Click on a thumbnail sketch to see the full size picture.

Because of our recent experience going to the new Stevenson Washington Kinetic Scuplture race we knew that Rex would fit in the back of Laura's pickup truck. This time we also included camping gear to stay at the fairgrounds in Port Townsend. It was starting to get difficult to carry everything in the pickup.

The First Day - Art Judging

Last year it rained. This year the weather was dry. So dry that my sleeping bag was bone dry after sleeping out under the stars. The temperature was perfect for a race. Cool enough that you don't overheat. Warm enough that the spectators can enjoy the show. The spectators were enthusiastic.

This year there were 21 entries. That is a new record for Port Townsend.

	You can see the improved pontoons on The Rex Files.
	Pod Squad from Sweet Home Elementary School, Oregon. This was their first time in Port Townsend. The P.T. locals are hoping Pod Squad will inspire their local school to enter into the race. From my personal experience it is clear that motivating a teacher to lead a team is a serious challenge. Motivating the kids is no problem.
	Milk Duds. Some racers suggested that the shape of the wheel hubs was a blatent bid for the Breast of Show award. However nobody suggested that this was out of line.
	Goofy Galleon
	This girl created Cheeze Whiz. She's 10 years old. Many people have talked about doing a design like this. This is the first time anyone has actually done it. And she's just a young girl. Delightful. The screen around her is a mesh fabric. To turn she lifts the wheels by the center pole and twists. It works because the fabric stretches.
	Dung Ho was there from Philomath, Oregon. That blue thing to the right is the Dung Beetle rolling his dung ball.
	Bad Clams
	Bantam Menace [Pot Racer]

Floatation Testing

It's a good thing a floatation test is required. Many machines are tossed together at the last minute and are untested. This year the proportion of machines that failed in the float test seemed higher than usual.

	Unfortunately I don't know the name of this one. But it looked like he barely had enough flotation to stay above the water.
	Cheeze Whiz had no trouble moving in the water. Unfortunately she had no way to turn. In the race she ended up being towed around Puget Sound.
	Two Middle Aged Women
	Cat in the Hatolac. This team is from Rhode Island.
	The Millenium Love Bug suffered catestrophic failure of the pontoon supports. This is one of the reasons I avoid the use of conduit for load bearing structures. For the race, they reinforced the conduit with wood 2x4s. Much stronger. Some of us were worried about the stability of the MLB. The pontoons seemed rather short and the center of gravity a bit high. But as far as I know they didn't pitch over in the race.

I don't have pictures for all the racers. A couple of them I didn't see until the race started. One racer, Kinetic Man, was just a man in a wetsuit.

The Second Day - The Race

	That's me, kissing up to an official. But when they look this good, I can't resist.
	Lampoons in the Mud
	Dung Ho in the Mud
	One of the sexy ladies from Angel Skow. I think this is a take-off on Charley's Angels. They go around posing like fashion models with guns. It was fun to watch. It's hard to tell in this photo, but she is dancing.

We didn't want to get wet or muddy this year. That is because I didn't want to have to overhaul everything before the Ventura race on the very next weekend. So we offered some distractions.

	Somehow the judges got distracted as The Rex Files entered the mud. Look! An alien space craft. But liberal bribing cleared up any confusion.
	Hobart Brown addresses us at the awards ceremony.

The Awards

Please forgive any innaccuracies and ommissions in this list of awards. I don't take very good notes after a race.

• Lucky Duc (best use of duct tape) -- Callapso
• Blues Review (music) -- Pod Squad
• Naughty Naughty (for cheating) -- Bloody Mary
• Quick Fix -- Dung Ho
• Dressed to Kill -- Lampoon (master)
• Artsy Fartsy -- Cat in Hatolac
• Breast of Show (best front end) -- Milk Dud (master)
• Rump Roast (best back end) -- Goofy Galleon
• Sportsmanship -- Kinetic Man
• Teddy (best teddy bear) -- Rex Files
• Moxey -- Bozo
• Best Pit (pit crew) -- Worst Fear
• Engineering -- Bad Clams
• Shark Bite (first our of water) -- Bad Clams
• Best Time -- Bantam Menace
• Worst Time -- Longshot (master)
• Founder's Award -- Queen of the Universe
• Spectator's choice -- Angel Skow
• Most Retired (announce retirement and then show) -- Muckle Flugga
• Big Cheeze -- Happy To See You
• Bob Simon Memorial Award -- Cheeze Whiz
• Spirit Award -- Cheeze Whiz
• Mediocrity (middle time) -- Two Middle Aged Women