We’ve come to the last weekend before Truck. Heat selections are tonight, which means tomorrow the auction is planned to launch tomorrow! Once it’s up, be sure to share it with all the people who might be attending the races.

The orange cones make the chute look like a slalom course, but it looks like the line that most teams use is actually free of potholes. The potholes don’t leave much margin for error though, and the penalty for missing your line is big. The fastest buggies don’t have much margin for error anyway, so this shouldn’t be a big additional complication for their drivers. Chute passes are likely impossible without hitting something, though. Word on the street is that some of the potholes might be getting filled in, more on that later this week.

I unfortunately couldn’t make it to rolls on Saturday while working an event down at Cal U, but thankfully Shafeeq was able to take some notes, and Lou Conley managed to take pictures, so many thanks go out to them for filling in.

In Attendance 

Observations (Saturday Gallery) Continue reading →

This weekend was a monster, so much happened that this if this comes out around the usual time it will be a miracle. BUT, before I can get into the craziness that was this weekend I have one thing that I need to mention first. Next weekend I will be indisposed with another event down south at CalU. I need will need help writing next weekend’s rolls report, so if you have wanted to contribute, or have ever thought about getting some notes in this’ll be your best chance to do so. Please email news@cmubuggy.org if you’re interested in helping and I’ll get you the info you need.

Saturday was as windy as Sunday was COLD. Pittsburgh’s winter party keeps on going, everyone at this point is either drunk or asleep on every possible surface. Despite the sun coming up, Pittsburgh just keeps blaring the winter music not getting the hit that it was fun, but we got things to do. With the weather aside, CIA, Fringe and Spirit all brought out new buggies on saturday who now have 4 potential days left to get qualified. It’ll be a hard battle for all of them. With a significant lack of time this year, it was amazing to see rolls end at 8:43 on Satuday. All the bundled up alumni that showed up on Sunday were treated to dusty slick roads and some amazing driving.

In Attendance  (new buggies in green)

Observations (Saturday Gallery | Sunday Gallery) Continue reading →

There were only 5 orgs out on sunday for the 1.5 hours of rolls and it was one of the smoothest yet. Teams that came out were generally the most skeleton crews that have ever seen the course, but they were all very efficient and organized. The cones were back out on the course flagging those awful potholes. Despite Lars being the only regular sweepstakes person there, a few pass tests happened on the frigid Sunday morning and we also got to see our first new buggy of the year!

It was so cold that morning that my phone died  midway not leaving any chance for me to even think about the livestream. Hopefully in the last few weeks we have left I’ll be able to get one going as well as charge up the GoPros for some Freeroll timing.

In Attendance 

Observations (Sunday Gallery) Continue reading →

AND WE’RE BACK! Well… by we, I mean buggy, and by back, I mean rolls… The snow gave a one day reprieve and Sweepstakes jumped on the opportunity to start off the year. It was a cold start to the year, but boy was it a start, everything under the sun happened that Saturday. Some barricades were still missing so where there would normally be double barricades there would only be one. Cars tried to sneak on the course when the barricaders weren’t looking, some getting very close.

After the relentless winter that Pittsburgh has had this year, the course is in its worst condition yet. There are not many students (if any at this point) that will remember how bad lane 2 used to be before it was paved, but the roads have now gotten to the point where Sweepstakes is using Carnival cones to mark the egregious potholes and ice patches around the course. These new obstacles slowed down a lot of buggies and seriously effected their line in some cases. Then again, that was probably a good thing given the size of some of the holes out there.

In Attendance 

Observations (Saturday Gallery) Continue reading →