Port Townsend has always treated us well. This year continued in that tradition. It could be that our good fortune there has to do with the very small size of their races. But it also helps that for the last two years the strong California teams have not made the trip. Considering the distance they have to drive, I don't blame them.

Improvements:

We improved the rudder to put it deeper into the water. This also gave more space for the new fender. A fender is especially desirable for the Port Townsend race because right after we exit the mud bog (with mud sticking to our wheels) we head down a steep hill, with mud flying everywhere. This year, partly because of the fender, we didn't notice any mud flying about.

The drive:

Parade day:

Port Townsend gets a town portrait every year. Everybody gathers downtown on a corner and somebody takes a picture. This year the Kinetic Scupture parade was timed to cut thru town, right thru the crowd of people getting their picture taken. I guess that was a way for us to get more attention...

Dan is a guy who lives in Corvallis, if he lives anywhere. He rode to Port Townsend for this event on his bike. He adopted us at this point, so we gave him a REX vest to wear.

Here we had the brake test. Philip and I were the pilots for this and for future driving. The brake test consists of coasting down a steep street toward Puget Sound. They say that nobody's brakes have failed so badly that they ended up in the Sound. And with disk brakes, TimeRex stops very well. So well, that the judges cheered.

After the brake test was the float test. Because Puget Sound was rather choppy from the marginal weather, we didn't enter at the usual place. Instead we all went to a boat ramp in an area protected from the wind. But this was a very steep boat ramp. Rex is not very good at entries when the ramp is steep. To compensate, we rolled Rex farther into the water than usual. But this put the road vehicle rather low, meaning that we would have to lift it farther to get it up onto the pontoons. We didn't do this well. We jammed the mechanism and broke a lift lever. In Arcata this year we broke the lever on the other side. (Clearly this is something I will need to improve in the future. But that's not exactly what I was thinking when it broke.) We certainly didn't want to fail the float test. And this wouldn't prevent us from floating. It just meant that the ride would be uncomfortable. I slid down into the seat and drove the propeller, just like usual. Well almost like usual. I was sitting with Puget Sound up to my rib cage in October. But Rex doesn't drive well when not up on pontoons. We gave up on pedaling it. Philip and I got up on the pontoons and used the oars to pole ourselves back to the boat ramp. We then drove Rex out normally. This was good enough to pass the float test, altho hardly satisfactory for the pilots. Both of us were shivering from being cold and wet.

Rob Hitchcock had decorated his racer "Pine Martin" as "Bones". But the brass quick releases he used to mount his pontoons were not strong enough. They broke on one side during the float test.

As part of the registration packet, we were provided with a free shrimp dinner. I just gave the ticket to Dan. The rest of us are not shrimp lovers. He later reported that the free dinner wasn't worth what we paid for it.

Dan had made arrangements so that I could visit a local, Jan, to weld that tube broken during the float test. But the logistics of that looked nearly impossible. So instead we visited a hardware store and bought some pipe. I duct taped it inside the broken tube. Good enough.

Race Day:

(to the tune of Glory Glory Haleluja)

• My legs have felt the coldness
• from the sinking of TimeRex.
• We have braved the frigid waters
• and avoided breaking necks.
• We patched it with a pipe
• from the local hardware store.
• And we're back again for more.
• Glory, glory, Kinetic Chicken.
• Glory, glory, Kinetic Chicken.
• Glory, glory, Kinetic Chicken.
• Port Townsend loves TimeRex.

Then the race pilots all learned a dance. This is naturally designed to make us all look like fools. But we didn't worry about that. Instead, we all tried to get the audience involved.

After the dance, we all lined up in a machine they use to start horse races. At "low noon" the pistol rang out and we pilots burst out of the gates. We all proceeded driving around the town square a couple of times and then continuing to the water section. It quickly became obvious that with TimeRex, we were one of the fastest road machines. Several factors contributed to this. Perhaps the most important was tightening up the steering system. That had previously limited us to about 8 MPH before instability took over. But also, the new wheel and new high pressure bike tires significantly reduced road friction. And Philip was in better condition for this race than daVinci Days. The result of all this was that we could do 18 MPH on fairly level ground.

But these races are more about parading and looking good than about speed. So we showed off by doing a couple of donuts in the middle of the street during this part of the race.

