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Baltimore Kinetic Sculpture Race
2022 Race Report: Grand Champion: Chronosaurus Rex



Here's a Sculpture!
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Saturday 7 May 2022

In many years, heat and fatigue lead the KineticBaltimore team bring cold water to distribute to racers and crew at Patterson Park. This year at the same point the temperature was 55°F, with heavy rain and occasional strong wind gusts had the power to blow sculptures far from land.

Twenty-six months into the global Covid-19 pandemic, Kinetinauts and fans on the east coast were eager to convene like never before: the 2020 race had been apruptly canceled and the 2021 race was conducted in socially-distanced miniature form.

The late Hobart Brown, who founded Kinetic Sculpture Racing in the cool redwood forests of Humboldt County, California, often said, “In the event of sunshine the race continues anyway,” but there was no sunshine to be found in Baltimore the seventh of May. Days of heavy rain led to a flood watch, and every team deployed their rain plan. Hobart surely enjoyed Baltimore’s weather that day.

The rain made the sand sticky—and surprisingly easy to traverse. But the mud was as challenging as ever, sucking shoes off pit crew feet and presenting a formidable challenge to all but the most traction-worthy vehicles.

For this twentieth year of KineticBaltimore coverage (and Baltimore’s twenty-second race), 7 all-terrain all-weather photographers followed the race from start to finish with no small effort. At Canton, one of our sharpest lenses developed acute rapid-onset mycosis as fungal strands covered internal surfaces. That failing lens, combined with avoiding changing lenses in a downpour, mean some images aren’t ideal. But we documented the race in 6,326 photos; the best 265 are here.

Click the “Next Page >” button to go to the next team, or select any of the teams listed at the bottom of the page.

To see others’ coverage of the race, or to tell others about your race experiences, be sure to check out the Kinetic Forum.

Grand Champion: Chronosaurus Rex

The 2022 theme was “Time Warp”, and team Cap Kinetic’s 4-pilot all-terrain DeLorean Chronosaurus Rex had a rich backstory. Sixty-six million years ago, Professor Chrono-Saurus escaped the Chicxulub meteorite impact in her time-traveling Dinolorean. She arrived in 2020 hoping to find the technology to bring back in time to defend against the asteroid. Over two years, she developed her anti-asteroid device, but ape descendants had burned all the return trip fuel she stashed underground millions of years ago. Cap Kinetic’s “2019 Best Pit Crew” stepped up and redesigned the Dinolorean to run off 4 human engines. If the sculpture successfully achieves 22mph, the sculpture will streak Back to the Past and Save the Dinosaurs!

If you don’t see the downpour in this photo, zoom in. The race was extraordinarily wet.

Kinetic Sculpture Races traditionally have a Le Mans–style start, in which the race begins with all racers apart from their vehicles. In Baltimore, pilots and pit crew climb steep Federal Hill above their crafts. Since steady rain turned the grassy slopes into treacherous terrain, pilots and crew gingerly raced down the hill when incoming AVAM Director Jenenne Whitfield sounded the 10:00am gong to start the race.

Overcast skies made fluorescent objects glow as UV-A passed more effectively through the clouds than visible light.

“Where we’re going, we don't need roads.”

On the water, floatation was strong under the prehistoric DeLorean. Pilots freely rowed out both sides, not dealing with cumbersome pontoon configurations chosen by some other sculptures.

With four sets of big-wheel double-tread tires, Chronosaurus Rex easily traversed the turmeric-hued sand.

On the mud, the pit crew stepped in with tow lines to support the pilots’ leg power. Propulsion assistance is allowed under the rules for all but ACE-class vehicles.

The flux capacitor and time circuits were powered by a genuine Mr. Fusion reactor.

Rain caused some electronics to malfunction, but the dashboard is impressive.

This drill powered the air horn in the dinosaur mouth.

The Chronosaurus Rex powerplant included four 36-inch wheels driven by a 3-stage transmission with parallel overdrive gear. Each pilot has 154 gear options, with a gear ratio ranging from 0.10 to 3.86, and 562 million combinations of gearing (including ludicrous options).

While other sculptures suffered progressive problems from the challenging weather, Chronosaurus Rex actually crossed the finish line with more working than they started with, as they fixed some of their electronics during the race, including the headlights.

Well, except for the back left drive position. Exiting the water, they ran over their tow rope, backed up to free it, and when something bound in the back left drivetrain, as they backed up the locked reversed freewheel twisted their intermediate driveshaft making it imposssible to keep the chain from derailing. So after the water entry they had a 200-pound barnacle looking like a pilot, but at least he could operate the dinosaur head.

Here’s the team before the race.

Asked, “You want to save the dinosaurs and kill all of us?” the team enthusiastically replied, “Yes!”

This whole Kinetic Experience, combined with engineering prowess such that their electronic accessories worked better at the end of the race than the start, led the Judges to award Chronosaurus Rex the 2022 Grand Mediocre Champion trophy shown here.

Team Cap Kinetic’s prior sculptures were:

Be sure to check out their team video:


All Pages At Once (huge!)

Next Page >
  1. Grand Champion: Chronosaurus Rex
  2. Winging It!
  3. Pinktastic
  4. Time Maker
  5. Five Sculptures from Jemicy
  6. Big Lady
  7. SP Space Cruiser
  1. Tick Tock the Croc
  2. Tröegenator
  3. PLATY-PUS Returns
  4. Cosmosaurus: Dinos in Space
  5. Ve-Fossil-Wrapper
  6. The Mad Ratters
  7. Fifi: Lost in the 60s
  1. The Flintstones
  2. Tempus Fugit
  3. Opening Ceremonies
  4. Thanks!
  5. Volunteers, Spectators & Crew
  6. The KineticBaltimore Team
11/11/2024 4:27:37 PM   11/12/2024 12:49:26 AM   1:1   2:   3:   4:   5:   6:   7:   8:   9:   10:   11:   12:   13:   14:   15:   16:2   17:   18:   19:   20:   21:   22:   23:   24:   25:   26:   27:   28:   AllInOne:
The Baltimore Kinetic Sculpture Race is sponsored and run by the American Visionary Art Museum. KineticBaltimore.com is the volunteer work of Tom Jones.
If you have suggestions about making this site better, or questions, e-mail Tom at tjones@spril.com.