It was another one day weekend for buggy this time because of the conflict with the Great Race that consumes most of the length of Forbes ave. Not to be deterred, teams made a fantastic showing on Saturday with a few surprises from some of them. Like the first weekend, everything rolled smoothly with only one major mishap early in the morning and even that is hard to call major.

In Attendance 

Observations (Saturday)

• AEPi – The brothers of AEPi made it out this weekend despite it being a Saturday. We don’t have a lot of data to base our inferences on yet, but they are either turning over a new leaf and deciding to roll every day they can, OR they’re still sticking to the one day a weekend strategy, just opening it up to any day and not just Sunday. Regardless of our guesses, Kamikaze was making her rounds on the course and going quite quickly. One roll though, she was making some very erratic turns before the monument which looked to be a steering issue. But, after she shed some speed, she was back under control and made it through the chute without any issues.
• Apex – The young team had a few visitors this weekend in the form of their founding chairman Connor Hayes and past KDR alum/Sweepstakes Safety Chair/BAA web personality Adam McCue. Despite their newest buggy Ember being out of commission after last year’s unfortunate pre-raceday failure, the crew is still growing and pushing with the same conviction as every other team. Murmurs and mumblings of another build this year are in the air and with the new knowledge from last year, I’m sure we can only expect it to be more successful than the last.
• CIA – As the first team to roll four buggies this year, CIA is quickly getting back up to speed after last year’s somewhat disappointing, incident-laiden Raceday. With new frustrations and hints of new tech floating around, it will be interesting to see what this year’s group are able to pull out of their hat. Also with such a strong showing early on, we’ll see how well they are able to hold on to their new crop of freshman as the days get colder and shorter.
• Fringe – With only two buggies out again this weekend, we’re curious what Fringe is up to. After Banyan’s scary crash last year, they could be taking things much more cautiously and spending more time inspection their buggies. That combined with possibly fewer drivers than normal could be limiting their potential at rolls. Despite only rolling two buggies, their rolls have been as smooth as ever and they’re well on their way to reaching their normal operating speed. Beacon, though rolling well, is missing her paint again this year and looks like she could use some help. Maybe Fringe is looking for some inspiration, any suggestions?
• PiKA – Still only rolling Raptor, it makes us wonder what happened to Banshee. Did they find some issue in her structure and safety, or is it just that the buggy is too small to fit any of their new drivers? Also, if Chimera was able to make it on the course last year, why isn’t she out again this year? Regardless, Raptor has been rolling just fine and the new drivers seems to be finding their line just fine. As we progress through the year, we’ll be looking to see when they break out another buggy and how their newer drivers deal with added speed.
• SDC – Now that they can roll bagless, SDC has quickly been ramping up their speed and during a couple rolls, you could hear the telltale Malice rattle as she made her way through the chute. As they have in the past, they’ve been taking advantage of the uphill on Schenley to get that little extra boost that their mechanics might not be able to provide on their own.
• SigEp – Even though AEPi lost a wheel last week, SigEp claims the first crash of the season though, it’s not what you would have expected. On her first roll, Mamba came around the from the transition flag and started to swerve around a slight bit. She seemed to be going slower and slower until she ran face-first into the haybale that covers the sewer grate between the transition and chute flags. EMS was quickly on the scene, but thanks to her slow speed (maybe an attempt at breaking?), the driver was fine and both Barracuda and Pandora stopped safely behind her. As soon as Mamba was off the road, the other two were rolled through the chute and finished out the course. Because of her crash, Mamba did not make it back out on the course.
• SigNu – After a few years of rolling with just Krait, Skua made a surprise showing on the course and SigNu has suddenly become a two-buggy organization again. Rumors were that Skua was in dire straights after her roll and crash a few years ago, but clearly that is no longer the case and SigNu will have the opportunity to run twice as many teams this year. On their last roll, there may have been some confusion as they rolled down the hill Bungarus Krait made an impromptu pass test as she passed a very slow Skua. Only time will tell which they will use as their A-team buggy, but until then, we’ll have to learn the differences so that we can tell them apart.
• Spirit – Making it easier for us to keep track of what they’re rolling, Spirit is continuing to only roll the same 3 buggies. Much like the other orgs, they’ve been picking up speed, but things don’t seem to be going as smoothly. On more than one roll, Seraph seemed to take the chute turn in chunks rather than in a single smooth motion. The chunk method can be a good way to train your driver at slower speeds, but once you are rolling faster, that can cause some major problems for your speed and your ability to make it through the chute. Despite their past, Spirit managed to entirely avoid spinning and made it through the chute safely each time. Depending on how they choose to straighten things out, it may not be long before they spin again.
• Robobuggy – Out again for another weekend of rolls, robobuggy was up early and hitting the course before the sun had shown it’s face. This morning was different for them though as they attempted and managed to complete their first full run of the course thanks to a little tele-operation from the follow car. Even though it wasn’t controlling itself, this is still a major accomplishment for a buggy that at one point had trouble keeping enough speed to make it to the transition flag, much less the chute.

Missing In Action

This weekend we were missing SAE who made it out last weekend. This we can assume is a temporary thing as it’s sometimes difficult for small groups to gather the support they need to run a successful day of rolls. ROTC however was also still missing and while they apparently attend chairman’s meetings, we are not sure what might be holding them back from joining the weekend practices. Now that they have Patriot, they should be past the usual stumbling block of needing a buggy. Maybe now they just need to start working around their normal, early-morning workout/training sessions.