re going to need, you cannot have anything in an extra vehicle. You have to carry it in your machine and you have to follow all these specific rules. You can’t get pushed by anybody except your pit crew. So back to your question about kinetic grand champion. You have to, number one, ace. And then you have to have top marks in speed, in art and in engineering to be able to become kinetic grand champion.”
Categories include biggest splash, spectators’ fave, most paranormal, many more. First place in pageantry went to team “A.I. Apple intelligence,” who also took top honors in art. The day after the finale and awards ceremony, members of Team Goth Ham were cleaning up their machine at the Kinetic building in Arcata, as they said, “rust, ocean water, and eel grass don’t sleep.”
“We won second place and pageantry for the third time in a row. That means on the day of the race, there are some pageantry judges, which we do a little two minute show for them,” Malia explained, “And then it’s the whole spectacle, the whole race long. So how we’re interacting with the crowd, how we’re sticking with our theme, how we are bringing more and more glory to this wonderful sport.” A massive amount of work goes into making these moving works of art. “It’s fun doing hard things,” Malia said. “Because we can do hard things.”
Teams were asking each other if they had any major mishaps in the race this year.
“Improvising and getting creative in the moment with what you have to problem solve is one of the most fun parts of the race,” said Tibora Girczyc-Blum. “I think it’s important for kids to see adults having fun and enjoying life and being creative,” she continued. “It makes them want to grow up.”
Many participants keep coming back. Ken, a former grand champion, has been racing 40 years. He said it was the people who keep him coming back. When asked where he gets his inspiration, Ken answered, “I don’t know. We are Team 420 after all, so just do the math.” Everyone laughed.
