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

We welcomed some new talent this year.

	Steve infused the team with fresh energy and helped me with mechanical and electrical preparations. He also created the image on our T-shirts.
	Valeria made most of our bribes.
	Stefania made helmet covers.

During the race Giancarlo and Stuart were the pit crew. Steve took most of the photos and managed our radio communications.

	I welded the artwork frame and helped others with their tasks. -photo by little steve
	Julianna sewed the artwork and designed all things artistic. -photo by little steve
	Laura and I were the pilots.

Last year the short jackshaft broke at a drilled spot. This year, a couple of weeks before before the race, the long jackshaft broke at a similarly weakened spot. In each case the hole that weakened the shaft was coincidentally at a high stress point. Since I didn't want to put out the close to $200 to replace the long jackshaft, and since time was short, I welded it back together. Of course that wouldn't work if I put the weld back into the high stress location. Fortunately I could just flip the shaft to reduce stress. And the holes that were causing the weakness were no longer needed. The suprising thing is that I was able to get the jackshaft straight enough when I welded it. Oh, it wobbles. But it generally works.

The First Day - Art Judging

This year marked a change of leadership for da Vinci Days. In the past Raan Young was "Graand Wizard" who presided over it all. But he handed over the reins to John Sechrest "Grand Pooh-baah". John recreuted Sherry Clark "Inka". Their leadership resulted in probably the most smoothly running Kinetic Sculpture Race of all time. It was certainly the smoothest I have experienced anywhere anytime.

This year also presented a new challenge for racers. A new judgement criteria and set of judges was added: Pagentry. This scoring category is so appropriate to Kinetic Sculpture racing that it is suprising it hadn't been added somewhere else in the 30 year history of Kinetic Sculpture. Instead it was up to this upstart group in Corvallis. Perhaps it is not a coincidence that the Corvallis race has grown quickly over its short seven years so that it now rivals in size the original race in Arcata.

	The Rex Files at the starting line. -photo by little steve
	One of the Pagentry Judges carrying a judgelet. -photo by little steve
	The esteemed panel of Art Judges. -photo by little steve
	Lampoon by Paul Vibrans.
	Star Wars Fanatics.
	Dung Ho.
	Pod Squad from Sweethome Elementary.
	Bearly Mobile -photo by little steve
	The honorable ambassadors from Port Townsend -photo by little steve
	Mouse Trap -photo by little steve
	Worry Wart-photo by little steve
	Gold Diggers-photo by little steve
	Goofy Galleon -photo by little steve
	Rube Goldberg's Buggy -photo by little steve
	Erector Set #6 -photo by little steve
	Slug Nuts -photo by little steve
	King and Eye -photo by little steve
	Chain Ring Lightning -photo by little steve
	Flying Pink Elephant -photo by little steve
	Aliens from The Rex Files -photo by little steve

As often happens we still didn't have a song the days before the start of daVinci Days. Thankfully, Sue Korn wrote a song for us.

Rexfiles KSR Song (To the tune of "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" by The Beatles)

• July's here, it's time---everyone is in the line
• It's Da Vinci Days!

• We're ready to race our Kinetic toy.
• Boy oh boy!

• Rex Files is our name,
• k'netic racing is our game:
• It's our pride and joy.

• Singing's just a ploy,
• Til we get to go.
• Fast, not slow.

• But as we get ready to race,
• An alien makes the scene.
• It's so keen!
  (Refrain:)
• Hey, Corvallis, are you ready to
• See our spaceship fly,
• Right to the sky?
  (Refrain:)
• It's Da Vinci Days again,
• and we're all filled with smiles!
• Set for river, sand, and mud-bog.
• And pedalling miles,
• On The Rex Files.

  -- Sue Korn

	This year a new idea was tried: The mini Kinetic Sculpture Race. Schools have been reluctant to get involved in the races because of the cost of building a vehicle. The mini-sculpture race allows each student to put together a multi-terrain machine for very little cost.
	The Mini-KSR races were for young kids. They were to build a small electric vehicle that could traverse a miniature multi-terrain course. -photo by little steve

The Second Day - Road and Sand

	Star Wars Fanatics in a light saber fight scene. -photo by little steve
	An escaped alien tries to hijack an electric car. He didn't get far. -photo by little steve

The plan was to leave a trail of colored smoke when we took off at the start of the road race. I had found some smoke bombs that came in colors. There are advantages to being scheduled shortly after the Fourth Of July. Steve and I wired the smoke bombs to The Rex Files inside the engines that protrude from the rear of the pontoons. To ensure they weren't accidentally set off, I left off the last set of wires.

It's a funny thing about the start of races. It's next to impossible to remember all the details you have to cover. At least for me it is. After we got rolling, Steve got on the radio and asked about the smoke. Oh yeh! Laura immediately took over steering and brakes while I flipped the switches to fire the bombs. No smoke. I had forgotten about the missing wires! I quickly patched the wires together and then flipped the switches again. Smoke started billowing out of The Rex Files. Unfortunately the crowd at the starting line was far behind. The bombs hit their stride just as we passed under the arches at the University. Alas, this trapped the smoke in a semi-enclosed space, sending lots of spectators gasping for air. Worse, the racers behind us got the full brunt. And they couldn't hold their breath. At the end of the first day, they let me know they didn't like the smoke.

