This weekend there was a need for volunteers to work a table at some event to benefit my org. Sometimes I feel like I become jaded about the kindness of others, processing a $5 check is exactly the same as $50,000 one, and my interaction with our donors is usually prefunctary and fleeting.

So I decided, after consulting the web page of the event host, that I would spend my Sat working the table as it were at the New England Belt Sander Racing Association National Championships. The name of the event itself should cue you into the fact that this event was no church organized spaghetti dinner for charity or neighborhood bake sale. No, this was honest to god belt sander racing. The NESBRA web site is pretty descriptive & I am sure there are better resources to communicate the logistics of belt sander racing. Essentially, a hand held power sander that drives a belt of sand paper used to sand big projects is slightly (or majorly) modified to run down a track versus another similarly modified creation. The layout was perfect: a bell is rung, the lights flash from green down to red and then a simple button press and the sanders are whipping down the track. These suckers fly, freed of excess weight and commitment – with only one goal: be really fucking fast.

There are two different divisions, stock and modified. Stock is a sander that can be tricked out in anyway except the engine must not be altered. There were some very amusing creatures entered. Perhaps the most amusing stock racer I saw was the Deer Slayer Barbie – a normal looking sander with a long sloping purple front on which stands a tiny model deer. Riding in a throne toward the middle of the sander is a fully functioning Barbie with a custom-made lasso along side some terrible disembodied barbie head/giant hand apparation. Needless to say Deer Slayer Barbie took 1st in the stock category, but there were other fantatic creations.

The modifed racers were a more visceral thrill. I saw most of these races (I volunteered for 3 hours and spent another 4 watching the races, stock goes first) and they were very intense. These racers were hybrid ultrasanders, taken apart and reconstructed into super-charged sanders of immense power. These races took place on the 75ft track (the stock had a 50ft track) and these beauts were finishing in 2.6 seconds, pretty phenomenal to watch! One beauty was a completely hand built self contained sander (no handle on top, the cord comes out the side) that looked badass but suffered some technical difficulties.

The winner of the modifed category also had the best name, Morning Wood, haha. It was a modified DeWalt, the innards apparentlly had been refashioned with a different gearing system to give it absurd speed which also requires an absurd knowledge of the interworking of the common belt sander.

Something about the whole event warmed my heart (well the free Sam Adams didn’t hurt either). It’s pretty inspiring to see an event run for 20(!) years by the same group of friends that ends up being this giant free party for everyone with even a passing connection, no exclusiveness it was a great scene, basically everyone and their kids. And to add to this all, they decided to take up a collection for charity, raising over $2000.

Things like that really renew my faith in the human race. I wish I hadn’t forgotten my camera though, some amazing stuff. Highly reccomended