Lead Truck Auction 2009

Posted on | by Sam Swift

If you haven’t already heard, the Buggy Alumni Association will be auctioning off the chance to ride in the lead truck on raceday for each and every heat. What was previously only the territory of Head Judges and cameramen can now be yours.  In exchange for a charitable contribution to the Buggy Alumni Association, you can see the entire heat of your choice first hand.

The details of the auction go like this:

  • General
    • All heats will be auctioned simultaneously
    • The bidding will start at 9am EDT Friday April 10th
    • Bidding will end at 10pm EDT Monday April 13th
    • Each heat will have a $10 minimum bid
    • The minimum bidding increment is $1
    • You may specify a maximum amount you wish to bid for any heat.  The site will automatically increase your bid in $2 increments as needed until your maximum is exceeded by someone else.
  • Prelim Heat specifics
    • If any person wins the auctions for more than one heat, they will have the option of retracting their winning bids for all but the highest priced heat.  If they decide to withdraw their winning bid for one of the lower priced heats, the 2nd highest bidder will become the winner.
  • Finals Heat specifics
    • Because the specifics of the finals heats are unknown, bidders will be bidding for the right to have first pick of the finals heats.  Runners up will have 2nd, 3rd pick, etc.
    • There will be only two things to bid on for finals: Men’s Finals and Women’s Finals
    • The top 5 bidders for the Men’s Finals will have the opportunity to select a heat in order of their bids
    • The top 3 bidders for the Women’s Finals will have the opportunity to select a heat in order of their bids

Finer details, rules, and on Friday bids all at
http://cmubuggy.org/Auction

Suggestions, discussion, requests for clarification in the forum

We are, of course extremely thankful to sweepstakes for giving us the opportunity to use a spot in the lead truck to create this opportunity and to raise some money so that the Buggy Alumni Association can pursue its mission to support buggy.

Rolls Report 4/4 and 4/5

Posted on | by Sam Swift | 21 Comments on Rolls Report 4/4 and 4/5

The last regular weekend before truck weekend was a pretty good one, nice and long with 2:20 of daylight and temperatures starting in the low 30’s but the sun warmed things up quickly.

Saturday
In Attendance (11 Orgs, 26 Buggies)

  • Beta: Problem Child
  • Spirit:Fuko, Haraka, Seraph
  • Fringe: Banyan, Brazen, Bedlam
  • PiKA: Chimera, Knightfall, Zeus, RD09
  • SDC: Psychosis, Envy, Malice
  • KDR: Perun, Powder, Polaris
  • AEPi: Kamikaze, Camo
  • SigNu: Skua
  • SAE: Rubicon
  • CIA: Firebird, Mirage, Conquest
  • SigEp: Pandora, Barracuda
  • PhiKap: Svengali, Schadenfreude

Observations
Continue reading →

Buggy Books of History Countdown : T-2

Posted on | by Sam Swift

Some of the more astute observers out there may have noticed that after last week’s coverage of 1988, there is only one more men’s course record to recount, yet we have two more weeks to fill in our countdown to raceday.  Some might say we miscounted the weeks when we started and now we’re covering to make it look planned.  The more diplomatic buggy fans out there would recognize that during the 20 year break in men’s records, buggy fans witnessed 5 new women’s records, and that deserves some recognition.

In fact, in the 30 years that women’s races have been held, 14 of the champions have won with a new course record.  Compared to the men’s historical probability of breaking the record 30% of the time, you’re 50% more likely to see history made in the women’s races.

Alumni

2004 was one such record breaking year for the women, with PiKA posting the first ever sub 2:30 time on the women’s leader board.  PiKA’s women had an undeniable advantage on the uphills posting times on 1 and 4 that many of the men’s teams wouldn’t have wanted to compare themselves to.  In the end, their strength was evident as their margin of victory was exactly 10 seconds over a suprising effort from Beta’s women who placed 2nd.

2004 also put Abbie Bednar into a pretty exclusive club of being a driver who won both the men’s and women’s races in the same year.  The feat is so rare because it requires one org to sweep the races, but also because most orgs run different buggies for their Men’s and Women’s A teams.  In 2004 however, PiKA’s men’s A spun on day 1, and they moved their A team pushers to B team (driven by Abbie) to successfully salvage an unlikely Men’s win when Fringe missed the pushbar on hill 5.  I couldn’t find any other record of a driver winning both races in the same year, if you know of one, let us know.

Buggy Book 2004

Comments in the forum

Buggy on TV in 1983

Posted on | by Sam Swift | 5 Comments on Buggy on TV in 1983

In 1983, the TV series Evening Magazine (the first US show to introduce the Magazine format to TV says wikipedia) did a feature story on buggy.  Buggy Alumni Association member and 2009 Raceday announcer Mark Estes found the clip while reviewing old tapes in preparation for this year’s broadcast and put it online.

We need help from you identifying the people featured in the clip.  We’ve posted screen captures of most of the folks here in a new album in the gallery.  If you know any of the people, leave a comment on their picture, and help us out by spreading the word to other alumni that might know them.  If we get enough good info, we might be able to put together a little retrospective piece for inclusion in this year’s broadcast.