At the start of the road race The Rex Files has a gas. -photo by little steve

I guess that wasn't such a good idea. It's not that a smoke bomb was necessarily a bad idea. But we needed to be more careful about where we used it.

The first day includes the sand pile. The Rex Files zipped over this with no effort. It's hard to be sure since nothing is ever the same from year to year. But I would like to think that we had gotten good at it. We let most of the air out of the sand/mud tires so they would float over the sand. They did.

	The Rex Files on the sand pile. -photo by little steve
	Fresh Fish by Melissa Boyd at the sand pile. -photo by little steve
	At the end of each day of racing I gave rides to spectators. -photo by little steve

I want to highlight how smoothly this part of the race went. It's usually pretty complicated and confusing. The race course makes a huge figure eight with the sand pile at the crossing point. At the sand pile it's easy to go the wrong way. But under the clear minded leadership of Sherry Clark and the officials she had trained, it moved like clockwork. The officials knew were we needed to be. We knew where we needed to be. And we never had to wait in line for long. That woman is worth her weight in gold... not that she gets paid anything. The judges in the race pay for the privledge. I don't know if the other officials pay, but I'm sure they don't get paid. Kinetic Sculpture is truly a labor of love.

The Third Day - Mud and River

The mud this year was amazing. It was thicker and stickier than I had ever experienced before. Like peanut butter mixed with setting concrete. With a machine weighing around 600 pounds, you don't float over the mud. Instead the wheels penetrate all the way down to the hard pack below.

I think Laura and I had not been exercising enough. The mud was too much for us. We made it about half way before our ten minutes was up. We were still moving. But our pace car could have been a snail.

At this point purple smoke started billowing out of The Rex Files. We were overheating! We quickly recruited several volunteers to help us push The Rex Files out of the mud.

The mud stopped most of the racers. Generally speaking, the ones who made it ran on bicycle wheels. Interesting. It's not what I would have expected. What stopped the vehicles was not traction. It was the sheer energy required to turn the wheels in that muck. Since thin wheels didn't have to push as much mud around, they were more successful.

The Rex Files could have done this on the two front wheels. But we would still have that ATV wheel in the rear. It's hard to be sure, but I'm guessing that our bike wheels would have had trouble dragging that ATV wheel thru the mud.

The river run and exit went very smoothly for us. The Rex Files was in fine form.

	Pigs in mud. -photo by little steve
	Sparta Fish. -photo by little steve
	The Rex Files in the Mud. Even the pilots got muddy this year. -photo by little steve
	Yellow Duck entering the water. -photo by little steve
	La Nina Weather Stripper in the water. -photo by little steve
	The Rex Files leaving the Willamette. Stuart is standing on our bumper to move our center of gravity more onto the front wheels. This gives us better traction climbing the gravel bank. -photo by little steve
	In the main stage area of daVinci Days, its hot. -photo by little steve

The Awards

• Graand Overall Champion - Lampoon by Paul Vibrans
• Best Engineering - Flying Pink Elephant by June Moxon
• Best Artistry - King and Eye by Duane Flatmo
• Best Pagentry - La Nina by Allegra Searle-LeBel
• Best Time - Chain Ring Lightning by Rob Hitchcock
• Best Local - Fresh Fish by Mellisa Boyd
• Judges Favorite - Dung Ho by Bob Durst
• Peoples Choice - King and Eye by Duane Flatmo
• Racers Choice - Yakima Worry Wart by Ken Beidleman
• Wizard's Choice - Family Fun by Steve Larsen
• Teddy Bear - Bearly Mobil by Jim Brasier
• Pooh-Baah Award - Pod Squad by Mark Holden
• Ventura Mediocrity Award - The Rex Files by Allen Brown
• Port Townsend Award - Pod Squad by Mark Holden
• Hobart Award - Sherry Clark
• Jump Start Award - Star Wars Fanatics by Dan Swanson

So this year we didn't get a Leo award because we had to push The Rex Files out of the mud. But to our great suprise we got the Mediocrity Award that was being offered by the Ventura race! This is given to the team that comes in with the time closest to the middle of the pack. It is no shame. We got a nice trophy and free entry to the Ventura race in October. I had been thinking that Ventura was just to far away and too difficult. But this got us thinking about it some more. We now think we can do it! We may have to leave behind the pontoons for The Rex Files, but we can at least make a showing. But the time cost of driving all the way to Southern California is so great that we are trading off the Port Townsend race to do it. The two events are on consecutive weekends. We figure a day driving back from Port Townsend, then three days to Ventura. That leave only one day relaxing in Corvallis. Ha! Chances are that day would be more than taken up repairing The Rex Files after the immersing in Puget Sound. So the plan is to visit Port Townsend for their race on the first weekend in October, but leave The Rex Files behind. And on the second weekend we will race Ventura.

I want to point out one more way in which this year's race went exceptionally well. John got the race awards results mailed out by 9:00PM the Sunday evening of the race. Wow! In years past this has taken a month or more at daVinci Days. And the other races take longer or don't do it at all.