If you looked at this weekend and last weekend out of context, you would have guessed that there were several weeks in between. Last week we saw plenty of crashes, both days, and very slow rolls. This time around, most teams have picked up the pace and there were only a couple minor incidents between both days. That, combined with very efficient teams, means both days got several cycles and plenty of rolls for everyone.

Saturday started close to on time and ran incredibly smoothly throughout. In the last half hour or so, some VERY light rain rolled through, which was just enough to pause rolls for a few minutes. The course was still plenty dry after the clouds passed and rolls continued and finished without incident. Saturday also showed the return of SAE and SigNu meaning that all but one org was out on the course that day. Sunday started right on time and continued the same smooth rolls that happened the previous morning. By 8:30, sweepstakes had already gotten in 3 complete cycles. This was only helped by the fact that there were only a handful of orgs out as most of the frats decided to only come out on Saturday.

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In Attendance 

(Roll counts were not updated, this table is subject to change when that happens)

Observations (Saturday Gallery | Sunday Gallery)

• • Apex has a rumor going around that they have 5 drivers for their one Buggy, which as far as I know is unprecedented. Even if they all manage to qualify, they can only have 2 of them race and maybe one more for exhibition. But word on the course is that they just started a brand new build, which would greatly help split up their drivers and get more rolling more often.
  • AEPi corrected the report last week in that both of their drivers for Kamikaze are each driving for their third year. Unfortunately we didn’t get times on Sunday, so we can’t compare them to everyone else, but both look like they are back up to speed. With two very veteran drivers, I would hope that the perennial rumors of “Project Mexican Thunder” are true and we could see a new buggy from the brothers that haven’t built since 2010.
  • CIA seems to be missing more and more every week as Ascension hasn’t come out since day 1 and Quasar is now absent as well. Word is that Quasar has a problem with her axle and can’t roll until that’s fixed. Ascension’s departure from the course is rather mysterious since up until this year, she has been out at nearly every day of rolls since she was built. Hopefully she just has some minor repairs, but missing two weekends in a row is a lot to miss for what has been their A team buggy for the last 3 years, particularly since she has a new driver this year. In her place, Impulse has been rolling very well, but is still a good deal behind the top orgs.
  • Fringe was able to claim most of the fastest recorded rolls this weekend slipping just under a minute for nearly all of their buggies. Bissa had some large tape patches on the outer fairing where she bounced off the bales last weekend. Beacon was also hiding in plain sight with a new paint job confusing everyone in the chute. This is apparently a temporary paint scheme as she gets some rework done. What rework that is, is a mystery.
  • PiKA only came out Saturday and managed to put down the fastest time of the weekend with Banshee beating out fringe by a second. There is one new driver of their 3, that is sharing Chimera with her driver from last year. On Chimera’s second roll, she seemed to have a very squirrelly pickup on hill 3. This was either the pusher or Driver, but it’s hard to tell from the chute.
  • SAE finally made it out with both buggies and put down some pretty respectable times right off the bat, nipping at the heels of CIA and Spirit. Lucy was seen bouncing through the chute on what could be suspension, but is more likely just play in their steering. Hopefully that bouncing isn’t causing more problems for the returning org.
  • SDC was clearly missing a member of their fleet as Avarice was nowhere to be seen all weekend. Hopefully repair is still possible, but last week’s crash was bad enough to be possibly season ending. If SDC continues their build streak, they should be able to find a new home for their driver come the spring, but we might see some older buggies come out until then.
  • SigEp was no exception as nearly all the frats seemed to be taking it easy this weekend and only came out Saturday. I am not in the loop on Greek events, but I would have to guess that there was some Fraternity event Saturday night keeping all of them from coming out Sunday. They are clearly still trying to show themselves as a top contender, but the times so far put them at the bottom of that top tier. I only expect this gap to become smaller as we get to spring and beyond.
  • SigNu had the same idea as SAE and came out for the first time this season for a couple rolls on Saturday. Times for SigNu were very very slow this weekend, but as it was their first day back, that is to be entirely expected. Hopefully this means that we will see both frats out more in these remaining weekends.
  • Spirit has become the most rollingest org out there rolling 5 buggies consistently this weekend. At the same time, they also walked away with both spins. Zuke had a clean spin on Saturday, where she didn’t even touch the bales just like one week prior. Haraka spun on Sunday such that the nose of the buggy bounced off the inside bales. Both buggies were allowed to turn around and continue up the hill after each spin. Luckily on Sunday, Haraka was the last buggy to go so no buggies had to stop behind her. Saturday’s spin however was not so lucky as Haraka and Fuko were both behind Zuke and were given the yellow flag. Both drivers made excellent stops just after the transition flag and were pushed through after Zuke was turned around.
  • On Saturday we saw two huge packs of students walk through the course heading to the oval for a cross country meet. With the road closed, they decided the best idea was to park their bus and walk by the course. All of them turned their heads as the buggies went by with bewildered looks on their faces.

Live Streaming

If you’ve got the time and want to catch up on all of rolls from this weekend, check out this playlist.

Freeroll Times

Be sure to read up on the freeroll times from last weekend that we were able to capture. It’s still early in the season, so these times are not the most useful, but it’ll hopefully be a good indicator of how well teams improve over the season.

These times are also sometimes hit-or-miss as we’re still working out a good system. Our cameras don’t last all the way through rolls yet so we haven’t been able to get a full day of times. This weekend we also had one camera shut off after 5 minutes of recording, so we did not get any times from Sunday. BUT we did manage to grab two full cycles on Saturday, so expect those to come out sometime mid week. I want to find a fun way of displaying the times, so let me know what you think of this video: