The Kinetic Grand Championship kicked off yesterday with a flourish. Arcata police estimated 8,000 to 10,000 people gathered at the Arcata Plaza, on a windy, foggy Memorial Day weekend.

The Kinetic Sculpture Race was founded in Ferndale 40 years ago by Hobart Brown, an eccentric artist and welder.

The legend goes that Brown converted his son’s tricycle into a five-wheeled pentacycle and challenged a fellow with a man-powered tank to a race down Main Street in Ferndale. When the day of the race came, there were many spectators and several other sculptures.

The jaunt down Main Street has grown into an annual three-day annual.

The race begins on the Arcata Plaza. The racers then traverse the dunes of Manila, cross Humboldt Bay and trek all the way to Ferndale for a grand finish in front of Hobart Gallery.

The kinetic sculptures usually range from the elaborately artistic to the simple and efficient.

Local artist Duane Flatmo, whose artwork adorns many local buildings as well as the beer labels for the Lost Coast Brewery, recycled his “Armored Carp” sculpture from last year and raced the “Biking Vikings” — a giant, silver-colored metal dragon, complete with movable head and opening mouth (operated by levers from the driver’s seat).

June Moxon’s team created a giant mechanical chicken that laid golden eggs. She was followed by an entourage of chickens. Moxon’s team started building the sculpture in March and hand-carved 19 chicken heads. Moxon’s co-pilot this year is Hobart Brown’s daughter, Emily Hobart Brown.

Emily flew in for the race from Pennsylvania, arrived at the Arcata-Eureka Airport at 11:10 a.m., drove straight to the race and jumped on the sculpture in time for the noon-whistle takeoff. Hobart Brown’s son, Justin Hobart Brown, is traveling alongside as a member of the pit crew.

From the Plaza, the racers took off toward the Manila Dunes. The dunes are where most sculptures lose their “Ace.” To “Ace” the race, a team needs to make it all the way through the course without breaking any rules, which means they can’t be pushed, pulled or towed.

One of the challenges of the course is a place called Dead Man’s Drop, located toward the end of the beach section of the course. The sculptures’ pilots must navigate down a very steep section of dune.

Peter Wagner was dressed like a cowboy and piloting a horse sculpture christened “Bucking for Glory.”

After coming down Dead Man’s Drop, Wagner said: “I gotta go change my drawers now.” At the bottom of the drop, he stopped for a hot dog with the crew of “The Glory Hogs,” which had fired up a barbecue and was feeding the hungry racers.

Wagner jumped back on board his sculpture and said: “The anticipation, the terror and then back to hard work. Dead Man’s Drop is terrifying but so brief.”

“Hogs of Glory” is manned by a family from Los Gatos. They’ve been racing since 1985, and although when they started, they were in it to win, they now like to take it easy and enjoy the whole race.

“You gotta stop and drink it all in. It’s all about seeing the smiles on people’s faces,” said Doug McNeil from “Glory Hogs.”

Bill Wayne, pilot of “The Gossamer Slug” came in first at the Gazebo in Old Town Eureka. He beat his record from last year by 10 minutes. “Last year it was ‘The Tortoise and the Hare’ this year it was a slug. The machine is really light and goes easily.”

Kinetic coverage was heavy this year with new addition of live, streaming video on the Internet. StreamGuys in Arcata donated the bandwidth, while Netlink 101 donated the high-speed Internet. A group of volunteer media-makers donated their time and skills to get the video onto the Web.

Joe Lowe, a local media-maker, helped with the live broadcasts.

“Within a minute it was hundreds and then thousands of hits on the Web site,” he said.

Amy Berkowitz, of KHUM radio said in regards to race coverage, “Every year, we try to up the ante, in addition to the live blogging, there’s live video streaming. We have people listening all over the world.” Berkowitz’s family has been racing for three generations, she says no other family can make that claim.

The race can be followed from www.khum.com, and listened to all weekend on the radio at KHUM 104.3 FM

Today, the racers will be crossing the Humboldt Bay at around 10 a.m. Tomorrow, they will be coming into Ferndale around noon for the finish.

(Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of The Eureka Reporter or its staff.)