At the water entry point we made a very fast conversion to water configuration. I was impressed by how well the team did this. We entered the water about third in line. I think the only ones ahead of us were the ones who had no conversion at all. The new lever (with the pipe inside) worked fine, and we were more careful to not jam the mechanism. We then headed out into Puget Sound under prop power. Everything looked good for about 1/4 of the water section. Then the water drive broke. Oops! Dead in the water. We fished the parts of the water drive out of the water and lashed it to the bottom of Rex as best we could. We then continued on the course using the oars. The water was not as choppy as Saturday, but it was still pretty nasty. It made control of TimeRex difficult, especially with oars.

	TimeRex in Puget Sound.
	Rolling out of Puget Sound.

The water exit was difficult. It *was* a boat ramp, I guess. But it was covered with loose gravel, so there was very little traction. We were using our new large ATV wheels in the super low gear. But we still really got a work-out doing that exit. I hear that most vehicles bribed their way out of it.

We were not the only ones who had some difficulty with the water. "Bones" broke again, this time on the other side. I heard they flipped in the water. And "Hugger Mugger" from Canada also had difficulty. They aborted the crossing and carried the pieces of the vehicle to the road.

At this point we were joined by my uncle Doyle and aunt Nancy and several of her relatives. These included Jonathan, who volunteered to help. I put him to work helping as pit crew.

Next we raced to the mud bog out at the fairgrounds. This was uneventful except that it rained. The rain broke a 15 year record of no rain on the Port Townsend race.

In Port Townsend the mud bog consists of two parallel tracks. Each race vehicle can choose either side. As we came up an electric 4WD vehicle attempted the left side. He got royally stuck. They tied ropes to it and about thirty bystanders, including us, pulled it out.

The left side was very deep. I'm not sure how mucky it was, but neither of us was excited about getting in up to our waists, again. The right side was less deep, but was deeply rutted. Here Jonathan's contributions were crucial. He walked the bog, telling us where to put our wheels to avoid the ruts.

I'm not sure how long the bog took us, perhaps ten minutes. A far site faster than the two hours of last year. Two things contributed to this. Last year the bog was like peanut butter and was very deep. And this year we had larger ATV wheels.

The drive back to town was again smooth. We got out in front, and eventually left the crowd behind, with only "Bones" ahead of us when we crossed the finish line.

Just before the awards Bob from Canada auctioned off his "Hugger Mugger". He got about $5 for it. He told me that he is looking forward to building a new vehicle from scratch.

Rob Hitchcock also told me that he will not be racing "Pine Martin" ("Bones") any more. I guess it has just seen too much wear.

And that huge four person vehicle, " And that huge four person vehicle, "Muckle Flugga", was also retired from racing after this race.

At the awards we took three awards:

• Master, for finishing the race without pushing;
  • Medallion
• Best time;
  • Hot pad with an image of a tennis shoe on it.
  • Poster.
• Breast of Show, for best front end.
  • A book bag.
  • Framed trophy picture.
  • A couple of very forgettable books.
  • A gift certificate for car detailing at a local place.
  • A gift certificate for personal training at a local spa.
  • A gift certificate for two nights lodging for two with NO PRIVATE BATH at the Port Hudson Resort and Marina.

This is the third year in a row that my team has gotten Breast of Show! The Mercedes grill on the front of TimeRex was the Breast of Show trophy from 1996. Evidently the judge was impressed that we recycled our trophy onto the vehicle.

As you may imagine, the gift certificates are basically useless to us. Altho we did joke about taking the Kinetic Sculpture in to be detailed.

	We were showered with awards.
	TimeRex memorabilia from Port Townsend 1997 including trophies and awards.

That evening another free meal was offered to race participants. The whole team went to it. But it was also pretty awful.

The return:

When we got back to Corvallis, we discovered that the connectors for the trailer lights had fallen free. The road had torn off most of the connections. So the last part of the trip was in the dark with no trailer lights. Oops! But we made it. And we all had a great time in Port Townsend!

Next:

Because of the major effort involved in 1996 and 1997, we plan to use the same time machine decorations of TimeRex for the 1998 race circuit. We will make some minor decoration improvements, some mechanical improvements, and get a head start on the decorations for 1999. Because of this 1998 promises to be less work than in the past. If you are interested in joining us in this endeavor, but are afraid of getting in over your head, this would be a good time to try it out.

We can use almost any skills you can imagine. But of particular note over the next two years would be: nuematics, robotics, computer programming, photography, artistry, and sewing. We also could use more pilots, people who ride bikes regularly.

Copyright (c) 1997 C. Allen Brown All Rights Reserved