Sweepstakes was able to pull off two successful days of rolls this weekend, despite some delays. Many organizations were able to complete their qualifications for Raceday.

Saturday, April 11 – all orgs present (Saturday’s pictures here)
Sunday, April 12 – all orgs but Beta present (Sunday’s pictures here)

While the proposed start time of rolls was 6:20, rolls did not officially begin each day until approximately 6:50. By some mis-communication, Pittsburgh Police did not think rolls were taking place this weekend. This delayed closing the roads until CMU Police could send 1 or 2 officers and organizations could send volunteers to man the four sets of outer barricades. Saturday was further delayed by a sprinkling of rain at 6:55. It cleared quickly, and rolls were able to start at 7:05.

Pass Tests: Many Pass Tests were attempted, with varying results. Saturday saw several mis-timed attempts.

Everyone’s garages were full of paint fumes this week.  KDR and Fringe got their new buggies primed, lets hope the paint jobs dry before design comp this year.  SigEp painted Barracuda, and AEPi painted a couple of times over the weekend, apparently reconsidering their choice of little white curly-qs.  Beta, PiKA, and PhiKap put a fresh coat on their fleets.  SigNu continues to draw out the surface preparation as long as possible.

AEPi started Saturday with a Pass Test. Due to difficulties in qualifying Camo, they caped an older buggy for Camo to pass.

Fringe is full speed ahead with four buggies. The buggies are making impressive time around the course, and almost beat the mechanics to the Finish line a couple times.

CIA qualified a bit later in the year than usual due to trying to qualify two new drivers in Conquest. They rolled with Pioneers at least once to complete roll qualifications. CIA’s new buggy will be at Design Competition, but has not rolled this year. It should have a name by Chairmen’s meeting on Monday.

Spirit’s Seraph seems snake bit. On Spirit’s second roll on Sunday, the buggy came to a stop at Westinghouse Pond (First Transition). We did not witness if the issue was an impact or mechanical. Spirit’s pushers seem to be in fine form, with one Hill 1 pusher giving the impression of Liquid Lightning (no times to back this up, but he looked *fast*.)  Spirit was rolling on 4 different kinds of wheels (stock xootrs, panaracer pneumatics, xootrs with a off-white compound and a crazy profile, and xootrs with a tall round profile and a matte black compound)  on truck weekend, at it seems like they were still trying to make a decision on what to go with.

Beta’s Problem Child was fully qualified at the end of last weekend. As a compromise due to the controversy of last weekend, buggies that needed rolls could roll with Beta if approved by both Beta and Sweepstakes. SAE and Beta rolled together once on Saturday to improve efficiency, rather than waiting for both follow cars to clear the Chute.

SAE’s Rubicon is rolling well on the pusher sections. SAE pulled off a “quick escape” on Sunday by extracting the driver at the Hill 2 barricades, loading the buggy into the Follow Car, then leaving through the golf course.

PiKA rolled three buggies this weekend, but it looks like RD09 will not be out for Raceday  09.  They did complete a pass test with the new buggy, but only got 5 rolls, so perhaps things didn’t work out as intended. They did have some impressively fast Hill 1 and 2 pushers.

Pioneers is hanging in there. They skipped Hill 1 each round in favor of starting from Hill 2. While Pioneers Chair Vincent joked about pushing the slowest Hill 1, she was still faster than two W3VC Radio Club members pushing a Carnival golf cart up Hill 1.

KDR reacted to the Sweepstakes request for buggy pronunciations by writing the phonetic spelling of “Poh-LAIR-is” on the side of the buggy. Rumor has it that Sweepstakes Chair Andrew Hundt had mispronounced the middle syllable. KDR tried to have a pass test for Powder on Sunday, but mistimed it. On Sunday, they stretched new meanings of “calling it close” by waiting until their final roll at 8:45 am to attempt the Pass Test. Powder passed near Panther Hollow.

SigEp brought out some new wheels with a matte black compound and a wide flat profile.  They finished their Pass Test qualifications on Saturday.

PhiKap timed a Pass Test poorly on Saturday. The two buggies crested Hill 2 at the same time, and the outer buggy scraped the curb. The buggy continued to roll, but pulled to a stop near Panther Hollow Bridge. They re-tried the Pass Test on their second roll on Sunday.

SigNu also finished their Pass Tests on Saturday. They also win “Most Amusing Loss of Mass” this weekend by dropping a wrench near Panther
Hollow Bridge.

SDC’s Rage had another accident in the Chute on Sunday, and once again lost a wheel. The driver was reported to be fine.

Other Items of Note:
– If anyone doubts the need for Police at the outer barricades, the short car chase at Panther Hollow Bridge on Sunday was a strong reminder. A car went around the outer barricade where Panther Hollow Bridge intersects with Boulevard of the Allies. The car raced across the bridge with the police in pursuit. The car tried to turn around when it saw the inner barricade, and was stopped by the police officer.

– Old style buggy: Any organization that swaps a wheel at Hill 3 during an Exhibition Heat has a strong chance of getting Chairman’s Choice.

Recommended Reading:
CIA Chair Erin Gantz contributed an article to the Tartan Forum that describes buggy and the impact it has on Carnegie Mellon’s student culture: Leadership Perspectives – Buggy tradition important to all CMU students

Thanks to Katherine Crawford for supplying almost all of the content for this weeks’ rolls report as we focused on our Member’s-Only Raceday Preview and the Lead Truck Auction.