Start Your Pedals! (Part 2)

As part of my ongoing eyewitness, Ionarts-exclusive account of the run up to AVAM's Kinetic Sculpture Race next Saturday, April 30, here in Baltimore, here is an update on the contestants. (picture credits to Tom Jones's Kinetic Baltimore.)

• Bumpo (pictured at right). A champion for the Coney Island elephant, Topsy, piloted by Gavin Heck.
  
• Team Fifi. A broken neck and spine from moving during Mondo Exotica. Is scheduled for surgery, and will try to participate in the race.
  
• Frog. It may become a shoe, à la Old Woman in the Shoe, with lots of children.
  
• Duck. May go into retirement if steering is not fixed by race day.
  
• TEAM BELT STREET PILOTS ASSOCIATION. "We will be a great malevolent fearsome and beautiful creature of fantasy that will spread its giant wings and breathe brimstone on the city streets."
  
• TEAM 5534-021605-043005 AKA PLATYPUS. Pilot: David Hess.
  
• TEAM BEDLAM. Piloted by Maggie and friends.
  
• TEAM Leaping Beaver (ACE). Jimbo Hanson will try again for his third consecutive ACE award.
  
• Baltimore Lab School DART FROG (BUSH LEAGUE). "Our sculpture is about half-way to completion! I am working on it with primarily 10 Jr. High Students. However, students from grade 2-9 have contributed to the paper mache process. Ten 11-13 year olds will be official pilots along with myself and a few other staff members. Our team name is The Ribbit and our sculpture is a 12 X 9 blue, spotted, poison-dart frog from the Amazon Rainforest who will be wearing a special, secret hat. We began working on the frog in the beginning of February. Pilot: Laura Parkhurst and Baltimore Lab Students.
  
• Cake on A Lake (ACE). Pilot: Jeff Colburn.
• TEAM THE WEASEL (ACE). "I am an art teacher at Eldersburg Elementary School. My students have successfully built and tested a nine-foot boat. They are now in the process of turning it into a giant tiger on wheels. My students would very much like to be among the youngest builders to enter the race (our school custodian will pilot the vehicle). Our sculpture has been proudly built 100% by the
  students. I am also a wheelchair-bound teacher so any accessibility information would also be appreciated." Pilot: Denise K. Ovelgone.
  
• TEAM Westward Ho Well. "The Baltimore Make Believers 2005 Sculpture, The Westward Ho!, is coming along well. We feel horrible for doing the train thing again, but we were too in love with that train to scrap it."
  
• Team The Turtles, Towson University. Pilots: Matt Petr, Rudy Halim, and Tyler Gogoll. Essentially it is 8' wide and 10' long.
  
• Three entries from The Jemicy School, which addresses the needs of students with dyslexia and language-based learning differences:
  • Team BIG BABY is a 10-foot-tall tricycle. It was designed and will be piloted by Phil Hoesch, 11th grade, and has some interesting "engineering." The front wheel doubles as a paddle wheel and has no hub but instead tracks along its rim. It has rear-wheel steering. Phil was heavily involved in the design and build of last year's "Valking Viscar Boot."
    
  • Team GERBIL CHARIOT is a 16-foot-long gerbil pulling a chariot. Pilots: Darek Davidson (12th grader), John Peiper (10th grader), Chris Atkins (12th grader), and Cliff Gambrill (11th grader).
  • Team VIKING & MOOSE is a Viking riding a large Moose about 16 feet long. Pilots: Jason Bernstein (11th grader), Drew Holechek (10th grader), and Alex Barrash (11th grader) are developing this theme. The team on race day will
    include teacher Brandon Emmons as well.
• TEAM CRUSH DUDE (a break-off team from Artex). It's a turtle.
  
• TEAM MISO (ACE). Pilot: Tom Faulks. "Our inspiration in the creation of the Miso Dragon has been three-fold, details which will now be divulged to the hungry, waiting masses. The vehicle will have approximate dimensions of 9'H x 6'W x 16' L. Two pilots will guide Miso through an intricate and super-secret combination of parts harvested from cannibalized corpses of abandoned souls and vehicles. You will know Miso by the line of frightened children running after him,
  asking for blessings from the gods of science. And in case the children haven't been enlisted yet, look for many colors, white fur, three wheels, and an air mattress."
  
• TEAM IT CAIN'T (ACE). Pilot: Richard Price.
  
• TEAM FISH TANK. Pilot: Cindy Rollo.
  
• TEAM THE GALLOPING COW RIDES AGAIN. Pilot: John Shellenberger.

OK, so by reading this fragmentation of a race list you'll see that some pilots have a lot to say, and now you also know this ain't Daytona. By this time next week I hope to have plenty of pictures to post.