B u r n l o g

UPDATE — The race has been rescheduled to October 10-13th, 2008.

www.escapefromberkeley.com

CNet News offers up news on the upcoming alternative fuels only (and acquired sans moneys) race from Berkeley to Vegas on July 4th weekend. This should definitely push the limits of a burgeoning fossil-less fuel transportation industry… I hope… It’s like Road Warrior but fighting for coffee grounds and chicken poop instead of gasoline, but is in the desert, while ending up in the bizarre casino/marriage town of Vegas, not the dystopian out back.

Escape From Berkeley: An alternative-powered fuels race to Vegas

The race is organized by Jim Mason of the Shipyard Artists’ Collective and a long-time burner and playa artist including many projects including the recent Mechabolic. Mason on the race:

“…NASA scientists and junkyard fabricators once again square off in the perennial battle of engineering prowess and creative excess, this time with bragging rights for saving-the-world somewhat hanging in the balance,” wrote Escape from Berkeley organizer Jim Mason in an e-mail announcing the new race. “Where DARPA had the Grand Challenge, the rednecks the Cannonball Run, the truckers a Convoy, and the hippies a bunch of WVO buses broken down on the side of the road, now the collected geek tribes propose to start their ‘engines’ on something other than a petroleum-based fuel, and cause their varied schemes for land-based transport to not be in Berkeley, and somehow, by some means, show up in Las Vegas three days later, using only fuels/power/motive force scavenged ‘for free’ along the route.”