For gear-heads and speed-freaks it's all downhill Sunday

By Whit Griswold - April 13, 2006

From the backwoods of West Tisbury to the back streets of Oak Bluffs, from Chappaquiddick to Aquinnah, there's an almost audible buzz among gear-heads and speed-freaks this week, in anticipation of the Moshup Challenge, Sunday's second annual gravity car race in Aquinnah. The first pair of racers are scheduled to roll down the start ramp at 1:30.

"There are so many motor-heads on this Island, it's unbelievable," said John Henry Patterson in his West Tisbury garage last Saturday. Patterson is officially - sort of - part of the WTFO racing team, but most of the builders who commented in conversations over the last few days acknowledged Patterson's influence in the creations they'll unveil this weekend. They also agree that he is a master motor-head. "He can make anything," said one of them.

And that's what dozens of Islanders are preoccupied with this week: making anything... anything with four wheels that can be steered and stopped, that's strong enough to carry an adult and light enough to roll along at 25 or so mph down a 1,750-foot stretch of Moshup Trail that drops only 60 feet.

The race is the brainchild of Spa Tharpe, originator and/or instigator of any number of madcap happenings and contests on the Island over the last couple of decades. Tharpe is also the point man, and driver, for team WTFO (Where's The Fun, Over?). The idea of a gravity race came to him several years ago, but it took a while to germinate. When it did, it blossomed with a bang last spring, on April 3, when hundreds of winter-weary Islanders drove as far west as they could to watch 28 four-wheeled contraptions, using only gravity as their driving force, slide silently down the road from the circle by the Gay Head cliffs toward Philbin Beach.

Last year's line-up included everything from a modified lawn mower to sleek creations that looked like they came out of a 1960s Popular Science article on futuristic one-man car-pods. The winner was Jonathan Spinney, a carpenter who builds and races motorcycles in his spare time. With the backing of his colleagues at Crushco, a Chilmark company that builds houses and outfits adventurers, Spinney beat the fleet in his Super Thunder Sting Car - a slender machine with two main wheels, and two others that looked about as useful as dewclaws on a dog. It was new territory for Spinney, who says that ever since he had a ride in a go-cart as a kid, "I've always wanted to put motors on things." Still, he added, "it was kind of liberating to not have to think about an engine."

To Spinney, the three key elements are rolling resistance, wind resistance, and the frontal element - that is, "the smallest picture that you present to the wind." No one's seen his entry for this year's race, since he's assembling it off-Island, but everyone's wondering what he's got up his sleeve.

Ovid Ward, the race manager who's also a consultant to Tharpe's WTFO team, thinks the key to a successful design is big wheels, to get over the bumps in the road more smoothly, and good bearings, to allow those big wheels to spin freely. Ward, who has a background in both automobile and boat design, thinks aerodynamics are over-rated, that they don't affect a moving body until it's going at least 40 mph.

For every design theory that's been vetted and debated this week, there's at least one rumor flying from town to town, from shop to garage. There was talk of a two-man racer being assembled in the deep reaches of Chappaquiddick. Another entrant was supposed to have put $3,000 into his car. Neither turned out to be true, but the facts tend to loosen up when they make the rounds from Dippin' Donuts to Fella's to PJ's to Jim's to Menemsha Texaco to Mocha Mott's.

As he did last year, Ward is planning to enter the soapbox car he built 50 years ago, as a kid growing up in Virginia. Only thing is, he got bigger, but the car didn't, and he needs a driver "who's over 18 [as all entrants must be], but under five feet, with a skinny butt" [to fit into the pint-sized racer]. Any volunteers?

Lee Welch, an electrical contractor from Edgartown, also got his start in soapbox racers. He still has a picture of himself, circa 1963, at the wheel of his soapbox. A cardboard license plate, tacked to the top of the car's grille, reads LEE. The car's long gone, but his competitive instincts and his attraction to good times are still going strong. He didn't hear about the race last year until it was over, but he jumped at the chance this year, especially when he realized it was another way to raise money for the scholarship fund he started as commodore of the Pink Squid Yacht Club, which he founded about 10 years ago with partners in crime Scott Morgan, Kenny Abbott, and Scott Hitchings. With an open membership, no meetings, and a mission to start having fun and keep at it, the PSYC holds a one-day fishing contest in June and a golf tournament later in the season. From entry fees, auctions, and straight-out donations, PSYC raises enough money to give away more than $10,000 annually. Some of it goes to high school kids on the way to college, some to neighbors who've come on hard times.

Sunday, Welch will jam himself into a car he's put together over the last couple of weekends, using plywood, the frame of a bike trailer, steel pipe, bicycle brakes, beach toys, sheet metal, a football, and the windshield he took off an old motorcycle. It's all pink, and yes, it looks like a squid.

At another end of the spectrum, John Belain's entry looks deadly serious, and seriously fast. Shaped something like a bullet, it's short and compact, unlike the long and low look favored by some other designers. The finish on the body is beautiful, and to an unschooled eye, the mechanical parts looked simple, solid, and smooth. Could be a winner.

For a finishing flourish, Belain plans to add decals to promote his sponsors - shades of NASCAR. In another example of creative grafting between race teams, the decals will be made by Melissa Patterson, John Henry's wife. Lee Welch will decorate his squid's body with the names of those who've been inspired by his entry to donate to the PSYC scholarship fund. Spa Tharpe, not surprisingly, has taken sponsorship to another level. As of Monday, he'd signed up Mone Insurance, NAPA, Allen Farm (Organic Fertilizer Dept.), Shelby American Automobile Club, Conroy & Co. Real Estate, and Belmont Wheelworks. What next?

In his capacity as race manager, Ovid Ward says his biggest challenge is, "staving off the rule-makers" - a familiar challenge when a spontaneous, free-form event comes around for the second time. But for all those who want more organization in this year's race, there are still plenty of participants who want to keep it carefree, keep it loose, like Ross Gannon, who was busy Monday working on the cockpit combing of a lovely bay skiff being built at Gannon and Benjamin in Vineyard Haven. Yes, he was planning to enter the race, but he didn't have anything to show for it yet. "We'll see what we can find around here Wednesday, maybe, to put something together with," he said. "Our approach is a little different: we're not in this to actually win."

Whatever their motivation, plenty of inventive Islanders will show their stuff in Aquinnah on Sunday afternoon, and there's bound to be a big crowd there to join in the fun. Free parking will be available at the circle at the end of State Road, and the public restrooms there will be open.

Race organizers are still looking for volunteers to help out; if the spirit moves you, call Matt Merry at 508-776-2065. For general information, call Spa Tharpe at 508-645-3688.