Both CMU and UPitt celebrated their homecomings this weekend. The title of this post might be a little misleading because buggies have been rolling during Ceilidh since CMU re-branded their homecoming festivities, however this weekend saw a fairly large number of buggies parading around Flagstaff. Also, there were donuts provided through the Buggy Alumni Association, so that’s cool. The donuts seemed to be quite popular as Saturday welcomed many parents a quite a few alumni. It’s always great to see parents out supporting their children’s odd choices in extracurricular activities. It’s similarly great to see alumni foregoing sleep in favor of their former odd choices in extracurricular activities.

In terms of buggies, this weekend was relatively smooth. The average freeroll speed picked up as many organizations were sending their buggies with full hill 2 pushoffs, and more and more drivers are comfortable in bagless buggies. We saw a few spins in/near the chute, but all drivers came out fine and it was otherwise a crash-free weekend.

In Attendance 

Observations (Saturday Gallery | Sunday Gallery)

• AEPi – AEPi had a pretty standard day of rolls on Sunday, although they scrapped a little early. Kamikaze, the ever-reliable workhorse for the organization, had a no-frills clean set of rolls. Not much else to say about that. The rumor mill has it that the build progress on what will be their first new buggy in 5 years is… progressing.
• Apex – This weekend saw the return of Apex’s newer buggy, Ember. Now that all their drivers were comfortable navigating Phoenix around the course, they’ve started training in Ember. Both buggies were fairly quick around the course getting decent rollouts through the chute. Apex has really been making steady and substantial progress this semester.
• CIA – CIA was out in full force this weekend, rolling four buggies on both Saturday and Sunday. Equinox was again zipping down the freeroll getting some tremendous rollouts. Although it was a fairly clean day for the organization, Orca spun in the chute after tapping her brakes missing any haybales. Word is her helmet shifted and covered some of her vision prompting her to brake or at least attempt a slow-down. The driver was just fine after the event and finished up the back hills. Worth noting is the extra effort CIA pushers are putting in this fall. Some of them are attaching parachutes to their backs to increase resistance. Not sure how effective this is, but it sure looks cool.
• Fringe – Only rolling two buggies, Fringe was out in smaller numbers than previous weekends. Regardless, they were probably the fastest team out. Not much to say other than it was a clean, quick weekend. Several spectators were disappointed in not seeing Rollerblade Buggy… I mean X1. Maybe next week.
• PhiDelt – PhiDelt was out after their hiatus last weekend. Perun’s driver seemed quite cautious going through the chute, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Their speed will surely increase in weeks to come.
• PiKA – Out both days this weekend, PiKA was again one of the fastest teams rolling. Just a clean, quick weekend. They are still flagging from the opposite side of the top of the freeroll, and we still aren’t sure if that’s offering any sort of advantage. It will be interesting to see how will work when they roll with other teams on course come Raceday.
• SDC – Fast and quick are still the best adjectives to describe SDC’s rolls. It was another clean weekend for the organization. Some of the drivers continue to take a diagonal path through the chute, although several are starting to hug the inner hay bales through the end. An SDC alumnus would neither confirm nor deny any strategies that SDC drivers may be employing, but posited that it could simply be old crack-avoiding habits dying hard. Who would have thought that fixing the potholes could cause line issues instead of fixing all of them?
• SigEp – SigEp had a standard Sunday of rolls with both Kraken and Pandora rolling. Drivers seemed comfortable navigating the chute turn and were moving faster than in previous weeks. Towards the end of rolls on Sunday, Kraken was shelved and Pandora rolled with Apex citing a lack of manpower to fully run on their own. It’s always nice to see such cooperation amongst the organizations.
• SigNu – SigNu made it out on Saturday rolling Krait. It was an uneventful, but clean day for the organization. Worth noting is that they are no longer rolling with bags, so increased speed is expected in the weeks to come.
• Spirit – Spirit had another very fast weekend of rolls. Saturday was clean for the organization, however Sunday saw a rather epic spin. Although we aren’t sure what initiated it, Seraph began to spin well before the chute at the double-yellow lines. The buggy spun 180 degrees, nearly came to a stop before spinning around again. Despite wild shrieking during the spin, the driver was fine and finished the back hills. It was a heart pounding event. Spirit finished rolls without any other incident, so whatever issue the driver/buggy had, must have been resolved.
• Robo – Transistor made it out both days of rolls this weekend getting in a couple on each day. Hoo-ray! It’s hard to catch their rolls given that they start before the rest of the teams, but they were looking good.