Rolls Report: March 26 & 27 (T minus 3 weeks)

How do you know it’s late March in Pittsburgh?  1) It was 20 degrees or less at rolls  2) 8 of the 11 orgs put up their fastest time of the semester this weekend (and the other three were the 1 buggy orgs).  The cold was killing walkie-talkie batteries, fogging windshields, and fogging my brain, but impressively the buggies were flying.

In Attendance (buggies newest to oldest, all buggies qualified with at least one driver)

Org Saturday Sunday
AEPi Robobuggy Robobuggy, Kamikaze
CIA Ascension, Frejya, Renaissance, Quasar Ascension, Renaissance, Firebird
Fringe Bonsai, Borealis, Bedlam, Blizzard Bonsai, Borealis, Blizzard, Brazen
KapSig Apache
PiKA RD2011, Nemesis, Knightfall, Zeus RD2011, Nemesis, Chimera, Knightfall
Pioneers Chaos Chaos
SAE Rubicon
SDC Bane, Avarice, Malice, Psychosis, Rage Bane, Avarice, Malice, Psychosis, Rage
SigEp Mamba, Pandora Mamba, Peregrine, Barracuda, Pandora
SigNu Skua Krait
Spirit Mapambazuko, Seraph, Fuko, Haraka Mapambazuko, Seraph, Fuko, Haraka

Observations (Saturday gallery) Continue reading

Rolls Report: March 19 & 20

All of a sudden spring break is behind us and we’re in the 4 week sprint to raceday. We stodgy alumni thought the kids were taking a bit of a gamble not scheduling rolls for either weekend of spring break, but it seems to have worked out pretty well for them. The first weekend of the break would have been entirely rained out anyway, and the skies were clear this weekend so it’s all good. Saturday was one of those super slow days with no clear culprit, but everyone shook off the rust by Sunday and put nearly twice as many buggies down the hill in the same amount of time.  We’re up to 11 rolling organizations, and 5 new buggies in the class of 2011 (plus Apache from the late fall); raceday must be near.

In Attendance (buggies newest to oldest, 2011 buggies, buggies qualified with at least one driver)

Org Saturday Sunday
AEPi Kamikaze, Zephyrus, Robobuggy Zephyrus
CIA Ascension, Frejya, Renaissance, Quasar Ascension, Frejya, Renaissance, Quasar
Fringe NBXI, Borealis, Blizzard NBXI, Borealis, Blizzard
KapSig Apache Apache
PiKA RD2011, Chimera, Knightfall RD2011, Chimera, Knightfall, Zeus
Pioneers Chaos Chaos
SAE Rubicon Rubicon
SDC Bane, Avarice, Psychosis, Rage Bane, Avarice, Malice, Psychosis, Rage
SigEp Mamba, Peregrine, Pandora Mamba, Peregrine, Pandora
SigNu Skua Skua
Spirit Fuko, Haraka Mapambazuko, Fuko, Haraka

Observations (Saturday gallery) Continue reading

Push practice delayed indefinitely pending city review

Push practice was scheduled to start this week, but just as teams were charging up their flashlight batteries and telling their new drivers that it’s “actually kind of fun,” Sweepstakes had to put a hold on things.

Apparently, the city has decided to take a closer look at the late night road-closing permits this year and they’re not sure they like what they see.  The issue is that the road closure is informal during push practice and cars are allowed to come and go as needed – relying on students to keep everything safe and orderly.  This has obviously been the system for years and years without any problems, but tradition is apparently not always persuasive if you are in the business of road closure permit issuing.  This long-standing compromise of semi-closed roads isn’t ideal for teams or for the poor grad students leaving campus after midnight, but it’s a very functional compromise.  We can’t do without push practice, and I doubt everyone else would be happy with fully closed roads 5 nights a week.  Sweepstakes is working hard with the school, CMU & Pittsburgh police, and the city to get everyone comfortable with a plan.  I really hope that all parties can find a non-bureaucratic solution that doesn’t require additional expenses for sweepstakes and logistical headaches for teams.

Sweepstakes chair Chris Shellhamer notified teams today that push practice would hopefully begin after spring break (11 days from now), but that that would be the soonest it is likely to be sorted out.  We’ll keep you updated here.