LOWELL — The 8th Annual Lowell Kinetic Sculpture Race is a wrap after 15 teams tried, with varying degrees of success, to move their creative human-powered machines through the streets of downtown Lowell, and some notorious obstacles.
Each competing team brought to the race a moving sculpture, powered entirely by mechanical engineering and their own strength, and with a theme and art piece attached to each one. The race began on Market Street Saturday morning, where spectators had some time to get a close up look to each entry and talk to the people that made them.
Mark Goldwater was the solo rider for his entry, Three Corgis of the Apocalypse, which he peddled with four wheels, and flotation devices and a paddle during the river portion. On the front of the sculpture was a sculpture of a corgi’s head, which Goldwater said was dedicated to Lucky, one of their dogs that passed away a few years ago.
“So this is my memorial to Lucky,” said Goldwater.
Goldwater has participated in the race in the past with a team, but this is his first solo attempt with his own kinetic sculpture.
“If I make it to the mud pit, I’ll be thrilled. I’m not counting on it, my goal was to make it to the starting line, and I succeeded,” said Goldwater.
Also participating for the first time was Brendan Falvey, who spoke to The Sun ahead of the race about his team’s kinetic sculpture, Stampede. His sculpture consisted essentially of five tricycles fixed together on hinges with large barrels on the wheels to serve as flotation devices.
“I’ve put a lot of work into the whole process of build, test, rebuild, test, I think I’ve built a sculpture that can ace,” said Falvey before the race Saturday.
Acing in the race means that a team made it through the entirely of the course without needing outside help. Falvey said he thought his team’s sculpture would be one of the faster entries, which seemed to be true as they led the pack up to the dip into the Merrimack River. In the middle of the river portion though, parts of Stampede’s sculpture seemed to disconnect, and three of the five riders had to swim and push it to the beach, which is not an uncommon site in the KSR.
Teams would move between obstacles, from Bone-Shaker Alley on Middle Street, to the Maddening Mud Pit at the Tsongas Center, and finally a paddle through the Merrimack River before going back to the finish line again on Market Street.
The teams had mixed results throughout the course of the race, as the KSR is famous for. Just about all of them appeared to make it through Bone-Shaker Alley, but the Maddening Mud Pit at the lived up to its reputation, trapping the wheels or treads of multiple sculptures that needed outside help to make it through. Multiple sculptures also met their end or encountered difficulties in the river, but if a sculpture could be moved and was capable of getting through the rest of the race, they were allowed to keep going.